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Southern Poverty Law Center

Founded	1971
Founder	Morris Dees Joseph R. Levin, Jr.
Type	Public-interest law firm
Focus	Hate groups racism civil rights
Location	Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Area served	United States
Product	legal representation, public education
Key people	J. Richard Cohen, President
Endowment	$189.7 million
Employees	19 ("Senior program staff")
Website	www.splcenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American "nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society". The SPLC is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists, and its tracking of hate groups, militias, and extremist organizations. The SPLC classifies as hate groups those organizations that it has determined "have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."

The SPLC, based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. as a civil rights law firm. Later, civil rights leader Julian Bond became its president. In addition to free legal service to the victims of discrimination and hate crimes, the Center publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report that investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States.

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was organized by civil rights lawyers Dees and Levin in 1971 during a desegregation case (Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association), as a law firm to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. The organization's first president was Julian Bond, formerly of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond served as president until 1979 and remains on its board of directors. In 1979 the Center brought the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan. In 1981 the Center began its "Klanwatch" (now "Hatewatch") project to monitor and track the activities of the KKK, which has been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.

In July 1983, Klan members firebombed the center's office, destroying the building and records. Federal investigators said "the intruders went to work quickly, dousing files, desks and carpets with a petroleum based liquid, perhaps gasoline mixed with motor oil or diesel fuel and concentrating on the four corners of the 6,000-square-foot (560 m) building." In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pleaded guilty to federal and state charges related to the fire. At the trial, "Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr., identified as Klansmen, and Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging them with conspiring to threaten, oppress and intimidate members of black organizations represented by the law center." Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill Dees or blow up the center.

That same year, Dees became the primary assassination target of The Order, a revolutionary white supremacist group, for his work with the SPLC. Radio host Alan Berg was killed by the group outside his Colorado home; he was the number two on its list.

When Klansmen, in 1981, lynched a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, SPLC lawyers used an unprecedented legal strategy to hold the Klan accountable for the acts of its members. In 1987, the group won its case against the United Klans of America, producing a $7 million judgment for the mother of Michael Donald, the lynched victim. The verdict bankrupted the United Klans of America and resulted in its national headquarters being sold to help satisfy the judgment. In 1987 the Klan again targeted Dees and planned to bomb the SPLC. During the past 25 years, SPLC lawsuits have bankrupted or crippled 12 major hate groups whose members killed, injured or threatened innocent people.

In 1989 the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin. The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991, and its "Klanwatch" program has gradually expanded to include other "anti-hate" monitoring projects and a list of reported "hate groups" in the United States.

In October 1990, the SPLC won $12.5 million in damages against Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance when a Portland, Oregon, jury held the neo-Nazi group liable in the beating death of an Ethiopian immigrant. While Metzger lost his home and will not be publishing any more material, the full amount of the multi-million dollar reward was not recovered. In 1995 a group of four white males were indicted for plans to blow up the SPLC.

In May 1998, three white supremacists were arrested for allegedly planning a nationwide campaign of assassinations and bombings targeting "Morris Dees, an undisclosed federal judge in Illinois, a black radio-show host in Missouri, Dees's Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and the Anti-Defamation League in New York." Also in 1998, a news article in The Washington Post described the SPLC as "a controversial, liberal organization".

Several neo-Nazi groups held a rally in front of SPLC headquarters in early 2003.

In July 2007, the SPLC filed suit against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Meade County, where in July 2006 five Klansmen allegedly beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, at a Kentucky county fair. Since filing the suit the SPLC has received nearly a dozen threats "promising the most dangerous threat" ever faced. A July 2007 letter allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host. During the November 2008 trial on the lawsuit, a former member of the IKA said that the Klan head told him to kill Dees.

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

Litigation and Advocacy

Notable cases

The Southern Poverty Law Center has won many notable civil cases with large money awards for the plaintiffs. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments. In addition to providing free magazines and videos on race relations to more than 50,000 schools, Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets."

Young Men's Christian Association

The first SPLC case was filed by Dees and Levin against the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama who "continued to segregate children, going so far as to ban kids who swam at an integrated pool from city-wide meets." In 1969, the YMCA refused to allow two black children to its summer camp, and they sued on behalf of the children's parents. In the course of the lawsuit, Dees "uncovered a secret 1958 agreement between the city and the YMCA in which city officials gave the YMCA control of many city recreational activities." In 1971 SPLC assumed responsibility for the case. In 1972 the court ruled that Montgomery had given the YMCA control with a "municipal character," and "ordered the YMCA to stop its discriminatory, segregationist practices."

Invisible Empire, Knights of the KKK

In 1979, over 100 members of the Invisible Empire Klan, armed with bats, ax handles and guns, clashed with a group of peaceful civil rights marchers in Decatur, Alabama. Two marchers were shot in the head and face. Others were beaten with clubs and sticks. The FBI did not find enough evidence of a conspiracy to charge the Klansmen involved. The SPLC filed a civil suit, Brown v. Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in 1980 against the Invisible Empire and numerous Klansmen. During court discovery procedures, SPLC uncovered evidence that convinced the FBI to reopen the case, and nine Klansmen were eventually convicted of criminal charges. In 1990, the civil suit was finally resolved through a unique settlement, requiring the Klansmen to pay damages, perform community service, and refrain from white supremacist activity. In a unique addition, the Klansmen were also required to attend a course on race relations and prejudice, taught by the leaders of the civil rights group they attacked back in 1979.

Vietnamese fishermen

In 1981 the SPLC took the Klan to court to stop racial harassment and intimidation against Vietnamese fisherman. In May 1981 the courts sided with the Vietnamese fishermen and the SPLC, forcing the Klan to end harassment. Also in 1981 the SPLC won a case which "ordered an Alabama county to pay salaries to the staff of its first black probate judge, continuing a practice that, in violation of state law, had been in use for more than two decades."

White Patriot Party

Bearing guns and dressed in paramilitary uniforms, members of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (a.k.a. Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan) terrorized a black prison guard, his family and others in 1982. In 1984, Bobby Person, the prison guard, became the lead plaintiff in an SPLC lawsuit, Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina against the Invisible Empire. During the litigation, Klansmen continued harassing and threatening the plaintiffs, and the court issued an order prohibiting any person from interfering with other persons inside the federal courthouse.

In January 1985, the Court issued a consent order that prohibited Glenn Miller, the group's Grand Dragon, and members of the group from training and operating a paramilitary organization; marching or parading in black neighborhoods; and harassing, intimidating, threatening or harming any black or white person who associates with black persons. The plaintiff's claims for damages were dismissed and the Consent Decree was made final in September 1985. After changing the group's name to the White Patriot Party, Miller resumed paramilitary operations and Klan business as usual. Less than a year later, Miller and others were found guilty of criminal contempt for violating the consent order. Miller was sentenced to 6 months in prison, six months suspended sentence and 3 years probation during which he could not associate with any members of the White Patriot Party or other racist groups. The contempt verdict was upheld by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 1988. Miller went underground, declared war on Jews and the federal government and was again arrested and served three years in federal prison on a weapons charge.

United Klans of America

In 1987 the SPLC successfully brought a civil case, on behalf of the victim's family, against the United Klans of America (UKA) for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald, a 19-year-old black man in Mobile, Alabama. Unable to come up the $7 million awarded by the jury, the UKA was forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother, who then sold it and used the money to purchase her first house.

White Aryan Resistance

On November 13, 1988 in Portland, Oregon, three white supremacist members of East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance beat to death 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 the deceased's family against WAR's operator Tom Metzger and Tom's son, John Metzger 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 Anti-Defamation League as well as the SPLC. Metzger still makes payments to Seraw's family.

Church of the Creator

In May 1991 Harold Mansfield Jr, a black war veteran in the United States Navy, was murdered by 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 winning a judgement of $1 million from the church in March 1994. The church transferred ownership to William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, to avoid money being paid to Mansfield's heirs; the SPLC filed suit against Pierce for his role in the fraudulent scheme, and won an $85,000 judgment in 1995. The amount was upheld on appeal and the money was collected prior to Pierce's death in 2002. According to a former member of the Alliance, when SPLC sued Pierce the Alliance was worried it would be the end of the hate group.

Christian Knights of the KKK

The SPLC won a $37.8 million verdict for 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 in which the Klan 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 from 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 in Idaho shot at Victoria Keenan and her son. Bullets struck their car several times then the car crashed and an Aryan Nations member held the Keenans at gunpoint. As a result of the judgement, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre (81,000 m) compound to the Keenans who then sold the property to a philanthropist who subsequently donated it to North Idaho College, which designated the land as a "peace park." Because of the lawsuit members of the AN drew up a plan to kill Dees, which was disrupted by the FBI.

Separation of church and state

In 2002 the SPLC and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore for authorizing a two ton display of the Ten Commandments on public property. Moore, late at night and without telling any other court justice, had installed a 5,280 pound (2400 kg) granite block, three feet wide by three feet deep by four feet tall, of the Ten Commandments. After refusing to obey several court rulings Moore was eventually removed from the court, and the monument was removed as well.

Ranch Rescue

On March 18, 2003, a group of illegal immigrants from El Salvador were traveling on foot through a Texas ranch owned by Joseph Sutton when they were accosted by a group of vigilantes known as Ranch Rescue, who had been recruited by Sutton to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region nearby. The immigrants were captured and held at gunpoint by their assailants, during which one Salvadoran was struck on the back of the head with a handgun, and a rottweiler was allowed to attack him. The Salvadorans were threatened with death and otherwise terrorized before being released.

In 2003, 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 and several of its associates, seeking damages for assault and illegal detention. In April 2005, SPLC obtained judgments totaling $1 million against Casey James Nethercott and Torre John Foote, Ranch Rescue's leader. Those awards came six months after a $350,000 judgment in the same case and coincided with a $100,000 out-of-court settlement with Sutton. Nethercott’s 70-acre (280,000 m) Arizona property, which was Ranch Rescue's headquarters, was seized to pay the judgment. Nethercott is currently serving a five-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. SPLC staff worked closely with Texas prosecutors to obtain that conviction.

Billy Ray Johnson

On April 20, 2007 a civil jury in Linden, Texas awarded $9 million in damages to Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally disabled black man, who was beaten and dumped along a desolate road by four white men in September 2003. The lawsuit was brought on Johnson's behalf by the SPLC. Four white males took Johnson to a party where he was knocked unconscious then dropped on his head, referred to as a nigger, and left in a ditch bleeding. Due to the event, "Johnson, 46, who suffered serious, permanent brain injuries from the attack, will require care for the rest of his life." At a criminal trial the four men received sentences of 30 to 60 days in county jail. The jury hoped that the verdict would improve race relations in the community stemming from a United States Department of Education investigation and other controversial verdicts. During the trial one of the defendants, Cory Hicks, referred to Johnson as "it."

Imperial Klans of America

In November 2008, the SPLC's case against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), the second largest Klan organization, in Meade County, Kentucky began. The SPLC filed suit in July 2007 on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the IKA in Kentucky where in July 2006, five Klansmen savagely beat Gruver at a Kentucky county fair. According to the lawsuit, 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 the 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 had been 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. The large judgment against Ron Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the group, and Jarred Hensley, who participated in the attack, financially crippled the nation’s second largest Klan group, which may have to relinquish its 15-acre (61,000 m) compound near Dawson Spring, KY to pay it. Both defendants are expected to have their wages garnished for perhaps 15 years. The two other defendants, Andrew Watkins and Joshua Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit.

Advocacy for legal reforms

The SPLC has spoken against Arizona SB 1070, a legislative act passed in Arizona and under federal review.

Criticism of right wing rhetoric

On April 2, 2010, Mark Potok of the SPLC expressed concern that hot rhetoric and disinformation is causing a dangerous increase in paranoia and confrontation within the political landscape. There is the concern that overheated speech of pundits and politicians is inflaming hate groups that may pose a viable threat. Potok specifically singled out Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, Congressman Steve King, and commentators Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs as failing their moral responsibility for what Potok describes as "inflammatory effects of their rhetoric on hate group violence."

Education

Tolerance.org

The SPLC's initiatives include the website Tolerance.org. The website has been a past winner of a Webby Award which is a set of awards presented to the "world's best websites." The website houses multiple initiatives:

• Daily news about groups and individuals working for tolerance and fighting hate;
• Entertaining and educational games for young children;
• Guidebooks for adult and youth activists;
• Practical resources for parents and teachers; ("Teaching Tolerance") and

According to the SPLC "Teaching Tolerance provides educators with free educational materials that promote respect for differences and appreciation of diversity in the classroom and beyond."

"Teaching Tolerance" is aimed at two different age groups of students with separate materials for teachers and parents. One portion of the project targets elementary school children, providing informational material on the history of the civil rights movement. The center's material for children includes a publication entitled "A fresh look at multicultural 'American English'" that explores the cultural history of common words. A project website designed for elementary school children includes an interactive program that addresses political topics such as school mascots with Native American names, the Confederate flag, and popular music and entertainment. Users of the website are encouraged to consider how racial, gender, and sexual orientation insensitivity might be displayed in such cases.

A similar educational program aimed at teenagers in the middle and high school age groups includes a "Mix it Up" project urging readers to participate in various school activities that encourage interaction between different social groups. Other features of the teenager educational project include political activism tips and reports highlighting examples of student activism. A monthly SPLC publication for teens promotes a highlighted political movement, normally focusing on minority, feminist, and LGBT youth organizations. The program also provides publications to students such as "Ways to fight hate on campus" suggesting ideas for community activism and diversity education.

"Teaching Tolerance" also provides advice and materials for parents aimed at encouraging multiculturalism in the upbringing of their children. A guide published by the project urges parents to "examine the 'diversity profile' for your children's friends," move to "integrated and economically diverse neighborhoods," and discourage children from playing with toys or adopting heroes that "promote violence." The publication also advises parents on the use of culturally sensitive language such as promoting gender-neutral phrasings such as "Someone Special Day" instead of the traditional Mothers Day or Fathers Day and urges them to ensure "cultural diversity reflected in your home's artwork, music and literature."

Documentaries

The SPLC also produces documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for documentary short subject: Mighty Times: The Children's March, in 2005, and A Time for Justice, America's Civil Rights Movement in 1995. Five others have been nominated.

Tracking of hate groups

Hate group listings

The SPLC says:" All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. ... Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. ... Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity."

The SPLC reported that a record number of hate groups were active in the United States in 2008: 926, up from 888 in 2007. These included 186 separate Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups, 196 neo-Nazi, 111 white nationalist, 98 racist skinhead, 39 Christian Identity, 93 neo-Confederate, 113 black separatist, and 90 general hate groups subdivided into anti-gay, anti-immigrant, Holocaust denial, racist music, radical traditionalist Catholic groups, and others espousing a variety of hateful doctrines. These groups maintained 52 KKK, 89 neo-Nazi, 190 white nationalist, 25 racist skinhead, 37 Christian Identity, 25 neo-Confederate, 40 black separatist and 172 general hate websites. Only organizations known to be active in 2008 were counted, excluding those that appear to exist only on the Internet. In addition, SPLC reported there were 159 "patriot" groups active in the United States in 2008, up from 131 in 2007, with at least one such group in every state. They maintain 141 websites.

Some organizations described by the SPLC as hate groups object to this characterization:

• The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) argue that the SPLC's claim that the CofCC is tied to white supremacists is inaccurate. Gordon Lee Baum, chief executive of the CofCC, said that many of the specific allegations were wrong, including allegations that he used the word "nigger" and that he attempted to recruit a leader of the fascist Aryan Nations.
• The SPLC said in a Winter 2010 Intelligence Report article that the Family Research Council was a hate group. The law center said Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the FRC, told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that gay behavior should be outlawed. Also, it named Tony Perkins in its report. Perkins replied that the SPLC's accusations are a political attack and a smear campaign by a leftist liberal organization.

As well, some organizations object to being listed in the same report as a supposed "hate group":

• Brian S. Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, objected to his organization's inclusion in the Winter 2010 Intelligence Report and said that groups opposed to same-sex marriage are not equivalent to racists.

Intelligence Report

The SPLC's Intelligence Project monitors organizations and individuals whom it deems "hate groups" and "extremists" in the United States with their Intelligence Report. The report is published quarterly since 1981 and provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of hate groups. In addition to the Report, the SPLC publishes the HateWatch Weekly newsletter that follows racism and extremism, and the Hatewatch blog ("Keeping an Eye on the Radical Right"). The blog recommends other blogs such as Daily Kos, Democracy Now!, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Media Matters for America, and Newshounds.

Professors of sociology Betty A. Dobratz, (Iowa State University) and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile, (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), wrote about SPLC and several other “watchdog” groups: “What the ‘watchdog’ groups focus on is at least partially influenced by the fact that these organizations depend on public financial support, and the public is likely to contribute to groups that they perceive are struggling against some major threat to America. We relied on SPLC and ADL reports for general information, but we have noticed differences between ways events have been reported and what we saw at rallies. For instance, events were sometimes portrayed in Klanwatch Intelligence Reports as more militant and dangerous with higher turnouts than we observed.”

While acknowledging the possibility of some statistical bias by the SPLC, Rory McVeigh, the Chair of the University of Notre Dame Sociology Department, wrote:

Such measurement bias, if it exists, would be more likely to show up in claims concerning membership or in descriptions of the movement's goals, rather than in a listing of organizations. The SPLC's lists of U.S. racist organizations are by far the most comprehensive available. Its outstanding reputation is well established, and the SPLC has been an excellent source of information for social scientists who study racist organizations.

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" written by David Holthouse and Casey Sanchez took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007. On March 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C., the Intelligence Project received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation for its “outstanding work” covering the anti-immigration movement. Also, according to the Illinois Association for Cultural Diversity at Western Illinois University, the magazine is a reliable source for information about hate groups and hate crimes

On August 12, 2009, the SPLC issued a Special Report entitled "The Second Wave: The Return of the Militias"

Neo-Confederate movement

The Southern Poverty Law Center is the principal group reporting on the neo-Confederate movement. A 2000 special report by the SPLC's Mark Potok in their magazine, Intelligence Report, describes a number of groups as neo-Confederate. The SPLC has also carried subsequent articles on the neo-Confederate movement. "Lincoln Reconstructed" published in 2003 in the Intelligence Report focuses on the resurgent demonization of Abraham Lincoln in the southern United States. The article quotes Father Alister Anderson, national chaplain of the Sons of Confederate Veterans as giving an invocation which recalled "the last real Christian civilization on Earth", and also denounced "hypocrites and bigots", who dismiss "the righteous cause for which our ancestors fought." In the SPLC article "Whitewashing the Confederacy", George Ewert claimed that Gods and Generals presented a false, pro-Confederate view of history.

Chip Berlet, writing for the SPLC in 2003, identified David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture (now called David Horowitz Freedom Center) as one of 17 "right-wing foundations and think tanks support efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable." Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery on "'black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs'" and of "attack minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism." Responding with an open letter to Morris Dees, president of the SPLC, Horowitz stated that his reminder that the slaves transported to America were bought from African and Arab slavers was a response to demands that only whites pay blacks reparations, not to hold Africans and Arabs solely responsible for slavery, and that the statement that he had denied lingering racism was "a calculated and carefully constructed lie." The letter said that Berlet's work was "so tendentious, so filled with transparent misrepresentations and smears that if you continue to post the report you will create for your Southern Poverty Law Center a well-earned reputation as a hate group itself." Berlet responded: "The Center for the Study of Popular Culture has produced a vast amount of text marked by nasty polemic and exceptional insensitivity around issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity. Writers for the CSPC tend to use language that exacerbates societal tensions rather than seeking some form of constructive critical discourse. They are mainstreaming bigotry—and this is precisely the topic of my article in Intelligence Report." Subsequent critical pieces on Berlet and the SPLC have been featured on FPM.

The Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) has been identified by the SPLC as a neo-Confederate organization, and it was criticised for misleading its supporters in order to get donations. The SLRC was criticized because its founder, Kirk D. Lyons' pre-SLRC defended controversial far right figures such as Tom Metzger and members of Aryan Nations.

Operations

Fundraising

Starting in 1971, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment in future programs in order "to carry on the struggle for tolerance and justice—for as long as it is needed." The SPLC have utilized fundraising efforts to build up their own endowment as the group notes all activities including litigation are supported by fundraising efforts, and they do not accept any fees or share of legal judgments awarded to clients it represents in court. During 2008 fiscal year, the SPLC stated "we spent approximately 69% of our total expenses on program services. At the end of the fiscal year, our endowment—a special, board-designated fund to support our future work—stood at $156.2 million." The methods they use are somewhat unconventional and critics accuse them of leveraging fear to solicit donations as well as having "top people at the center paid very high salaries". Charity ranking organizations such as the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance do not score the SPLC. According to Charity Navigator, SPLC's 2008 outlays fell into the following categories: program expenses of 68.0%, administrative expenses of 14.3%, and fundraising expenses of 17.6%. In 2008 the American Institute of Philanthropy's Charity Ratings Guide gave the SPLC an "F" rating for "excessive" reserves.

In 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser ran a series alleging the SPLC was financially mismanaged and employed misleading fundraising practices. In response Joe Levin stated: "The Advertiser's lack of interest in the center's programs and its obsessive interest in the center's financial affairs and Mr. Dees' personal life makes it obvious to me that the Advertiser simply wants to smear the center and Mr. Dees." The series was a finalist for but did not win a 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism (according to Mark Krikorian, the SPLC lobbied against the Pulitzer Prize). In 1996 USA Today claimed the SPLC "the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in assets at the time ($175 million as of 2009). Dees had previously promised that when the SPLC's assets reached $55 million, the organization would cease fundraising; when the endowment neared that sum, he increased the amount to the now surpassed $100 million. In 1998, columnist Alexander Cockburn, from The Nation, criticized the fundraising tactics and the effectiveness of the SPLC: "Morris Dees has raised an endowment of close to $100 million, with which he's done little, by frightening elderly liberals that the heirs of Adolf Hitler are about to march down Main Street, lynching blacks and putting Jews into ovens. The fund raising of Dees and the richly rewarded efforts of terror mongers like Leonard Zeskind offer a dreadfully distorted view of American political realities." Similarly in 2000, Harper's Magazine published an article by Ken Silverstein critical of the SPLC noting the poor ratings from charity ranking organizations and that it spent twice as much money on fundraising as it did on legal services. In 2007 Silverstein published a follow-up noting that he felt the imbalance was still present and the group had only been more successful in fundraising since and their endowment likewise had grown exponentially.

See also

• GLAAD
• Soulforce
• Anti-Defamation League
• Catholic League
• New Black Panther Party

References

Notes

1. "Financial Information". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
2. Southern Poverty Law Center website: Who we are, http://www.splcenter.org/who-we-are, accessed August 1, 2010
3. With Justice For All November 5, 2006; The Times Picayune
4. SPLCenter.org: Hate Groups Map
5. ^ "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. September 8, 2000. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
6. Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1991. A Season For Justice. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 132-133.
7. ^ "Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 11, 1969. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
8. "Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2006". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
9. ^ "Fire Damages Alabama Center that Battles the Klan". The New York Times. July 31, 1983. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
10. ^ "2 Klan Members Plead Guilty To Arson". The New York Times. February 21, 1985.
11. ^ Klass, Kym (August 17, 2007). "Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security". Montgomery Advertiser. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
12. "Death List Names Given to US Jury". The New York Times. September 17, 1985.
13. "Jury Told of Plan to Kill Radio Host". The New York Times. November 8, 1987.
14. ^ "The Nation Klan Must Pay $7 Million". Los Angeles Times. February 13, 1987. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
15. "Five Tied to Klan Indicted on Arms Charges". The New York Times. January 9, 1987. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
16. Intelligence Report, SPLC, Spring 2008, 78.
17. Tauber, Peter (February 24, 1991). "Monument Maker". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
18. "Metzger Leaves Former Home A Mess, but its Undamaged". The Oregonian. September 19, 1991.
19. "Metzger Home Worth Only A Tiny Fraction of $12.5 Million Sum". The Oregonian. August 28, 1991.
20. "4 Are Accused in Oklahoma of Bomb Plot". The New York Times. November 14, 1995. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
21. "Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. 2 others will plead guilty Thursday." St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (May 13, 1998): pB1.
22. ^ Edsall, Thomas (1998-12-19). "Conservative Group Accused Of Ties to White Supremacists". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
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40. The jury divided the judgement against the defendants as follows: Kyle Brewster, $500,000; Ken Mieske, $500,000;, John Metzger, $1 million; WAR, $3 million; Tom Metzger, $5 million; in addition, the jury awarded $2.5 million for Mulugeta's unrealized future earnings and pain and suffering.
41. London, Robb (October 26, 1990). "Sending a $12.5 Million Message to a Hate Group". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
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54. Glassroth v. Moore (PDF) (M.D. Ala. 2002).
55. Leiva v. Ranch Rescue. Accessed 2-15-09.
56. "Center Wins Justice for Billy Ray Johnson". Southern Poverty Law Center. April 20, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
57. "The Beating of Billy Ray Johnson". Texas Monthly. February 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
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59. "Ex-jailer denies part in assault cover-up". Texarkana Gazette. April 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
60. Parker, Laura (April 26, 2007). "A jury's stand against racism reflects hope". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
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63. "Jury awards $2.5 million to teen beaten by Klan members". CNN. November 14, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
64. Kenning, Chris. 2008. “$2.5 million awarded in Klan beating,” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), November 15, 2008, p. 1.
65. Mary Bauer. 4-28-2010 "Arizona Immigration Law Violates Constitution, Guarantees Racial Profiling"
66. "All the Rage". On the Media. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2010-04-14. uch of the hate speech and especially the kind of defamatory propaganda and conspiracy theories that come out of these radical right wing groups, hate groups and patriot groups, so called, is making its way into the mainstream. And that kind of conveyor belt movement from the margins to the mainstream is being very much aided, at least in the last year or two, by a number of mainstream politicians, or ostensibly mainstream politicians, and media commentators.
67. ^ "Tolerance.org: About us". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
68. "Teaching Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
69. "About Teaching Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
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71. "Mix it up:Our Story". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
72. "Mighty Times: The Children’s March", 77th Academy Awards
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77. “Patriot groups active in 2008.” Intelligence Report. Spring 2009, pp. 66-69.
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Bibliography

• Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1991. A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-19189-X
• Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1993. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 0-679-40614-X.
• 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
• Hall, Dave, Tym Burkey and Katherine M. Ramsland. 2008. Into the Devil’s Den. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-49694-2.
• Day, Katie (January 21, 2010) "Southern Poverty Law Center". Encyclopedia of Alabama online

External links

• Official website
• Hatewatch: official website
• Intelligence Report: official website
• Tolerance.org: official website
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Mark Potok from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• African American history of Alabama
• Anti-neo-Nazi organizations
• Anti-racist organizations in the United States
• Charities based in the United States
• Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States
• Discrimination law in the United States
• Legal defense organizations in the United States
• Non-profit organizations based in Alabama
• Organizations established in 1971