U.S. law enforcement authorities are investigating the slayings of nine people by a white gunman Wednesday night at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, as a hate crime.
While the death toll made the attack one of the worst in recent years in the United States, hate crime is far from uncommon, according to experts.
There have been 4,120 reported hate crimes across the country, including 56 murders, from 2003 until 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama.