On this date in 2002 in Tallahassee, Florida, near Florida State University, Charles D. Franklin, 41, of Tallahassee, purposefully drove his pick-up truck into the Islamic Center of Tallahassee. On November 8, 2002, Franklin, who shouted anti-Islamic slurs and threats against Muslims at the time of his arrest, pleaded Guilty to a federal hate crime. Although he could have received 20 years in prison, he instead received a 27-month prison term. On April 30, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld Franklin’s conviction under the Church Arson Prevention Act. The appeals court rejected Franklin's claim that the provision of the Church Arson Prevention Act, under which he was convicted, was beyond Congress's power to enforce civil rights under the Thirteenth Amendment. He completed his prison sentence on February 8, 2005.

On this date in 2008, in Terre Haute, Indiana, students from a Citizenship and Civility class at Indiana State University held a student-run town meeting to raise awareness about hate crimes, including a debate about whether or not Indiana—only one of five states in 2008 that does not have a hate crime law—should pass hate crime legislation.

In Cleveland, Tennessee on this date in 2008, two homes on Blair Road near the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church were spray-painted with racial slurs for the second time this year. The church was also the target of the vandal(s); it too was spray-painted with slurs. One of the homeowner-victims, Margaret Arnold, is a diabetic in her 80’s who had been essentially house-bound with the flu when the hate crime occurred. The FBI is reportedly investigating, and Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland made plans to clean off Ms. Arnold’s home where damage due to the hate crime was estimated to be about $1,500.

On this date in 2008 in Hartford, Connecticut, the state Legislature's Judiciary Committee voted 43-0 in favor of a bill, SB 604, that makes it a hate crime to hang a noose on public or private property, without permission of the property owner, and with the intent to harass or intimidate.