As the article mentions, the Southern Poverty Law Center has a special interest in hate crimes and the like. They keep track of items in the news, etc.

http://www.splcenter.../fortherecord.jsp

The information is generally out there, but it might be hard to find in a condensed form. I don't know if one can as easily generalize about regional differences in charging and prosecutions as 40-50 years ago. It might have more to do with the age of the regional head prosecutor, etc... :-/

Note that the SPLC map of the count of hate groups by state seems to roughly correlate with population, though there is a south-east bias.

http://www.splcenter...ntel/map/hate.jsp

Of course, the SPLC is based in Alabama and has a historical interest in goings on in the south-east, so it's not surprising that the old South is more heavily represented. But look at California and NJ....

HTH a bit.

Cheers,
Scott.