Leaving hate behind: Groups, individuals helping white extremists shed hate

Christian Picciolini, founder of the group Life After Hate, poses for a photograph in his Chicago home, Jan. 9, 2017. Picciolini, a former skinhead, is an activist combatting what many see as a surge in white nationalism across the United States. He’s doing it by helping members quit groups including the Ku Klux Klan and skinhead organizations. (Photo: Teresa Crawford/AP)

Former skinhead Shannon Martinez talks about her time as a white supremacist during an interview at her home in Athens, Ga., Jan. 11, 2017. A member of the racist group starting in her teen years, Martinez quit decades ago and is now worried about a possible rise in extremism in the United States. (Photo: Jay Reeves/AP)

This undated photo provided by Christian Picciolini shows him at left with Shannon Martinez giving Nazi salutes while both were affiliated with racist skinhead organizations as young people decades ago. Picciolini went on to begin Life After Hate, a nonprofit that works to get people out of extremist groups, and Martinez volunteers by talking to people in an online forum sponsored by the organization. (Photo: Alex Picciolini/Courtesy of Christian Picciolini via AP

Former skinhead Shannon Martinez talks about her time as a white supremacist during an interview in Athens, Ga., Jan. 11, 2017. A member of the racist group starting in her teen years, Martinez quit decades ago and is now worried about a possible rise in extremism in the United States. (Photo: Jay Reeves/AP)

Former skinhead Shannon Martinez, left, talks with some of her children in their home in Athens, Ga., Jan. 11, 2017. A member of the racist group starting in her teen years, Martinez quit decades ago and is now worried about a possible rise in extremism in the United States. (Photo: Jay Reeves/AP)

This undated photo provided by Christian Picciolini shows Shannon Martinez giving a Nazi salute while she was part of a racist skinhead organization as a teen decades ago. Martinez, now affiliated with Life After Hate, a nonprofit that works to get people out of extremist groups, talks to people in an online forum sponsored by the organization. (Photo: Christian Picciolini via AP)

In this Aug. 2, 2011 photo, former skinhead Bryon Widner holds a photo at his home of him and his wife Julie Larsen taken before his facial tattoos were removed. After getting married in 2006, the couple, former pillars of the white power movement (she as a member of the National Alliance, he a founder of the Vinlanders gang of skinheads) had worked hard to put their racist past behind them. They had settled down and had a baby; her younger children had embraced him as a father. But leaving the old life would not be easy when it was all he had known – and when his face remained a billboard of hate. (Photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)

Christian Picciolini, founder of the group Life After Hate, poses for a photograph outside his Chicago home, Jan. 9, 2017. Picciolini, a former skinhead, is an activist combatting what many see as a surge in white nationalism across the United States. He’s doing it by helping members quit groups including the Ku Klux Klan and skinhead organizations. (Photo: Teresa Crawford/AP)

Shane Johnson displays some of his tattoos as he poses in his home in Tippecanoe, Ind., Jan. 12, 2017. Johnson was born into extremism is in the process of covering some of his racist tattoos with new ones and wears long sleeves to hide remnants of his past he regrets. His father and many of his father’s relatives were part of the Klan, he said, so there was only one real way for him to go as a youth. (Photo: Michael Conroy/AP)

Shane Johnson poses with his dogs outside his home in Tippecanoe, Ind., Jan. 12, 2017. Johnson was born into extremism. He eventually joined a skinhead group in addition to the KKK but finally decided to quit after getting arrested, stopping drinking and meeting the woman who is now his wife. Leaving was a real fight, though, as even relatives jumped him at a gas station one night after learning he wanted to quit. (Photo: Michael Conroy/AP)

Shane Johnson poses outside his home in Tippecanoe, Ind., Jan. 12, 2017. Johnson was born into extremism. His father and many of his father’s relatives were part of the Klan, he said, so there was only one real way for him to go as a youth. “We were known as the Klan family,” he said. “I got my first Klan robe when I was 14.” He decided to quit after getting arrested, stopping drinking and meeting the woman who is now his wife. (Photo: Michael Conroy/AP)