Misplaced Pages

Southern Poverty Law Center

Founded	August 1971; 53 years ago (August 1971)
Founders	Morris Dees Joseph J. Levin Jr. Julian Bond
Type	Public-interest law firm Civil rights advocacy organization
Tax ID no.	63-0598743 (EIN)
Legal status	501(c)(3)
Focus	Hate groups Racism Civil rights
Location	Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Coordinates	32°22′36″N 86°18′12″W / 32.37667°N 86.30333°W / 32.37667; -86.30333
Area served	United States
Product	Legal representation Educational materials
Key people	Margaret Huang (President and CEO) Bryan Fair (Board Chairman)
Revenue	$136.3 million (2018 FY)
Endowment	$471.0 million (2018 FY)
Employees	421 in 2021
Website	SPLCenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.

In 1980, the SPLC began a litigation strategy of filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of the victims of violence from the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC also became involved in other civil rights causes, including cases to challenge what it sees as institutional racial segregation and discrimination, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in prisons and detention centers, discrimination based on sexual orientation, mistreatment of illegal immigrants, and the unconstitutional mixing of church and state. The SPLC has provided information about hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies.

Since the 2000s, the SPLC's classification and listings of hate groups (organizations that "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics") and anti-government extremists are widely relied upon by academic and media sources. The SPLC's listings have also been criticized by those who argue that some of the SPLC's listings are overbroad, politically motivated, or unwarranted. The organization has also been accused of an overindulgent use of funds, leading some employees to call its headquarters "Poverty Palace".

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in August 1971 as a law firm originally focused on issues such as fighting poverty, racial discrimination and the death penalty in the US. Dees asked civil rights leader Julian Bond to serve as president, a largely honorary position; he resigned in 1979 but remained on the board of directors until his death in 2015.

In 1979, Dees and the SPLC began filing civil lawsuits against Ku Klux Klan chapters and similar organizations for monetary damages on behalf of their victims. The favorable verdicts from these suits served to bankrupt the KKK and other targeted organizations. According to a 1996 article in The New York Times, Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets." Some civil libertarians said that SPLC's tactics chill free speech and set legal precedents that could be applied against activist groups which are not hate groups.

In 1981, the Center began its Klanwatch project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, later called Hatewatch, was later expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.

In 1986, the entire legal staff of the SPLC, excluding Dees, resigned as the organization shifted from traditional civil rights work toward fighting right-wing extremism. In 1989, the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial, which was designed by Maya Lin.

In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser won a Pulitzer Prize recognition for work that probed management self-interest, questionable practices, and employee racial discrimination allegations in the SPLC.

The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991.

In 2008, the SPLC and Dees were featured on National Geographic's Inside American Terror explaining their litigation strategy against the Ku Klux Klan.

In 2011, the SPLC was "involved in high-profile state fights", including the battle over the Georgia House Bill 87 (HB 87). The SPLC joined with the ACLU, the Asian Law Caucus, and the National Immigration Law Center in June 2011, to file a lawsuit challenging HB 87. which resulted in a permanent injunction in 2013 blocking multiple provisions of the law.

In 2013, "Teaching Tolerance" was cited as "of the most widely read periodicals dedicated to diversity and social justice in education".

In 2016, the SPLC's "ranks swelled" and its "endowment surged" after US President Donald Trump was elected, resulting in the hiring of 200 new employees.

In March 2019, founder Morris Dees was fired. In April, Karen Baynes-Dunning was named as interim president and CEO. After a "tumultuous year", in mid-December 2019, staff at the SPLC voted to unionize, with 142 in favor and 45 against. The SPLC had "long been dogged by accusations of internal discrimination against minority employees, particularly in the area of promotions." A new president and CEO, Margaret Huang, was named in early February 2020.

More recently, the SPLC and the ACLU have been involved in "battles over the treatment of inmates in the state's prisons", including an emergency request in April 2020 for the "release of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody" if ICE cannot provide protection for vulnerable inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal court injunction was filed as part of an existing class-action lawsuit regarding conditions in ICE facilities. In 2018, The SPLC filed suits related to the conditions of incarceration for adults and juveniles.

Leadership upheaval amid harassment allegations

In March 2019, the SPLC fired founder Morris Dees for undisclosed reasons and removed his profile from the SPLC website. In a statement regarding the firing, the SPLC announced it would be bringing in an "outside organization to conduct a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practices."

Following the dismissal, a letter signed by two dozen SPLC employees was sent to management, expressing concern that "allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism threaten the moral authority of this organization and our integrity along with it." One former employee wrote that the "unchecked power of lavishly compensated white men at the top" of the SPLC contributed to a culture which made black and female employees the targets of harassment.

A week later, President Richard Cohen and legal director Rhonda Brownstein announced their resignations amid the internal upheaval. The associate legal director Meredith Horton quit, alleging concerns regarding workplace culture. Cohen said, "Whatever problems exist at the SPLC happened on my watch, so I take responsibility for them."

Administration

In early February 2020, Margaret Huang, who was formerly the Chief Executive at Amnesty International USA, was named as president and CEO of the SPLC. Huang replaced Karen Baynes-Dunning, a former juvenile court judge, who had served as interim president and CEO since April 2019, after founder Morris Dees was fired in March 2019. The SPLC had appointed Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff for former first lady Michelle Obama, to review and investigate any issues with the organization's workplace environment related to Dees' firing.

Fundraising and finances

The SPLC's activities, including litigation, are supported by fundraising efforts, and it does not accept any fees or share in legal judgments awarded to clients it represents in court. Starting in 1974, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment stating that it was "convinced that the day come when non-profit groups no longer be able to rely on support through mail because of posting and printing costs".

The Los Angeles Times reported that by 2017, the SPLC's financial resources "nearly totaled half a billion dollars in assets". For 2018, its endowment was approximately $471 million per its annual report and SPLC spent 49% of its revenue on programs. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, the SPLC had received "significant financial support" with revenues almost "$122 million and total assets of $492.3 million", as of September 30, 2018. For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2021, SPLC reported revenue of $133 million and total assets of $801 million, including $770 million in investments.

Prior to his departure in 2019, Dees' "role at the Center was focused on 'donor relations' and "expanding the Center's financial resources".

The SPLC's related 501(c)(4) organization, the SPLC Action Fund, formed two political action committees in 2022: New Southern Leaders federal PAC and the New Southern Majority federal Super PAC. The New Southern Leaders PAC spent more than $21,000 in 2023-24, most going to the SPLC Action Fund, which spent more than $1,000,000 in independent expenditures in the 2019-20 election cycle.

Charity ratings

As of 2023, based on figures from Fiscal Year 2022, Charity Navigator rated the SPLC four out of four stars, with an overall score of 99/100 for "Accountability & Finance". The missing point was due to SPLC failing to post a "Donor Privacy Policy" on its website. SPLC's 2022 revenue totaled $140,350,982, and its expenses amounted to $111,043,025. According to Charity Navigator's Historical Ratings, SPLC has earned four-star ratings since 2019.

As of 2023, SPLC has earned the GuideStar Gold Seal of Transparency, which is given to organizations that voluntarily share their financials and "highlight their commitment to inclusivity to gain funders' trust and support." SPLC previously earned GuideStar's Platinum Seal of Transparency, but did not retain it.

In 2023, CharityWatch initially gave SPLC a grade of B based on its 2021 financials. CharityWatch, however, downgrades all charities that "hoard" donations, which per CharityWatch's definition occurs whenever "a charity's available assets in reserve exceeds three years' worth its annual budget." In particular, CharityWatch automatically "downgrades to an F rating any charity holding available assets in reserve equal to 5 years or more of its annual budget." In accordance with this policy, on 3 February 2023 CharityWatch downgraded SPLC from B to F because it had 7.3 years of available assets in reserve, it spent 68% of its funds on programs, and it cost $20 to raise $100.

The SPLC declined to submit information or be evaluated by the Charity Accountability section of the Better Business Bureau.

Criminal attacks and plots against the SPLC

In July 1983, the SPLC headquarters was firebombed, destroying the building and records. In February 1985, Klansmen Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr., along with Klan sympathizer Charles Bailey, pleaded guilty to conspiring to intimidate, oppress and threaten members of black organizations represented by SPLC. The SPLC built a new headquarters building from 1999 to 2001.

In 1984, Morris Dees became an assassination target of The Order, a revolutionary white supremacist group. By 2007, according to Dees, more than 30 people had been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or to blow up SPLC offices.

In 1995, four men were indicted for planning to blow up the SPLC headquarters. In May 1998, three white supremacists were arrested for allegedly planning a nationwide campaign of assassinations and bombings targeting Morris Dees and his Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama as well as the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the Anti-Defamation League in New York, an undisclosed federal judge in Illinois and a black radio show host in Missouri.

Notable SPLC civil cases on behalf of clients

The Southern Poverty Law Center has initiated a number of civil cases seeking injunctive relief and monetary awards on behalf of its clients. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments.

Sims v. Amos (1974)

An early SPLC case was Sims v. Amos (consolidated with Nixon v. Brewer) in which the U.S. District Court for the Middle of Alabama ordered the state legislature to reapportion its election system. The result of the decision, which the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, was that fifteen black legislators were elected in 1974.

Brown v. Invisible Empire, KKK (1980)

In 1979, the Klan began a summer of attacks against civil rights groups, beginning in Alabama. In Decatur, Alabama, Klan members clashed with a group of civil rights marchers. There were a hundred Klan members carrying "bats, ax handles and guns". A black woman, Bernice Brown, was shot and other marchers were violently attacked. In Brown v. Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, filed in 1980 in the USDC Northern District of Alabama, the SPLC sued the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan on behalf of plaintiffs, Brown and other black marchers. The civil suit was settled in 1990 and "required Klansmen to pay damages, perform community service, and refrain from white supremacist activity." Chalmers wrote in Backfire, that the Klan had been in serious decline since the end of the 1970s. He described the "Klan summer of 1979", as a "catastrophe" for the Klan, as the SPLC's newly established Klanwatch, which became a "powerful weapon" that "tracked and litigated" the Klan. According to Chalmers, "eginning with the Decatur street confrontation, the SPLC's Klanwatch began suing various Klans in federal court for civil rights violations", and as a result, the Klan lost credibility and its resources were depleted. As a result of the SPLC, the FBI reopen their case against the Klan, and "nine Klansmen were eventually convicted of criminal charges" related to the Decatur confrontation of 1979.

Vietnamese fishermen (1981)

In 1981, the SPLC took Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam's Klan-associated militia, the Texas Emergency Reserve (TER), to court to stop racial harassment and intimidation of Vietnamese shrimpers in and around Galveston Bay. The Klan's actions against approximately 100 Vietnamese shrimpers in the area included a cross burning, sniper fire aimed at them, and arsonists burning their boats.

In May 1981, U.S. District Court judge Gabrielle McDonald issued a preliminary injunction against the Klan, requiring them to cease intimidating, threatening, or harassing the Vietnamese. McDonald eventually found the TER and Beam liable for tortious interference, violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and of various civil rights statutes and thus permanently enjoined them against violence, threatening behavior, and other harassment of the Vietnamese shrimpers. The SPLC also uncovered an obscure Texas law "that forbade private armies in that state". McDonald found that Beam's organization violated it and hence ordered the TER to close its military training camp.

Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (1982)

In 1982, armed members of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Bobby Person, a black prison guard, and members of his family. They harassed and threatened others, including a white woman who had befriended blacks. In 1984, Person became the lead plaintiff in Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a lawsuit brought by the SPLC in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The harassment and threats continued during litigation and the court issued an order prohibiting any person from interfering with others inside the courthouse. In January 1985, the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon", Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, holding parades in black neighborhoods, and from harassing, threatening or harming any black person or white persons who associated with black persons. Subsequently, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim for damages.

Within a year, the court found Miller and his followers, now calling themselves the White Patriot Party, in criminal contempt for violating the consent order. Miller was sentenced to six months in prison followed by a three-year probationary period, during which he was banned from associating with members of any racist group such as the White Patriot Party. Miller refused to obey the terms of his probation. He made underground "declarations of war" against Jews and the federal government before being arrested again. Found guilty of weapons violations, he went to federal prison for three years.

United Klans of America

In 1987, Dees and Michael Figures won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama. The SPLC used an unprecedented legal strategy of holding an organization responsible for the crimes of individual members to help produce a $7 million judgment for the victim's mother. The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy. Its national headquarters was sold for approximately $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment.

In 1987, five members of a Klan offshoot, the White Patriot Party, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees. The SPLC has since successfully used this precedent to force numerous Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups into bankruptcy.

White Aryan Resistance

On November 13, 1988, in Portland, Oregon, three white supremacist members of East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR) fatally assaulted Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college. In October 1990, the SPLC won a civil case on behalf of Seraw's family against WAR's operator Tom Metzger and his son, John, for a total of $12.5 million. The Metzgers declared bankruptcy, and WAR went out of business. The cost of work for the trial was absorbed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as well as the SPLC. As of August 2007, Metzger still makes payments to Seraw's family.

Church of the Creator

In May 1991, Harold Mansfield, a black U.S. Navy war veteran, was murdered by George Loeb, a member of the neo-Nazi "Church of the Creator" (now called the Creativity Movement). SPLC represented the victim's family in a civil case and won a judgment of $1 million from the church in March 1994. The church transferred ownership to William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, to avoid paying money to Mansfield's heirs. The SPLC filed suit against Pierce for his role in the fraudulent scheme and won an $85,000 judgment against him in 1995. The amount was upheld on appeal and the money was collected prior to Pierce's death in 2002.

Christian Knights of the KKK

The SPLC won a $37.8 million verdict on behalf of Macedonia Baptist Church, a 100-year-old black church in Manning, South Carolina, against two Ku Klux Klan chapters and five Klansmen (Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Invisible Empire, Inc.) in July 1998. The money was awarded stemming from arson convictions; these Klan units burned down the historic black church in 1995. Morris Dees told the press, "If we put the Christian Knights out of business, what's that worth? We don't look at what we can collect. It's what the jury thinks this egregious conduct is worth that matters, along with the message it sends." According to The Washington Post the amount is the "largest-ever civil award for damages in a hate crime case."

Aryan Nations

In September 2000, the SPLC won a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations via an Idaho jury who awarded punitive and compensatory damages to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards. The lawsuit stemmed from the July 1998 attack when security guards at the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden Lake in northern Idaho, shot at Victoria Keenan and her son. Bullets struck their car several times, causing the car to crash. An Aryan Nations member held the Keenans at gunpoint. As a result of the judgment, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre (81,000 m) compound to the Keenans, who sold the property to a philanthropist. He donated the land to North Idaho College, which designated the area as a "peace park".

Ten Commandments monument

In 2002, the SPLC and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit (Glassroth v. Moore) against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for placing a display of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Moore, who had final authority over what decorations were to be placed in the Alabama State Judicial Building's Rotunda, had installed a 5,280 pound (2,400 kg) granite block, three feet wide by three feet deep by four feet tall, of the Ten Commandments late at night without the knowledge of any other court justice. After defying several court rulings, Moore was eventually removed from the court and the Supreme Court justices had the monument removed from the building.

Leiva v. Ranch Rescue

In 2003, the SPLC, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and local attorneys filed a civil suit, Leiva v. Ranch Rescue, in Jim Hogg County, Texas, against Ranch Rescue, a vigilante paramilitary group and several of its associates, seeking damages for assault and illegal detention of two illegal immigrants caught near the U.S.-Mexico border. In April 2005, SPLC obtained judgments totaling $1 million against Casey James Nethercott, who was then Ranch Rescue's leader and the owner of an Arizona ranch, Camp Thunderbird, Joe Sutton, who owned the Hebbronville ranch on which two illegal immigrants has been caught trespassing on March 18, 2003, and Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue. Sutton, who had recruited Ranch Rescue to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region near his Hebbronville ranch, settled with an $100,000 out-of-court settlement. According to the New York Times, since neither Nethercott or Foote defended themselves, the "judge issued default judgments of $850,000 against Mr. Nethercott and $500,000 against Mr. Foote. Neither men had "substantial assets" so Nethercott's 70-acre (280,000 m) ranch—Camp Thunderbird—which had also served as Ranch Rescue's headquarters—was seized to pay the judgment and surrendered to the two illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Edwin Alfredo Mancía Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina. SPLC staff worked also with Texas prosecutors to obtain a conviction against Nethercott for possession of a gun, which was illegal for a felon. Nethercott had served time in California for assault previously. As a result, he was sentenced to serve a five-year sentence in a Texas prison.

Billy Ray Johnson

The SPLC brought a civil suit on behalf of Billy Ray Johnson, a black, mentally disabled man, who was severely beaten by four white males in Texas and left bleeding in a ditch, suffering permanent injuries. In 2007, Johnson was awarded $9 million in damages by a Linden, Texas jury. At a criminal trial, the four men were convicted of assault and received sentences of 30 to 60 days in county jail.

Imperial Klans of America

In November 2008, the SPLC's case against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), the nation's second-largest Klan organization, went to trial in Meade County, Kentucky. The SPLC had filed suit for damages in July 2007 on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the IKA in Kentucky. In July 2006, five Klan members went to the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Kentucky, "to hand out business cards and flyers advertising a 'white-only' IKA function". Two members of the Klan started calling Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, a "spic". Subsequently, the boy, (5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) and weighing 150 pounds (68 kg)) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of whom was 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) and 300 pounds (140 kg)). As a result, the victim received "two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, multiple cuts and bruises and jaw injuries requiring extensive dental repair."

In a related criminal case in February 2007, Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins were sentenced to three years in prison for beating Gruver. On November 14, 2008, an all-white jury of seven men and seven women awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff against Ron Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the group, and Jarred Hensley, who participated in the attack.

Mississippi correctional institutions

Together with the ACLU National Prison Project, the SPLC filed a class-action suit in November 2010 against the owner/operators of the private Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDC). They charged that conditions, including under-staffing and neglect of medical care, produced numerous and repeated abuses of youthful prisoners, high rates of violence and injury, and that one prisoner suffered brain damage because of inmate-on-inmate attacks. A federal civil rights investigation was undertaken by the United States Department of Justice. In settling the suit, Mississippi ended its contract with GEO Group in 2012. Additionally, under the court decree, the MDC moved the youthful offenders to state-run units. In 2012, Mississippi opened a new youthful offender unit at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. The state also agreed to not subject youthful offenders to solitary confinement and a court monitor conducted regular reviews of conditions at the facility.

Also with the ACLU Prison Project, the SPLC filed a class-action suit in May 2013 against Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the for-profit operator of the private East Mississippi Correctional Facility, and the MDC. Management and Training Corporation had been awarded a contract for this and two other facilities in Mississippi in 2012 following the removal of GEO Group. The suit charged failure of MTC to make needed improvements, and to maintain proper conditions and treatment for this special needs population of prisoners. In 2015 the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification.

Polk County, Florida Sheriff

In 2012, the SPLC initiated a class action federal lawsuit against the Polk County, Florida sheriff, Grady Judd, alleging that seven juveniles confined by the sheriff were suffering in improper conditions. U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday found in favor of Judd, who said the SPLC's allegations "were not supported by the facts or court precedence [sic]." The judge wrote that "the conditions of juvenile detention at (Central County Jail) are not consistent with (Southern Poverty's) dark, grim, and condemning portrayal." While the county sheriff's department did not recover an estimated $1 million in attorney's fees defending the case, Judge Merryday did award $103,000 in court costs to Polk County.

Andrew Anglin and The Daily Stormer

In April 2017, the SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Tanya Gersh, accusing Andrew Anglin, publisher of the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, of instigating an anti-Semitic harassment campaign against Gersh, a Whitefish, Montana, real estate agent. In July 2019, a judge issued a 14 million dollar default judgment against Anglin, who is in hiding and has refused to appear in court.

Lawsuits and criticism against the SPLC

In October 2014, the SPLC added Ben Carson to its extremist watch list, citing his association with groups it considers extreme, and his "linking of gays with pedophiles". Following criticism, the SPLC concluded its profile of Carson did not meet its standards, removed his listing, and apologized to him in February 2015.

In October 2016, the SPLC published its "Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists", which listed the British activist Maajid Nawaz and a nonprofit group he founded, the Quilliam Foundation. Nawaz, who identifies as a "liberal, reform Muslim", denounced the listing as a "smear", saying that the SPLC listing had made him a target of jihadists. In June 2018, the SPLC issued an apology, stating:

Given our understanding of the views of Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam, it was our opinion at the time that the Field Guide was published that their inclusion was warranted. But after getting a deeper understanding of their views and after hearing from others for whom we have great respect, we realize that we were simply wrong to have included Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam in the Field Guide in the first place.

Along with the apology, the SPLC paid US$3.375 million to Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in a settlement. Nawaz said about the settlement that Quilliam "will continue to combat extremists by defying Muslim stereotypes, calling out fundamentalism in our own communities, and speaking out against anti-Muslim hate." The SPLC ultimately removed the Field Guide from its website.

In August 2017, a defamation lawsuit was filed against the SPLC by the D. James Kennedy Ministries for describing it as an "active hate group" because of their views on LGBT rights. The SPLC lists D. James Kennedy Ministries and its predecessor, Truth in Action, as anti-LGBT hate groups because of what the SPLC describes as the group's history of spreading homophobic propaganda, including D. James Kennedy's false statement that "homosexuals prey on adolescent boys", and false claims about the transmission of AIDS. On February 21, 2018, a federal magistrate judge recommended that the suit be dismissed with prejudice, concluding that D. James Kennedy Ministries could not show that it had been libeled. On September 19, 2019, the lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Myron H. Thompson, who ruled that the "SPLC's labeling of the group as is protected by the First Amendment."

In March 2018, several journalists, including Max Blumenthal, were mentioned in an article by Alexander Reid Ross which the SPLC retracted after receiving complaints from those journalists that the article falsely portrayed them as "white supremacists, fascists, anti-Semites, and engaging in a conspiracy with the Putin regime to promote such views"; the Center's letter explaining its retraction of the article apologizing to Blumenthal and the other journalists who believed they had been falsely portrayed. The SPLC was criticized for taking down this article and was accused of caving in to pressure. The article argued that the dissemination of conspiracy theories around such issues as the Syrian Civil War (about the White Helmets and child refugees) were intended to co-opt leftist anti-imperialism in the service of a fascist agenda. Subsequently, the SPLC retracted two other articles written by Alexander Reid Ross on the topic of Russian campaigns to influence Western public opinion.

In 2019, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) sued the SPLC for designating the CIS as a hate group, claiming it constituted fraud under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The SPLC defended its decision and said the group "richly deserved" the designation. Cornell law professor William A. Jacobson, a longtime critic of the SPLC, criticized the listing of the CIS as "pos a danger of being exploited as an excuse to silence speech and to skew political debate." The lawsuit was dismissed in September 2019 for failure to state a claim; Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the CIS could not show any violations of the RICO statute.

In February 2019, several months after resigning as chairman of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes filed a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Alabama over the SPLC's designation of the Proud Boys as a "general hate" group. The SPLC took the lawsuit "as a compliment" and an indication that "we're doing our job." On its website, SPLC said that "McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term 'alt-right' while espousing some of its central tenets" and that the group's "rank-and-file and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville." McInnes is represented by Ronald Coleman. In addition to defamation, McInnes claimed tortious interference with economic advantage, "false light invasion of privacy" and "aiding and abetting employment discrimination". The day after filing the suit, McInnes announced that he had been re-hired by the Canadian far-right media group The Rebel Media. The SPLC filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in July 2019.

Projects and publishing platforms

Hate Map

In 1990, the SPLC began to publish an "annual census of hate groups operating within the United States".

Classifications and listings of hate groups

Over the years the classifications and listings of hate groups expanded to reflect current social phenomena. By the 2000s, the term "hate groups" included organizations it has assessed either "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics". The SPLC says that hate group activities may include speeches, marches, rallies, meetings, publishing, and leafleting. While some of these activities may include criminal acts, such as violence, not all the activities tracked by the SPLC are illegal or criminal.

Groups that have been included as "hate groups" by the SPLC who reject that labelling include, for example, self-described men's rights groups A Voice for Men and Return of Kings, which the SPLC had described as "male supremacist", according to a 2018 Washington Post article.

The SPLC's identification and listings of hate groups and extremists has been the subject of controversy. The authors of the 2009 book The White Separatist Movement in the United States, sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile, who used the findings of the SPLC and other watchdog groups, said that the SPLC chose its causes with funding and donations in mind. Concerns have been raised that people and groups designated as "hate groups" by the SPLC were being targeted by protests or violence that prevent them from speaking. The SPLC stands behind the vast majority of its listings. In 2018, David A. Graham wrote in The Atlantic that while criticism of the SPLC had long existed, the sources of such criticism have expanded recently to include "sympathetic observers and fellow researchers on hate groups" concerned about the organization "mixing its research and activist strains".

Laird Wilcox, an analyst of political fringe movements, has said the SPLC has taken an incautious approach to assigning the labels "hate group" and "extremist". Mark Potok of Southern Poverty Law Center responded that Wilcox "had an ax to grind for a great many years" and engaged in name calling against others doing anti-racist work.

In 2009, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) argued that allies of America's Voice and Media Matters had used the SPLC designation of FAIR as a hate group to "engage in unsubstantiated, invidious name-calling, smearing millions of people in this movement." FAIR and its leadership have been criticized by the SPLC as being sympathetic to, or overtly supportive of, white supremacist and identitarian ideologies, as the group's late founder had stated his belief that the United States should remain a majority-white country.

In 2010, a group of Republican politicians and conservative organizations criticized the SPLC in full-page advertisements in two Washington, D.C., newspapers for what they described as "character assassination" because the SPLC had listed the Family Research Council (FRC) as a hate group for alleged "defaming of gays and lesbians".

In August 2012, a gunman entered the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council with the intent to kill employees and smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches on the victims' faces. The gunman, Floyd Lee Corkins, stated that he chose FRC as a target because it was listed as an anti-gay group on the SPLC's website. A security guard was wounded but stopped Corkins from shooting anyone else. In the wake of the shooting, the SPLC was again criticized for listing FRC as an anti-gay hate group, including by liberal columnist Dana Milbank, while others defended the categorization. The SPLC defended its listing of anti-gay hate groups, stating that the groups were selected not because of their religious views, but on their "propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT people... that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities."

SPLC Hatewatch (blog)

The Hatewatch blog, created in c. 2007, publishes the work of its teams, including investigative journalists who "monitor and expose" activities of the "American radical right". Initially, its precursor—the "Klanwatch" project—which was established in 1981, focused on monitoring KKK activities. The Hatewatch blog, along with the "Teaching Tolerance" program and the Intelligence Report, highlights SPLC's work.

An in-depth 2018 Hatewatch report examined the roots and evolution of black-on-white crime rhetoric, from the mid-nineteenth century to the late 2010s. According to the report, "isrepresented crime statistics" on "black-on-white crime" have become a "main propaganda point of America's hate movement". The report described how Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of the June 17, 2015, Charleston church shooting had written in his manifesto about his 2012 Google search for "black-on-white crime", which led him to be convinced that black men were a "physical threat to white people". One of the first sources was the Council of Conservative Citizens. The report shows that on November 22, 2015, then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump retweeted a chart that had "originated from a neo-Nazi account" which displayed "bogus crime statistics". The SPLC report cited a November 23, 2005, Washington Post article that fact checked the figures in the graph. The tweet said that "81 percent of whites are killed by black people", while the FBI says that only 15 percent of white murder victims are killed by a black perpetrator; the large majority of white murder victims are killed by white perpetrators.

Teaching Tolerance

SPLC's projects include the website Tolerance.org, which provides news on tolerance issues, education for children, guidebooks for activists, and resources for parents and teachers. The website received Webby Awards in 2002 and 2004 for Best Activism. Another product of Tolerance.org is the "10 Ways To Fight Hate on Campus: A Response Guide for College Activists" booklet.

Anti-LGBTQ+ hate

In 2023, the SPLC released a report entitled Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives that said "a large, yet closely-maintained network of far right groups and individuals have increasingly relied on pseudoscience as a tool to advance their cause."

Documentaries

The SPLC also produces documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for Documentary Short Subject: A Time for Justice (1994) and Mighty Times: The Children's March (2004). In 2017 the SPLC began developing a six-part series with Black Box Management to document "the normalization of far-right extremism in the age of Donald Trump."

Cooperation with law enforcement

The SPLC cooperates with, and offers training to, law enforcement agencies, focusing "on the history, background, leaders, and activities of far-right extremists in the United States". The FBI has partnered with the SPLC and many other organizations "to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems" related to hate crimes. In a November 2018 briefing of law enforcement officials in Clark County, Washington, concerning the Proud Boys FBI agents suggested the use of various websites for more information, including that of the SPLC. The organization urged Chicago to fire a policeman who allegedly hid his association with the Proud Boys.

Intelligence Report

Since 1981, the SPLC's Intelligence Project has published a quarterly Intelligence Report that monitors what the SPLC considers radical right hate groups and extremists in the United States. The Intelligence Report provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of these groups and persons, and has been cited by scholars, including Rory M. McVeigh and David Mark Chalmers, as a reliable and comprehensive source on U.S. right-wing extremism and hate groups. In 2013 the SPLC donated the Intelligence Project's documentation to the library of Duke University. The SPLC also publishes HateWatch Weekly, a newsletter that follows racism and extremism, and the Hatewatch blog, whose subtitle is "Keeping an Eye on the Radical Right".

Two articles published in Intelligence Report have won "Green Eyeshade Excellence in Journalism" awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. "Communing with the Council", written by Heidi Beirich and Bob Moser, took third place for Investigative Journalism in the Magazine Division in 2004, and "Southern Gothic", by David Holthouse and Casey Sanchez, took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007.

Since 2001, the SPLC has released an annual issue of the Intelligence Project called Year in Hate, later renamed Year in Hate and Extremism, in which it presents statistics on the numbers of hate groups in America. The current format of the report covers racial hate groups, nativist hate groups, and other right-wing extremist groups such as groups within the Patriot Movement. Jesse Walker, writing in Reason.com, criticized the 2016 report, questioning whether the count was reliable, as it focused on the number of groups rather than the number of people in those groups or the size of the groups. Walker gives the example that the 2016 report itself concedes an increase in the number of KKK groups could be due to two large groups falling apart, leading to members creating smaller local groups.

Notable publications and media coverage on the SPLC

In May 1988, journalist John Egerton published his article entitled "The Klan Basher" in Foundation News. In July 1988, he published a similar article, entitled "Poverty Palace: How the Southern Poverty Law Center got rich fighting the Klan", in The Progressive. A 1991 book entitled Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South included a chapter by Egerton on this theme, entitled "Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center".

In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser published an eight-part critical report on the SPLC. The series was nominated as one of three finalists for a 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for "its probe of questionable management practices and self-interest at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity." According to the series, the SPLC had exaggerated the threat posed by the Klan and similar groups in order to raise money, discriminated against black employees, and used misleading fundraising tactics. From 1984 to 1994, the SPLC raised about $62 million in contributions and spent about $21 million on programs, according to the newspaper. SPLC's co-founder Joe Levin rejected the Advertiser's claims, saying that the series showed a lack of interest in the center's programs. Levin said that the newspaper had an obsessive interest in the SPLC's financial affairs and Mr. Dees' personal life, in order to smear the center and Mr. Dees."

David Mark Chalmers, who is the author of Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan published in 1987, also wrote a follow-up, Backfire, Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement in 2003, in which he described the SPLC's role in the decline of the Klan.

In 2006, a chapter on the SPLC by was published in the Encyclopedia of American civil liberties which described the history of the SPLC and its co-founder Morris Dees.

The National Geographic Channel television series included the 2008 episode entitled "Inside American Terror", which covered the SPLC's successful lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan.

In their 2009 book The White Separatist Movement in the United States: 'White Power, White Pride!', sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile said that the SPLC's Klanwatch Intelligence Reports portrayed the KKK as more "militant and dangerous with higher turnouts" than what they personally had observed.

Laurence Leamer's 2016 book, entitled The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan, centered around the role played by Morris Dees as SPLC's co-founder, who won the case against the Klan which provided the family of teenager Michael Donald, lynched by the Klan in 1981 in Mobile, Alabama with restitution from the Klan.

In 2013, J.M. Berger wrote in Foreign Policy that media organizations should be more cautious when citing the SPLC and ADL, arguing that they are "not objective purveyors of data".

In their 2015 book Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices, Roger Chapman and James Ciment cited the criticism of SPLC by journalist Ken Silverstein, who said that the SPLC's fundraising appeals and finances were deceptive.

Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen, in a June 2018 column for The Washington Post, said that the SPLC had lost its credibility and "become a caricature of itself".

In the wake of Morris Dees' dismissal in March 2019, former SPLC staffer Bob Moser published an article in The New Yorker, "The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center", in which he described his disappointment with what the SPLC had become.

The English Misplaced Pages community considers the Southern Poverty Law Center to be "generally reliable on topics related to hate groups and extremism in the United States", but notes that it is "biased" and should be attributed.

Explanatory notes

1. In his 2003 publication, Chalmers warned that the Klan had given way to the next generation of hate groups.
2. Finkelman's Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties was republished in 2017 in London by Taylor and Francis.

See also

• List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups
• List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBT hate groups

References

Citations

1. ^ "Financial Statements" (PDF). Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. October 31, 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
2. "2021 Form 990 U.S. Federal Tax Return" (PDF). Southern Poverty law Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 14, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
3. "Southern Poverty Law Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
4. "With Justice For All". The Times-Picayune. November 5, 2006. Archived from the original on April 17, 2008.
5. ^ Shomade, Salmon A. (2006). "Southern Poverty Law Center". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of American civil liberties: A-F. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. pp. 1500–1520. ISBN 978-0-415-94342-0. OCLC 819521815. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
6. ^ Chebium, Raju (September 8, 2000). "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
7. ^ Chalmers, David Mark (2003). Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement. Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742523111. OCLC 61176651. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
8. Michael (2012), p. 32.
9. "What We Investigate: Hate Crimes: The FBI's Role: Public Outreach". www.fbi.gov. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017. The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems....The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems. These groups include such organizations as the...Southern Poverty Law Center.
10. ^ "Hate Map". SPLC. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
11. "What We Do". SPLC. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
12. "Does the Southern Poverty Law Center target conservatives?" Archived December 11, 2021, at the Wayback Machine The Christian Science Monitor, February 18, 2016
13. Chen, Hsinchun (2006). Intelligence and Security Informatics for International Security: Information Sharing and Data Mining. New York: Springer. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-387-24379-5. ... the web sites of the "Southern Poverty Law Center" and the Anti-Defamation League are authoritative sources for identifying domestic extremists and hate groups.
14. Swain, Carol (2002). The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-521-80886-6.
15. Chokshi, Niraj (February 17, 2016). "The Year of 'Enormous Rage': Number of Hate Groups Rose by 14 Percent in 2015". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
16. ^ Schreckinger, Ben (July–August 2017). "Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way?". Politico Magazine. Archived from the original on July 1, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
17. ^ Jonsson, Patrik (February 23, 2011). "Annual report cites rise in hate groups, but some ask: What is hate?" Archived December 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. The Christian Science Monitor
18. ^ Graham, David A. (June 18, 2018). "The Unlabelling of an 'Anti-Muslim Extremist'". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2018. While the fabled nonprofit has long had its critics, many of them hatemongers like Gaffney, the new chorus included sympathetic observers and fellow researchers on hate groups, who worried that SPLC was mixing its research and activist strains.
19. ^ Moser, Bob (March 21, 2019). "The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 10, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2020. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers' allegations of racial discrimination within the organization.
20. "IRS Data for Southern Poverty Law Center". charitynavigator.org. Charity Navigator. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
21. ^ Michael, George (2003). Confronting Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA. Routledge. pp. 19–21, 163. ISBN 978-1134377626. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
22. Sack, bKevin (May 12, 1996). "Conversations/Morris Dees; A Son of Alabama takes on Americans Who Live to Hate". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
23. ^ "Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2006". splcenter.org. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2007. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
24. Tauber, Peter (February 24, 1991). "Monument Maker". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
25. "Finalist: Staff of Montgomery (AL) Advertiser". Pulitzer.org. Columbia University. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2019. For its probe of questionable management practices and self-interest at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity.
26. "Young, Gullible and Taught to Hate". The New York Times. Opinion. August 25, 1993. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.GALE Archived September 4, 2024, at the Wayback Machine
27. ^ Nan Byrne; Mike Sinclair; Daniele Anastasion. ""Inside" Ku Klux Klan (TV Episode 2008)". IMDb. Archived from the original on September 18, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
28. ^ Lyman, Brian (December 16, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center staff vote to unionize". The Montgomery Advertiser. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
29. Ceasar, Stephen (June 2, 2011). "Georgia immigration law taken to court". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
30. "Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, et al. v. Deal". aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
31. Botzakis, Stergios; Flynn, Joseph (2013). "Reviewed Work(s): Teaching Tolerance". Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 57 (4): 331. JSTOR 24034690.
32. Blinder, Alan (March 22, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center President Plans Exit Amid Turmoil". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
33. ^ Simon, Darran. "Southern Poverty Law Center names new interim president and CEO". CNN. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
34. ^ Lyman, Brian (February 3, 2020). "SPLC names Margaret Huang as its president and CEO". Montgomery Advertiser. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
35. Castillo, Andrea (April 7, 2020). "'I am afraid for my life': Immigrant detainees plead to be released". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
36. "2018 Public Defense News Archive". americanbar.org. Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
37. Bowden, John (March 14, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder". The Hill. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
38. Hassan, Adeel; Zraick, Karen; and Blinder, Alan (March 14, 2019) "Morris Dees, a Co-Founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Is Ousted" Archived March 15, 2019, at the Wayback Machine The New York Times
39. "Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees". The Montgomery Advertiser. Archived from the original on March 14, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
40. Pearce, Matt (March 15, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees amid employee uproar". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 18, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
41. Nick Valencia; Pamela Kirkland (March 29, 2019). "Famous civil rights group suffers from 'systemic culture of racism and sexism,' staffers say". CNN.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2019. Horton was a high-ranking African-American woman in the organization. In her resignation letter, obtained by CNN, Horton cited concerns about workplace culture.
42. Pearce, Matt (March 23, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center chief Richard Cohen announces resignation amid internal upheaval". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
43. Blinder, Alan (March 22, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center President Plans Exit Amid Turmoil". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
44. "Endowment Supports Center's Future Work". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 2003. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
45. ^ Pearce, Matt (March 14, 2019). "Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees amid employee uproar". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
46. "Form 990" (PDF). Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. June 6, 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
47. Holmes, Jacob (September 14, 2022). "SPLC Action Fund launches new PACs to recruit progressive candidates throughout South". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
48. ^ "Charity Navigator - Rating for Southern Poverty Law Center". Charity Navigator. 2023. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023. This charity's score is 99%, earning it a Four-Star rating.
49. "Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. - GuideStar Profile". GuideStar. Archived from the original on March 29, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
50. "GuideStar Profile Best Practices". GuideStar. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
51. "Charity Navigator - Rating for Southern Poverty Law Center". Charity Navigator. September 3, 2019. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
52. "Don't Judge a Not-For-Profit by Its Profits". CharityWatch. Archived from the original on December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
53. ^ "Charity Rating Process". CharityWatch. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
54. "This Charity May Not Use Your Donation for 19 Years!". CharityWatch. February 3, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
55. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
56. "Fire Damages Alabama Center that Battles the Klan". The New York Times. July 31, 1983. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
57. "2 Klan Members Plead Guilty To Arson in Black Law Office". The New York Times. AP. February 21, 1985. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
58. See:
    • Maclean, John F. (February 16, 1999). "Law center begins project". The Montgomery Advertiser. p. 1C. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
    • McGrew, Jannell (March 29, 2001). "Southern Poverty Law Center's New Home: New building sports a more modern look". Montgomery Advertiser. pp. 1A – 2A. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
59. "Death List Names Given to U.S. Jury". The New York Times. UPI. September 17, 1985. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
60. Klass, Kym (August 17, 2007). "Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security". Montgomery Advertiser. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
61. "4 Are Accused in Oklahoma of Bomb Plot". The New York Times. AP. November 14, 1995. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
62. "Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. Two others will plead guilty Thursday." St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (May 13, 1998): p. B1.
63. "Bringing the Klan to Court". Newsweek. Vol. 103, no. 21. May 28, 1984. p. 69. ISSN 0028-9604. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
64. Applebome, Peter (November 21, 1989). "Two Sides of the Contemporary South: Racial Incidents and Black Progress". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
65. See:
    • Phillips, Michael (2009). "Southern Poverty Law Center". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 361–62. ISBN 978-0195167795. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
    • "Nixon v. Brewer, CV-3017-N: Reapportionment Case". Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
    • Stanley, J. Adrian (May 10, 2017). "Morris Dees on the legacy of his Southern Poverty Law Center [interview]". Colorado Springs Independent. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
66. ^ "Brown v. Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan". SPLC. 1980. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
67. "Night in Alabama With the Ku Klux Klan". The Washington Post. August 26, 1979. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on June 28, 2020. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
68. Kushner, Harvey W. (1998). The Future of Terrorism: Violence in the New Millennium. SAGE Publications. p. 108. ISBN 978-0761908692. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
69. Stevens, William K. (May 2, 1981). "Klan Official is Accused of Intimidation". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
70. Stevens, William K. (April 25, 1981). "Klan Inflames Gulf Fishing Fight Between Whites and Vietnamese". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
71. Gay, Kathlyn (2012). American Dissidents: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Subversives, and Prisoners of Conscience. ABC-CLIO. p. 183. ISBN 978-1598847642. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
72. ^ Greenhaw, Wayne (January 1, 2011). Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Chicago Review Press. p. 234. ISBN 978-1569768259. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
73. Stevens, William K. (May 15, 1981). "Judge Issues Ban on Klan Threat to Vietnamese". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
74. ^ Gitlin, Marty (2009). The Ku Klux Klan: A Guide to an American Subculture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-0313365768. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
75. ^ "Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" Archived February 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center website. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
76. ^ Fighting hate in the courtroom. SPLC (Report). Special Issue. Vol. 38. Winter 2008.
77. "Supremacist Glenn Miller gets five years in prison". Wilmington Morning Star. January 5, 1988. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
78. ^ "The Nation Klan Must Pay $7 Million". Los Angeles Times. February 13, 1987. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
79. "His Father Bankrupted the Klan. He Wants to Keep Fighting for Racial Justice in Congress". January 22, 2024. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
80. "Klan Member Put to Death In Race Death". The New York Times. AP. June 6, 1997. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
81. "Five Tied to Klan Indicted on Arms Charges". The New York Times. January 9, 1987. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
82. Wade, Wyn Craig (1998). The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. New York: Oxford University Press. p. vii. ISBN 978-0195123579. OCLC 38014230. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
83. "Lawyer makes racists pay". USA Today. October 24, 1990.
84. The jury divided the judgment as follows: Kyle Brewster, $500,000; Ken Mieske, $500,000; John Metzger, $1 million; WAR, $3 million; Tom Metzger, $5 million; in addition, $2.5 million was awarded for Mulugeta's unrealized future earnings and pain and suffering.
85. London, Robb (October 26, 1990). "Sending a $12.5 Million Message to a Hate Group". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
86. Dees & Fiffer (1993), p. 277.
87. Nealon, Sean (August 24, 2007). "Hate-crime case award will be hard to collect, experts say". The Press-Enterprise. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
88. "Archive – Creativity Movement". archive.adl.org. Anti-Defamation League. April 6, 2005. Archived from the original on November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
89. "Mansfield v. Church of the Creator". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
90. Schwartz, Alan M., ed. (June 1, 1996). Danger Extremism: The Major Vehicles and Voices on America's Far-Right Fringe (First ed.). New York, N.Y: Anti Defamation League of Bnai. ISBN 9780884641698.
91. Michael, George (2006). "RAHOWA! A History of the World Church of the Creator". Terrorism and Political Violence. 18 (4): 561–583. doi:10.1080/09546550600880633. S2CID 145102528.
92. ^ "Mansfield v. Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
93. "Klan Must Pay $37 Million for Inciting Church Fire". The New York Times. AP. July 25, 1998. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
94. "Macedonia v. Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 7, 1996. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
95. Clairborne, William (July 25, 1998). "Klan Chapters Held Liable in Church Fire". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
96. ^ "Keenan v. Aryan Nations". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2000. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
97. Wakin, Daniel J. (September 9, 2004). "Richard G. Butler, 86, Dies; Founder of the Aryan Nations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2007.
98. Regarding the 10 Commandments controversy see:
    • Glassroth v. Moore Archived September 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine (PDF) (M.D. Ala. 2002).
    • "Ten Commandments judge removed from office". CNN. November 14, 2003. Archived from the original on September 18, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
99. ^ Pollack, Andrew (August 19, 2005). "2 Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
100. "Leiva v. Ranch Rescue". February 14, 2006. Archived from the original on February 14, 2006. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
101. "The Beating of Billy Ray Johnson". Texas Monthly. February 2007. Archived from the original on August 18, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
102. Witt, Howard (April 21, 2007). $9 million award in beating case Archived October 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Chicago Tribune, Retrieved May 15, 2017
103. Parker, Laura (April 26, 2007). "A jury's stand against racism reflects hope". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
104. Larowe, Lynn (April 19, 2007). "Ex-jailer denies part in assault cover-up". Texarkana Gazette. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
105. ^ "No. 2 Klan group on trial in Ky. teen's beating: Southern Poverty Law Center hopes case will bankrupt hate group". NBC News. Associated Press. November 11, 2008. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
106. ^ "Jordan Gruver and Cynthia Gruver vs. Imperial Klans of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. July 25, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
107. See:
     • O'Neill, Ann (November 17, 2008). "Jury awards $2.5 million to teen beaten by Klan members". CNN. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
     • Note: two other defendants in the civil case, Watkins and Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit. Kenning, Chris (November 15, 2008). "$2.5 million awarded in Klan beating", The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), p. 1.
108. Burnett, John (March 25, 2011). "Town Relies On Troubled Youth Prison For Profits". NPR. Archived from the original on May 14, 2024. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
109. "MDOC Opens Youthful Offender Unit" Archived January 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, December 12, 2012, Mississippi Dept. of Corrections, Retrieved January 30, 2016
110. C.B., et al. v. Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, et al. Archived February 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center
111. Goode, Erica (June 7, 2014). "Seeing Squalor and Unconcern in a Mississippi Jail". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
112. Gabriel Eber (May 30, 2013). "New Lawsuit: Massive Human Rights Violations at Mississippi Prison" Archived March 25, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, ACLU. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
113. Dockery v. Epps Archived March 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, updated September 2015, Cases: Prisoners' Rights, ACLU official website; accessed March 7, 2017
114. "Hughes, et al. v. Sheriff Grady Judd, et al". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
115. "Judge rules in favot of Polk in juvenile detainee case". Orlando Sentinel. Bartow, Florida. Associated Press. April 16, 2015. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
116. Schottelkotte, Suzie (April 16, 2015). "Southern Poverty Law Center Rebuked: Court Rejects SPLC's Allegations About Jail". The Ledger. Tampa, Florida. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
117. Schottelkotte, Suzie (September 30, 2015). "Polk County Sheriff's Office won't recover $1 million in legal fees from Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit". The Ledger. Bartow, Florida. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
118. Kirkland, Allegra (April 18, 2017). "Lawsuit: Neo-Nazi Led Anti-Semitic Harassment Campaign Against Montana Woman" Archived August 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Talking Points Memo. Retrieved May 16, 2017
119. Robertson, Adi (April 17, 2018). "White supremacist website hit with lawsuit over harassment campaign" Archived August 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. The Verge, Retrieved May 15, 2017
120. Storey, Kate (August 29, 2019). "Tanya Gersh Was the Target of a Neo-Nazi 'Troll Storm.' Then She Fought Back—and Was Awarded $14 Million". Esquire. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
121. "Neo-Nazi website founder owes $14 million to woman he urged readers to harass". NBC News. Associated Press. August 9, 2019. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
122. O'Brien, Luke (April 25, 2019). "Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin's Lawyers Want To Ditch Him In High-Profile Harassment Case". HuffPost. Archived from the original on September 16, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
123. Wong, Curtis M. (February 9, 2015). "GOP Presidential Hopeful Ben Carson Named To Southern Poverty Law Center's Anti-Gay Extremist List". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on February 27, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
124. See:
     • "SPLC statement on Dr. Ben Carson". Southern Poverty Law Center. February 11, 2015. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2017. In October 2014, we posted an 'Extremist File' of Dr. Ben Carson... This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it.
     • "Southern Poverty Law Center apologizes to Ben Carson, takes him off 'extremist' list". Fox News. February 12, 2015. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
125. "A Journalist's Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists". Montgomery, Ala.: Southern Poverty Law Center. October 25, 2016. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016.
126. Walsh, Michael (October 31, 2016). "SPLC receives backlash after placing activist Maajid Nawaz on 'anti-Muslim extremist' list". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
127. Maajid Nawaz (October 29, 2016). "I'm A Muslim Reformer. Why Am I Being Smeared as an 'Anti-Muslim Extremist'?". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
128. Nawaz: Southern Poverty Law Center put a target on my head Archived June 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Fox News, June 26, 2017
129. Maajid Nawaz Interview Archived June 2, 2024, at the Wayback Machine Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
130. ^ Cohen, Richard (June 18, 2018). "SPLC Statement Regarding Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
131. Price, Greg (June 18, 2018). "Southern Poverty Law Center Settles Lawsuit After Falsely Labeling 'Extremist' Organization". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
132. Graham, David (June 18, 2018). "The Unlabelling of an 'Anti-Muslim Extremist'". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
133. "Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. Admits It Was Wrong, Apologizes to Quilliam and Maajid Nawaz for Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists, and Agrees to Pay $3.375 Million Settlement" Archived June 18, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Quilliam website
134. SPLC to pay $3.4 million to British group it called anti-Muslim extremists Archived June 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Associated Press, June 18, 2018
135. Anthony Man (August 24, 2017). "Fort Lauderdale's D. James Kennedy Ministries sues over being labeled 'hate group'". Sun Sentinel. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
136. Darby, Adam (August 27, 2017). "Christian ministry labeled as a hate group is suing SPLC to 'right a terrible wrong'". Kansan City Star. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
137. Southern Poverty Law Center 'hate group' label hit in evangelicals' lawsuit by Elizabeth Llorente, Fox News, August 24, 2017
138. The Trump administration is paying Focus on the Family to stop the AIDS epidemic in South Africa Archived September 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. ThinkProgress, April 18, 2018
139. "A Dozen Major Groups Help Drive the Religious Right's Anti-Gay Crusade". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
140. Report and Recommendation Archived February 21, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. United States Magistrate Judge David A. Baker, United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. February 21, 2018
141. CORAL RIDGE MINISTRIES MEDIA INC. V. AMAZON.COM, INC., et al. Archived October 24, 2019, at the Wayback Machine United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, September 19, 2019
142. Flood, Brian (March 16, 2018). "Southern Poverty Law Center apologizes after painting journalists as fascists in retracted article". Foxnews. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
143. "Explanation and apology: The multipolar spin: how fascists operationalize left-wing resentment". Southern Poverty Law Center. March 14, 2018. Archived from the original on August 16, 2019. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
144. Ansari, Talal (March 12, 2018). "The Southern Poverty Law Center Took Down An Article Trying To Connect 'Left-Wing' People And 'Fascists' After Getting Complaints". Buzzfeed News. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
145. Davis, Charles (April 3, 2018). "An Inside Look at How Pro-Russia Trolls Got the SPLC to Censor a Commie". New Politics. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
146. Marquardt-Bigman, Petra (April 11, 2018). "Max Blumenthal Unwittingly Exposes the Southern Poverty Law Center's Blind Spot on Antisemitism". The Algemeiner. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
147. Proyect, Louis (March 14, 2018). "Max Blumenthal and the Streisand Effect". Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
148. "The Internet Research Agency: behind the shadowy network that meddled in the 2016 Elections". Southern Poverty Law Center. February 21, 2018. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
149. Bixby, Scott (January 16, 2019). "Anti-Immigration Group Files RICO Suit Against Southern Poverty Law Center Over 'Hate Group' Label". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
150. Dinan, Stephen (January 16, 2019). "Immigration group files RICO lawsuit over Southern Poverty Law Center 'hate' label". Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
151. "Is the Center for Immigration Studies a 'hate group' ?". PolitiFact Florida. Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
152. "Memorandum & Opinion". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 15, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
153. Wilson, Jason (November 21, 2018). "Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes quits 'extremist' far-right group". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
154. Prengel, Kate (November 21, 2018). "Gavin McInnes Says He Is Quitting the Proud Boys [VIDEO]". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
155. Associated Press (February 4, 2019). "Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes sues Southern Poverty Law Center over hate group label". NBC News. Archived February 4, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
156. ^ Kennedy, Merrit (February 5, 2019). "Proud Boys Founder Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Southern Poverty Law Center". NPR. Archived February 6, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved October 7, 2020.
157. Trotta, Daniel. "The founder of the far-right group Proud Boys is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling his organization a hate group". Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
158. "Proud Boys". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
159. "37 Organizations and a Regional Organization Representing Over 50 Tribes Denounce Bigotry and Violence before Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys Rally in Portland on August 4". The Skanner. August 3, 2018. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
160. Jackson, Daniel (February 2, 2019). "Proud Boys Founder Sues Over Hate-Group Label". Courthouse News Service. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
161. McLaughlin, Aidan (February 5, 2019). "Gavin McInnes Hired By Conservative Canadian Network Rebel Media". Mediaite. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
162. Cushing, Tim (July 11, 2019). "SPLC Asks Court To Toss Proud Boy Founder's Defamation Lawsuit By Asking 'Where's The Lie?'". TechDirt. Archived November 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
163. "Hate Map". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
164. Blazak, Randy (2009). "Chapter 8: Towards a Working Definition of Hate Groups". In Perry, Barbara; Levin, Brian (eds.). Hate Crimes: Volume 1, Understanding and Defining Hate Crimes. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. pp. 133, 143. ISBN 978-0275995737. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
165. Heim, Joe (February 21, 2018). "Hate groups in the U.S. remain on the rise, according to new study". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 21, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
166. ^ Dobratz, Betty A.; Shanks-Meile, Stephanie L. (2000). The White Separatist Movement in the United States: 'White Power, White Pride!'. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6537-4.
167. Beinart, Peter (March 6, 2017). "A Violent Attack on Free Speech at Middlebury". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
168. Jaschik, Scott (March 6, 2017). "The Aftermath at Middlebury". Inside Higher Ed. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
169. Tom Watkins (August 17, 2012). "After D.C. shooting, fingers point over blame". CNN. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
170. Carl M. Cannon (March 19, 2017). "The Hate Group That In:cited the Middlebury Melee". Real Clear Politics. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
171. Wilcox (2002), pp. 309–10
172. McCain, Robert Stacy. "Researcher Says 'Watchdogs' Exaggerate Hate Group Threat", The Washington Times, May 9, 2000.
173. Hsu, Spencer S. (September 15, 2009). "Immigration, Health Debates Cross Paths". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
174. Federation for American Immigration Reform Archived October 7, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Southern Poverty Law Center
175. Extremist Files: Family Research Council Archived May 6, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Southern Poverty Law Center, 2016
176. Cratty, Carol (September 19, 2013), 25-year sentence in Family Research Council shooting, CNN, archived from the original on August 27, 2018, retrieved August 26, 2018
177. Cratty, Carol; Pearson, Michael (February 7, 2013). "DC shooter wanted to kill as many as possible, prosecutors say". CNN. Archived from the original on August 27, 2018. Retrieved August 26, 2018. Corkins -- who had chosen the research council as his target after finding it listed as an anti-gay group on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center -- had planned to stride into the building and open fire on the people inside in an effort to kill as many as possible, he told investigators, according to the court documents.
178. Signorile, Michelangelo (August 22, 2012). "Dana Milbank, Washington Post Writer, Slams LGBT Activists, SPLC For FRC's 'Hate Group' Label". HuffPost Gay Voices. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
179. For commentary on the LGBT and FRC issues see:
     • Allen, Charlotte (April 15, 2013). "King of Fearmongers: Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, scaring donors since 1971". Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
     • Milbank, Dana (August 6, 2012). "Hateful speech on hate groups". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
     • Potok, Mark (December 15, 2010). "SPLC Responds to Attack by FRC, Conservative Republicans". SPLC Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 26, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
     • @Hatewatch (November 12, 2015). "The anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council (@FRCdc) is running another #DumpSPLC campaign. Who is FRC: [Image with text: The hate group designation is based on the Family Research Council's distortion of known facts to demonize gay men as child molesters and similar false claims, and has nothing to do with FRC's support of "natural marriage" or its belief that homosexuality is a sin. – Southern Poverty Law Center]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
180. "Hatewatch". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on January 6, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
181. ^ "The Biggest Lie in the White Supremacist Propaganda Playbook: Unraveling the Truth About 'Black-on-White Crime'". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 14, 2018. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
182. Bump, Philip (November 22, 2015). "Donald Trump retweeted a very wrong set of numbers on race and murder". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
183. See:
     • "Teaching Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
     • Stevens, Rebecca; Charles, Jim (2005). "Preparing Teachers to Teach Tolerance". Multicultural Perspectives. 7 (1): 17–25. doi:10.1207/s15327892mcp0701_4. ISSN 1532-7892. S2CID 146710470.
     • Hunter, Tiffany J. (February–March 2008). "Creating a Culture of Peace in the Elementary Classroom" (PDF). The Journal of Adventist Education: 20–25. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
     • D'Angelo, Andrea M.; Dixey, Brenda P. (December 2001). "Using Multicultural Resources for Teachers to Combat Racial Prejudice in the Classroom". Early Childhood Education Journal. 29 (1): 83–87. doi:10.1023/A:1012516727187. S2CID 142911767.
184. "Best Activism Sites". Archived from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
185. Willoughby, Brian (2003). 10 Ways To Fight Hate on Campus: A Response Guide for College Activists (PDF). Southern Poverty Law Center. OCLC 53621205. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
186. "SPLC Report Exposes Network Behind Junk Science and Disinformation Campaign Against the LGBTQ+ Community". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
187. Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023. Archived from the original on April 14, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
188. McEwen, Michael (December 15, 2023). "SPLC Report: far-right groups relying on misinformation in targeting LGBTQ+ community". Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
189. "The 67th Academy Awards (1995) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS. October 5, 2014. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2017. and 2005 Academy Awards
190. Sun, Rebecca (May 9, 2017). "Southern Poverty Law Center Developing Docuseries With Black Box Management (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
191. For information on training see:
     • "Law Enforcement Training", Southern Poverty Law Center.
     • Ariosto, David (August 17, 2012). "SPLC draws conservative ire". CNN. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
     • Finley, Laura L., ed. (2011). Encyclopedia of School Crime and Violence. ABC-CLIO. p. 452. ISBN 978-0313362385. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
     • Conser, James A.; Paynich, Rebecca; Gingerich, Terry E. (2011). Law Enforcement in the United States (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 410. ISBN 978-0763799380. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
     • Lane, Virginia (1990). "Appendix D: Sources of information for responding to hate crimes". Hate Crime Statistics: A Resource Book. DIANE Publishing. p. 103. ISBN 978-0788105364. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
192. For information about hate groups provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). See:
     • "What We Investigate: Hate Crimes: The FBI's Role: Public Outreach". www.fbi.gov. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
     • Michael (2012), p. 32.
     • Hauslohner, Abigail (February 15, 2017). "Southern Poverty Law Center says American hate groups are on the rise". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017. The FBI says it does not investigate organizations characterized by the SPLC as 'hate groups,' or others, unless it has reason to believe that a particular individual is engaged in criminal activity.
193. "Head of Oregon's FBI: Bureau doesn't designate Proud Boys as extremist group". oregonlive.com. December 4, 2018. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
194. "Southern Poverty Law Center urges CPD to reconsider decision not to fire officer who lied about ties to Proud Boys". MSN. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
195. OCLC 70790007
196. See:
     • Intelligence Report Get Informed web page Archived August 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
     • McVeigh, Rory (March 2004). "Structured Ignorance and Organized Racism in the United States". Social Forces. 82 (3): 895–936. doi:10.1353/sof.2004.0047. JSTOR 3598361. S2CID 146565591. ts outstanding reputation is well established, and the SPLC has been an excellent source of information for social scientists who study racist organizations.
     • Barnett, Brett A. (2007) Untangling the web of hate: are online "hate sites" deserving of First Amendment Protection? Archived April 8, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press. Retrieved May 15, 2017
     • "Illinois Association for Cultural Diversity reading list". Western Illinois University. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
197. Traska, Maria R. (2014). "EXTREMISM @ the LIBRARY". American Libraries. 45 (6): 32–35. JSTOR 24603509.
198. OCLC 753911264
199. For the articles and awards see:
     • Beirich, Heidi; Bob Moser (2004). "Communing with the Council". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on October 20, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
     • "Green Eyeshade Awards 2004". Society of Professional Journalists. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
     • Holthouse, David; Casey Sanchez (2007). "Southern Gothic". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
     • "Green Eyeshade Awards 2007". Society of Professional Journalists. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
200. "Intelligence Report, browse all issues web page". SPLC. Archived from the original on May 8, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
201. Walker, Jesse (February 16, 2017). "The Southern Poverty Law Center Is Counting Extremists Again: Do its numbers tell a story?". Reason Magazine. Reason Foundation. ISSN 0048-6906. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
202. "The Klan Basher". Foundation News: 38–43. May–June 1988. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2017. (Archived at Special Collections and University Archives Jean and Alexander Heard Library Vanderbilt University)
203. Egerton, John (July 14, 1988). "Poverty Palace: How the Southern Poverty Law Center got rich fighting the Klan". The Progressive: 14–17. ISSN 0033-0736. OCLC 757703819.
204. "Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center". Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press. 1991. pp. 211–36. ISBN 978-0-8071-1705-7. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
205. Morse, Dan and Jeffe, Greg (February 13–20, 1994). Montgomery Advertiser, "Rising Fortunes: Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center" (subscription required)
206. "Finalist: Staff of Montgomery (AL) Advertiser – For its probe of questionable management practices and self-interest at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity". The Pulitzer Prizes. 1995. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
207. Morse, Dan (February 14, 1994). "A Complex Man". Montgomery Advertiser. Vol. 167, no. 45. The Advertiser Co. p. 1A. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2019. Some who've worked with Mr. Dees call him phony, the 'television evangelist' of civil rights who misleads donors into thinking the center desperately needs their money.
208. February 13, 1994 – "What the Montgomery Advertiser has learned about the nation's wealthiest civil rights charity" Archived August 17, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, pp. 1A, 14A
209. February 14, 1994 – "Morris Dees: To some he's a hero; to others a phoney." Archived August 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 4A, 6A
210. February 15, 1994 – "How the Law Center makes millions marketing the Klan." Archived February 10, 2018, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 5A, 6A
211. February 16, 1994 – "The Law Center fights for black rights, but does it practice what it preaches?" Archived August 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 6A, 7A
212. February 17, 1994 – "How did the Law Center make its millions? How does it spend its donors' money?" Archived August 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 6A, 7A
213. February 18, 1994 – "Charity watchdog groups have criticized the Law Center's fund raising and spending." Archived February 10, 2018, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 9A
214. February 19, 1994 – "Critics say the Law Center's board has little control over the center's direction." Archived February 10, 2018, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 13A
215. February 20, 1994 – "Internal Revenue Service overwhelmed by explosion of charities." Archived August 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine pp. 1A, 14A, 15A
216. Southern Poverty Law Center (February 27, 1994). "Law Center responds to Advertiser series". Montgomery Advertiser. p. 1A, 12A. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
217. Phillips, Michael (2009). "Southern Poverty Law Center". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 362. ISBN 978-0195167795. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
218. Wilcox (2002) pp. 309–10.
219. Kovach, Bill (May 1999). "Panel Discussion: Nonprofit Organizations – "Attacking a Home-Town Icon"". Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2004.
220. Barringer, Felicity (April 13, 1998). "Press Critics Strike Early At Puliizers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
222. Leamer, Laurence (2016). The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0062458346. OCLC 950881846.
223. Scott, Daryl Michael (August 5, 2016). "A Klan murder that boomeranged against the Klan". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
224. Berger, J.M. (March 12, 2013). "The Hate List: Is America really being overrun by right-wing militants?". Foreign Policy. ISSN 1745-1302. Archived from the original on May 15, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
225. Chapman, Roger (March 17, 2015). Roger Chapman, James Ciment, Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices (Routledge, 2015), p.620. Routledge. ISBN 9781317473510. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
226. Thiessen, Marc (June 22, 2018). "The Southern Poverty Law Center has lost all credibility". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
227. Bandler, Aaron (June 21, 2024). "Misplaced Pages Editors Label ADL Only Reliable for Antisemitism When "Israel and Zionism Are Not Concerned"". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on June 22, 2024. Retrieved June 25, 2024.

General and cited references

• Dees, Morris; Fiffer, Steve (1991). A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0684191898.
• Dees, Morris; Fiffer, Steve (1993). Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 978-0679406143.
• Michael, George (2012). Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 978-0826518552.
• Wilcox, Laird (2002). "Chapter 12 'Who Watches the Watchman?'". In Kaplan, Jeffrey; Lööw, Heléne (eds.). The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press. pp. 309–10. ISBN 978-0759116580. Retrieved May 15, 2017.

Further reading

• Fleming, Maria, ed. (2001), A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America, New York: Oxford University Press in association with the Southern Poverty Law Center, ISBN 978-0195150360

External links

Media related to Southern Poverty Law Center at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• "Southern Poverty Law Center Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

• United States
• Law

• Southern Poverty Law Center
• 1971 establishments in Alabama
• African-American history of Alabama
• Anti-fascist organizations in the United States
• Anti-racist organizations in the United States
• Civil rights organizations in the United States
• Opposition to antisemitism in the United States
• Organizations established in 1971
• Opposition to Islamophobia
• 501(c)(3) organizations