Southern Poverty Law Center
Encyclopedia
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist
groups; legal representation for victims of hate group
s; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militia
s and extremist organizations; and educational programs that promote tolerance. The SPLC classifies as hate groups organizations that denigrate or assault entire groups of people, typically for attributes that are beyond their control.
In 1971, Morris Dees
and Joseph J. Levin Jr. founded the SPLC as a civil rights law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama. Civil rights leader Julian Bond
soon joined Dees and Levin and served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979. The SPLC's litigating strategy involved filing civil suits for damages on behalf of the victims of hate group harassment, threats, and violence with the goal of financially depleting the responsible groups and individuals. While it originally focused on damages done by the Ku Klux Klan
and other white supremacist groups, throughout the years the SPLC has become involved in other civil rights causes, among them, cases concerned with institutional racial segregation and discrimination, the mistreatment of aliens, and the separation of church and state
.
The SPLC does not accept government funds, or charge its clients legal fees, or share in the court-awarded judgments to them. Its programs have been supported by successful fund raising efforts which have also helped it to build substantial monetary reserves. Both its fund raising appeals and its accumulation of reserves have been subject to controversy.
The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in 1971 as a law firm to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. SPLC's first president was Julian Bond
who served as president until 1979 and remains on its board of directors
. In 1979 the Center brought the first of its many cases against various Ku Klux Klan type organizations. In 1981 the Center began its Klanwatch project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, now called Hatewatch, has now been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.
In July 1983, the center's office was firebomb
ed, destroying the building and records. In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pleaded guilty to federal and state charges related to the fire. At the trial Klansmen Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr. along with Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to conspiring to intimidate oppress and threaten members of black organizations represented by SPLC." According to Dees over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or blow up the center.
In 1984 Dees became an assassination target of The Order
, a revolutionary white supremacist group, for his work with the SPLC. Another target, radio host Alan Berg
, was killed by the group outside his Colorado home.
In 1987, SPLC 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 bankrupted the United Klans of America and resulted in its national headquarters being sold for about $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment. In 1987 five members of a Klan off-shoot, the White Patriot Party
, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees.
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 ability to publish 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."
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. After filing the suit the SPLC received nearly a dozen threats. 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 Geographics Inside American Terror exploring their litigation against several branches of the Ku Klux Klan.
resulting in monetary awards for the plaintiffs. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments. Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets."
, that "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 the SPLC 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." Years later, the executive director of the Montgomery YMCA thanked Dees for the case because without it, the center would not have been able to desegregate.
ese fishermen. 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 that ordered an Alabama county to pay salaries to the staff of its first black probate judge, continuing a practice that, violating state law, had been in use for more than two decades.
In January 1985 the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon," Glenn Miller, and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, parading 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 plaintiff's 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.
(UKA) for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald
, a 19-year-old black man in Mobile, Alabama
, by two of the UKA's members. Unable to come up with 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.
(WAR) 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.
, 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 worried it would end the hate group.
, 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."
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 acres (80,937.2 m²) 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.
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.
from El Salvador, Edwin Alfredo Mancía Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina, were trespassing through a Texas ranch owned by Joseph Sutton. They were accosted by vigilante
s known as Ranch Rescue
who were recruited by Sutton to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region nearby.
According to the SPLC, Gonzáles and Medina were held at gunpoint, and Gonzáles was struck on the back of the head with a handgun, and a rottweiler was allowed to attack him. The SPLC said Gonzáles and Medina were threatened with death and otherwise terrorized before being released. The El Salvadorans stated that the ranchers gave them water, cookies and a blanket before letting them go after about an hour. Ranch Rescuer Casey James Nethercott denied hitting either of the trespassers with a gun, and none of the vigilantes were convicted of pistol-whipping.
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 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 acres (283,280.2 m²) Arizona property, which was Ranch Rescue's headquarters, was seized to pay the judgment. Nethercott, previously convicted of assault in California, was sentenced to five years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. SPLC staff worked closely with Texas prosecutors to obtain that conviction.
", 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. On April 20, 2007, Billy Ray Johnson was awarded $9 million in damages by a civil jury in Linden, Texas
. 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."
(IKA), the nation's second largest Klan organization, began in Meade County, Kentucky
. 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 in 3 in (1.6 m) and weighing 150 pounds (68 kg)) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of whom was 6 in 5 in (1.96 m) and 300 pounds (136.1 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 against Ron Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the group, and Jarred Hensley, who participated in the attack. The two other defendants, Andrew Watkins and Joshua Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit.
criticized David Horowitz
's Center for the Study of Popular Culture
as one of 17 organizations which take racist and bigoted ideas that originated with the hard right or with conspiracy theorists and try to make them socially acceptable. Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery
on "'black Africa
ns ... abetted by dark-skinned Arab
s'" and of "attack[ing] 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. He said that his reminder had nothing to do with lingering racism. 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 Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com.
In an NPR
interview on April 2, 2010 the SPLC's Mark Potok
said that pundits and politicians, such as Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
, Congressman Steve King
, and commentators Glenn Beck
and Lou Dobbs
bore some of the moral responsibility for hate crimes by using, and thus helping to "mainstream," the rhetoric of hate groups and conspiracy theorists.
The site's Teaching Tolerance initiative 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 material on the history of the civil rights movement. The center's material for elementary school children includes a publication entitled "A fresh look at multicultural 'American English'" which explores the cultural history of common words. A project website includes an interactive program addressing such topics as Native American
school mascots, displays of the Confederate flag, and the themes of popular music and entertainment, encouraging pupils to consider racial, gender
, and sexual orientation
sensitivities.
A similar program aimed at middle and high school pupils includes a "Mix it Up" project urging readers to participate in school activities involving interaction between different social groups. Other features of this project includes political activism tips and reports highlighting student activism. The SPLC puts out a monthly publication typically focusing on a minority, feminist, or LGBT
youth organization. Publications such as "Ways to fight hate on campus" suggest ideas for community activism and diversity
education.
Teaching Tolerance also provides advice to parents, encouraging multiculturalism
in the upbringing of their children. A guide urges parents to "examine the 'diversity profile' of your children's friends," to move to "integrated and economically diverse neighborhoods," and to discourage children from playing with toys or adopting heroes that "promote violence." The publication also advises parents to use culturally sensitive language (such as the gender-neutral phrasing "Someone Special Day" instead of the traditional Mothers Day and Fathers Day) and to make sure that "cultural diversity (is) reflected in your home's artwork, music and literature."
s. Two have won Academy Awards
for documentary short subject: Mighty Times: The Children's March
, in 2005, and A Time for Justice
in 1995. Another film was Wall of Tolerance, starring Jennifer Welker
. Five others have been nominated for awards.
web page on hate crimes. The SPLC maintains a list of hate groups defined as groups that "...have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." It says that hate group activities may include speeches, marches, rallies, meetings, publishing, leafleting, and criminal acts such as violence. It says not all groups listed by the SPLC engage in criminal activity.
The SPLC reported that 926 hate groups were active in the United States in 2008, up from 888 in 2007. These included:
hate group
s and extremists in the United States. The Intelligence Report provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of these groups, and is cited by scholars as reliable and as the most comprehensive source on U.S. right-wing extremism and hate groups. In addition to the Intelligence Report, the SPLC publishes the HateWatch Weekly 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
, which took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007. On March 20, 2009 the Intelligence Project received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation for its “outstanding work” covering the anti-immigration movement.
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 neo-Confederate circles. The article quotes Father Alister Anderson, national chaplain
of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
, as giving an invocation that recalled "the last real Christian civilization on Earth," and also denounced "hypocrites and bigots," who dismiss "the righteous cause for which our ancestors fought." The SPLC has identified the Southern Legal Resource Center
(SLRC) as a neo-Confederate organization and has accused it of misleading its donors. The SPLC has also criticized the SLRC's founder, Kirk D. Lyons, for previously defending far right
figures such as Tom Metzger
and members of Aryan Nations
. In the SPLC article "Whitewashing the Confederacy," George Ewert associated the 2003 Warner Bros. motion picture Gods and Generals
with the movement, stating that it presented a false pro-Confederate view of history that had "neo-Confederates salivating."
Starting in 1974, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment
because it was "convinced that the day (would) come when nonprofit groups (would) no longer be able to rely on support through mail because of posting and printing costs." The SPLC has received criticism for perceived disproportionate endowment reserves and misleading fundraising practices. In 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser
ran a series saying that 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
. In 1996 USA Today
called the SPLC "the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in asset
s at the time. Commentators Alexander Cockburn
writing in The Nation
and Ken Silverstein
writing in Harper's Magazine
have been sharply critical of the SPLC's fundraising appeals and finances.
The SPLC stated that during 2008 it spent about 69% of total expenses on program services, and that at the end of 2008 the endowment stood at $156.2 million. According to Charity Navigator
, SPLC's 2009 outlays fell into the following categories: program expenses of 67.5%, administrative expenses of 13.4%, and fundraising expenses of 18.9%. In October 2010 the SPLC reported its endowment at $216.2 million.
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
groups; legal representation for victims of hate group
Hate group
A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other designated sector of society...
s; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
s and extremist organizations; and educational programs that promote tolerance. The SPLC classifies as hate groups organizations that denigrate or assault entire groups of people, typically for attributes that are beyond their control.
In 1971, Morris Dees
Morris Dees
Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center , and a former direct mail marketeer for book publishing. Along with his law partner, Joseph J...
and Joseph J. Levin Jr. founded the SPLC as a civil rights law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama. Civil rights leader Julian Bond
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
soon joined Dees and Levin and served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979. The SPLC's litigating strategy involved filing civil suits for damages on behalf of the victims of hate group harassment, threats, and violence with the goal of financially depleting the responsible groups and individuals. While it originally focused on damages done by the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and other white supremacist groups, throughout the years the SPLC has become involved in other civil rights causes, among them, cases concerned with institutional racial segregation and discrimination, the mistreatment of aliens, and the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
.
The SPLC does not accept government funds, or charge its clients legal fees, or share in the court-awarded judgments to them. Its programs have been supported by successful fund raising efforts which have also helped it to build substantial monetary reserves. Both its fund raising appeals and its accumulation of reserves have been subject to controversy.
History
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
who served as president until 1979 and remains on its board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. In 1979 the Center brought the first of its many cases against various Ku Klux Klan type organizations. In 1981 the Center began its Klanwatch project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, now called Hatewatch, has now been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.
In July 1983, the center's office was firebomb
Firebomb
Firebomb may refer to:* Firebombing* Incendiary device* Molotov cocktail* A season 2 episode of the television show Alias* "Fire Bomb", a song by Rihanna from her 2009 album Rated R...
ed, destroying the building and records. In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pleaded guilty to federal and state charges related to the fire. At the trial Klansmen Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr. along with Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to conspiring to intimidate oppress and threaten members of black organizations represented by SPLC." According to Dees over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or blow up the center.
In 1984 Dees became an assassination target of The Order
The Order (group)
The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen or Silent Brotherhood, was an organization active in the United States between 1983 and 1984...
, a revolutionary white supremacist group, for his work with the SPLC. Another target, radio host Alan Berg
Alan Berg
Alan Berg was a Jewish American attorney and Denver, Colorado talk radio show host. Berg was notable for his largely liberal, outspoken viewpoints and confrontational interview style....
, was killed by the group outside his Colorado home.
In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America
United Klans of America
United Klans of America Inc. was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside...
for the lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
of Michael Donald
Michael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
. 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 bankrupted the United Klans of America and resulted in its national headquarters being sold for about $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment. In 1987 five members of a Klan off-shoot, the White Patriot Party
White Patriot Party
The White Patriot Party was an American anti-Semitic white supremacist paramilitary political party associated with Christian Identity and the Ku Klux Klan. Using paramilitary tactics, the group developed from the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan chapter; it was founded in 1980 by Frazier...
, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees.
Civil Rights Memorial
The Civil Rights Memorial is a memorial in Montgomery, Alabama to 40 people who died in the struggle for the equal and integrated treatment of all people, regardless of race, during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The memorial is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center.The...
designed by Maya Lin
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Personal life:...
. 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
Tom Metzger
Thomas Metzger is an American white nationalist who founded White Aryan Resistance . His far-right activist groups, including WAR, have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American organization that tracks hate groups...
and his White Aryan Resistance
White Aryan Resistance
White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi white separatist organization founded and led by former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger. Part of the American far right, it is based in Warsaw, Indiana and is incorporated as a business....
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 ability to publish 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
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
in Los Angeles, and the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
in New York."
In July 2007, the SPLC filed suit against the Imperial Klans of America
Imperial Klans of America
The Imperial Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organization styled after the original Ku Klux Klan . In 2008, it was reported that the IKA had the second largest KKK membership....
(IKA) in Meade County
Meade County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,349 people, 9,470 households, and 7,396 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 10,293 housing units at an average density of...
, where in July 2006 five Klansmen allegedly beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, at a Kentucky county fair. After filing the suit the SPLC received nearly a dozen threats. 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 Geographics Inside American Terror exploring their litigation against several branches of the Ku Klux Klan.
Notable cases
The Southern Poverty Law Center has won many notable civil casesCivil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
resulting in monetary awards for the plaintiffs. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments. 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 against the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, AlabamaMontgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, that "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 the SPLC 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." Years later, the executive director of the Montgomery YMCA thanked Dees for the case because without it, the center would not have been able to desegregate.
Vietnamese fishermen
In 1981 the SPLC took the Klan to court to stop racial harassment and intimidation against VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese fishermen. 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 that ordered an Alabama county to pay salaries to the staff of its first black probate judge, continuing a practice that, violating state law, had been in use for more than two decades.
White Patriot Party
In 1982, gun-bearing members of the para-military styled Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Bobby Person, a black prison guard and several 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 U.S. District Court for Eastern North Carolina. The harassment and threats continued during litigation and the court issued an order prohibiting any person from interfering with other persons inside the courthouse.In January 1985 the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon," Glenn Miller, and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, parading 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 plaintiff's 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 the SPLC successfully brought a civil case, on behalf of the victim's family, against the United Klans of AmericaUnited Klans of America
United Klans of America Inc. was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside...
(UKA) for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald
Michael Donald
Michael Donald was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.-Lynching:...
, a 19-year-old black man in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, by two of the UKA's members. Unable to come up with 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 ResistanceWhite Aryan Resistance
White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi white separatist organization founded and led by former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger. Part of the American far right, it is based in Warsaw, Indiana and is incorporated as a business....
(WAR) beat to death Mulugeta Seraw
Mulugeta Seraw
Mulugeta Seraw was an Ethiopian student and father who went to the United States to attend college. Seraw was killed in November 1988, at age 28, in Portland, Oregon by three racist skinheads...
, an Ethiopian
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
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
Tom Metzger
Thomas Metzger is an American white nationalist who founded White Aryan Resistance . His far-right activist groups, including WAR, have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American organization that tracks hate groups...
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
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
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 NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, 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
William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and one of the most important ideologists of the white nationalist movement. Pierce originally worked as an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University, before he became involved in...
, 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 worried it would end 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 CarolinaManning, South Carolina
Manning is a city in South Carolina and the county seat of Clarendon County in the Southeastern United States, located in the center of the county, just to the east of Interstate 95 and at the intersection of U.S. 301 and U.S. 521. The population was estimated to be 3,943 as of 2008, down 2% from...
, against two Ku Klux Klan chapters and five Klansmen (Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Invisible Empire
Invisible Empire
Invisible Empire could refer to:Music* Invisible Empire , second studio album from Philadelphia hip-hop artist Reef the Lost Cauze, released in 2003.Fiction* Book 1 of Agent 13: The Midnight Avenger series published by TSR, Inc....
, 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 Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
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 NationsAryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
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
Richard Girnt Butler
Richard Girnt Butler was an American aerospace engineer for Lockheed, who later became the leader of the Christian Identity white supremacist group Aryan Nations.-Biography:...
turned over the 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) compound to the Keenans who then sold the property to a philanthropist who subsequently donated it to North Idaho College
North Idaho College
North Idaho College is a community college with over 6,000 students in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, situated at the north end of Lake Coeur d'Alene.-History:The school was established during the Great Depression in 1933 as Coeur d'Alene Junior 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.
Ten Commandments monument
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
filed suit against Alabama Supreme Court
Alabama Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of an elected Chief Justice and eight elected Associate Justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six year terms. The Governor of Alabama may fill vacancies when they occur...
justice Roy Moore
Roy Moore
Roy Stewart Moore is an American jurist and Republican politician noted for his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse despite orders to do so from a federal judge...
for authorizing a two ton display of the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
on public property. Moore, late at night and without telling any other court justice, had installed a 5,280 pound (2400 kg) granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
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, two illegal aliensAlien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...
from El Salvador, Edwin Alfredo Mancía Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina, were trespassing through a Texas ranch owned by Joseph Sutton. They were accosted by vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s known as Ranch Rescue
Ranch Rescue
Ranch Rescue is a volunteer organization that assists ranchers and owners of property near the United States-Mexico border in the protection of their property. The organization claims that the protection is necessary due to damages caused by unauthorized border crossers, which it characterizes as...
who were recruited by Sutton to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region nearby.
According to the SPLC, Gonzáles and Medina were held at gunpoint, and Gonzáles was struck on the back of the head with a handgun, and a rottweiler was allowed to attack him. The SPLC said Gonzáles and Medina were threatened with death and otherwise terrorized before being released. The El Salvadorans stated that the ranchers gave them water, cookies and a blanket before letting them go after about an hour. Ranch Rescuer Casey James Nethercott denied hitting either of the trespassers with a gun, and none of the vigilantes were convicted of pistol-whipping.
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 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 acres (283,280.2 m²) Arizona property, which was Ranch Rescue's headquarters, was seized to pay the judgment. Nethercott, previously convicted of assault in California, was sentenced to five years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. SPLC staff worked closely with Texas prosecutors to obtain that conviction.
Billy Ray Johnson
Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally disabled man, was taken by four white males to a party where he was knocked unconscious then dropped on his head, referred to as a "niggerNigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
", 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. On April 20, 2007, Billy Ray Johnson was awarded $9 million in damages by a civil jury in Linden, Texas
Linden, Texas
Linden is a city in Cass County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,256 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cass County.-Geography:Linden is located at ....
. The jury hoped that the verdict would improve race relations in the community stemming from a United States Department of Education
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
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 AmericaImperial Klans of America
The Imperial Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organization styled after the original Ku Klux Klan . In 2008, it was reported that the IKA had the second largest KKK membership....
(IKA), the nation's second largest Klan organization, began in Meade County, Kentucky
Meade County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,349 people, 9,470 households, and 7,396 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 10,293 housing units at an average density of...
. 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
Brandenburg, Kentucky
Brandenburg is a city in Meade County, Kentucky, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,049 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Meade County.-History:...
, "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
Spic
Spic is an ethnic slur used in the United States for a person of Hispanic background.-Etymology:Some in the United States believe the word is a play on their pronunciation of the English "speak."...
". Subsequently the boy, (5 in 3 in (1.6 m) and weighing 150 pounds (68 kg)) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of whom was 6 in 5 in (1.96 m) and 300 pounds (136.1 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 against Ron Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the group, and Jarred Hensley, who participated in the attack. The two other defendants, Andrew Watkins and Joshua Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit.
Opposition to Arizona illegal immigration measure
The SPLC has spoken against Arizona SB 1070, the anti-illegal immigration measure passed by the State of Arizona in 2010, calling it "brazenly unconstitutional" and "a civil rights disaster." The law is currently under federal legal review.Criticism of political rhetoric
In 2003 an SPLC article written by Chip BerletChip Berlet
John Foster "Chip" Berlet is an American investigative journalist, and photojournalist activist specializing in the study of right-wing movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, and paramilitary organizations...
criticized David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
's Center for the Study of Popular Culture
David Horowitz Freedom Center
The David Horowitz Freedom Center is a conservative foundation founded in 1988 by political activist David Horowitz and his long-time collaborator Peter Collier...
as one of 17 organizations which take racist and bigoted ideas that originated with the hard right or with conspiracy theorists and try to make them socially acceptable. Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
on "'black Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
ns ... abetted by dark-skinned Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s'" and of "attack[ing] 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
Morris Dees
Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center , and a former direct mail marketeer for book publishing. Along with his law partner, Joseph J...
, 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. He said that his reminder had nothing to do with lingering racism. 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 Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com.
In an NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
interview on April 2, 2010 the SPLC's Mark Potok
Mark Potok
Mark Potok is a spokesman and director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a nonprofit organization that arose from the anti-segregation movement to counter extremism and hate crimes....
said that pundits and politicians, such as Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing , a post she has held since 2007. The district includes several of the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Woodbury, and Blaine as well as Stillwater and St. Cloud.She is currently a...
, Congressman Steve King
Steve King
Steven Arnold "Steve" King is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.The district is located in the western part of the state and includes Sioux City and Council Bluffs....
, and commentators Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
and Lou Dobbs
Lou Dobbs
Louis Carl "Lou" Dobbs is an American journalist, radio host, television host on the Fox Business Network, and author. He anchored CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight until November 2009 when he announced on the air that he would leave the 24-hour cable news television network.He was born in Texas and lived...
bore some of the moral responsibility for hate crimes by using, and thus helping to "mainstream," the rhetoric of hate groups and conspiracy theorists.
Tolerance.org
The SPLC's initiatives include the website Tolerance.org, past winner of the international Webby Award. The site provides daily news on tolerance issues, educational games for children, guidebooks for activists, and resources for parents and teachers that promote respect for diversity.The site's Teaching Tolerance initiative 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 material on the history of the civil rights movement. The center's material for elementary school children includes a publication entitled "A fresh look at multicultural 'American English'" which explores the cultural history of common words. A project website includes an interactive program addressing such topics as Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
school mascots, displays of the Confederate flag, and the themes of popular music and entertainment, encouraging pupils to consider racial, gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, and sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
sensitivities.
A similar program aimed at middle and high school pupils includes a "Mix it Up" project urging readers to participate in school activities involving interaction between different social groups. Other features of this project includes political activism tips and reports highlighting student activism. The SPLC puts out a monthly publication typically focusing on a minority, feminist, or LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
youth organization. Publications such as "Ways to fight hate on campus" suggest ideas for community activism and diversity
Diversity (politics)
In the political arena, the term diversity is used to describe political entities with members who have identifiable differences in their backgrounds or lifestyles....
education.
Teaching Tolerance also provides advice to parents, encouraging multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
in the upbringing of their children. A guide urges parents to "examine the 'diversity profile' of your children's friends," to move to "integrated and economically diverse neighborhoods," and to discourage children from playing with toys or adopting heroes that "promote violence." The publication also advises parents to use culturally sensitive language (such as the gender-neutral phrasing "Someone Special Day" instead of the traditional Mothers Day and Fathers Day) and to make sure that "cultural diversity (is) reflected in your home's artwork, music and literature."
Documentaries
The SPLC also produces documentary filmDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s. Two have won Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for documentary short subject: Mighty Times: The Children's March
Mighty Times: The Children's March
Mighty Times: The Children's March is a 2004 short documentary film about the Birmingham civil rights marches. It was directed by Robert Houston and produced by Robert Hudson. The film won an Academy Award in 2005 for Documentary Short Subject...
, in 2005, and A Time for Justice
A Time for Justice
A Time for Justice is a 1994 short documentary film produced by Charles Guggenheim. It won an Academy Award in 1995 for Documentary Short Subject. The film was produced by Guggenheim and the Southern Poverty Law Center.-External links:...
in 1995. Another film was Wall of Tolerance, starring Jennifer Welker
Jennifer Welker
Jennifer C. Welker is an American filmmaker and writer, best known for the projects War-Angels and the documentary Beyond the Ribbon, which she wrote, directed and edited....
. Five others have been nominated for awards.
Hate group listings
The Southern Poverty Law Center is named as a resource on the Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
web page on hate crimes. The SPLC maintains a list of hate groups defined as groups that "...have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." It says that hate group activities may include speeches, marches, rallies, meetings, publishing, leafleting, and criminal acts such as violence. It says not all groups listed by the SPLC engage in criminal activity.
The SPLC reported that 926 hate groups were active in the United States in 2008, up from 888 in 2007. These included:
- 186 separate Ku Klux KlanKu Klux KlanKu Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
(KKK) groups with 52 websites - 196 neo-Nazi groups with 89 websites
- 111 White nationalistWhite nationalismWhite nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
groups with 190 websites - 98 White power skinhead groups with 25 websites
- 39 Christian IdentityChristian IdentityChristian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
groups with 37 websites - 93 neo-ConfederateNeo-confederateNeo-Confederate is a term used by some academics and political activists to describe the views of various groups and individuals who have a positive belief system concerning the historical experience of the Confederate States of America, the Southern secession, and the Southern United...
groups with 25 websites - 113 black separatistBlack separatismBlack separatism is a movement to create separate institutions for people of African descent in societies historically dominated by whites, particularly in the United States. Black separatists also often seek a separate homeland...
groups with 40 websites - 159 Patriot movementPatriot movementThe Patriot Movement is a loose collection of independent minarchist social movements in the United States beginning in the latter half of the 20th century...
groups - 90 general hate groups subdivided into anti-gayLGBT rights oppositionLGBT rights opposition refers to active opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. Organizations influential in LGBT rights opposition frequently challenge judicial rulings, and legislative initiatives, and dispute findings that sexual orientation is an immutable...
, anti-immigrantNativism (politics)Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
, Holocaust denialHolocaust denialHolocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
, racist musicRacist musicRacist music is music associated with and promoting racism. Although musicologists point out that many, if not most early cultures had songs to promote themselves and denigrate any perceived enemies, the origins of racist music is tied to the 1950s....
, radical traditionalist Catholic groups, and other groups espousing a variety of hateful doctrines, which maintained another 172 hate websites. Only organizations active in 2008 were counted, excluding those that appear to exist only on the Internet. In addition, SPLC reported there were 159 Patriot movementPatriot movementThe Patriot Movement is a loose collection of independent minarchist social movements in the United States beginning in the latter half of the 20th century...
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.
Intelligence Report
Since 1981 the SPLC's Intelligence Project has published a quarterly Intelligence Report that monitors what the SPLC considers radical rightRadical Right
Radical Right is a generally pejorative term used to describe various political movements on the right that are conspiracist, attuned to anti-American or anti-Christian agents of foreign powers, and "politically radical." The term was first used by social scientists in the 1950s regarding small...
hate group
Hate group
A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other designated sector of society...
s and extremists in the United States. The Intelligence Report provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of these groups, and is cited by scholars as reliable and as the most comprehensive source on U.S. right-wing extremism and hate groups. In addition to the Intelligence Report, the SPLC publishes the HateWatch Weekly newsletter that follows racism and extremism, and the Hatewatch blog whose subtitle
Subtitle (titling)
In books and other works, a subtitle is an explanatory or alternate title. For example, Mary Shelley used a subtitle to give her most famous novel, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, an alternate title to give a hint of the theme. In library cataloging the subtitle does not include an...
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
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
: 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
Casey Sanchez
Casey Sanchez is an American journalist who writes about race and poverty issues. He is a staff writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center's monthly newsletter, the Intelligence Report...
, which took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007. On March 20, 2009 the Intelligence Project received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation for its “outstanding work” covering the anti-immigration movement.
Neo-Confederate movement
The Southern Poverty Law Center asserts that it is the principal group reporting on the neo-ConfederateNeo-confederate
Neo-Confederate is a term used by some academics and political activists to describe the views of various groups and individuals who have a positive belief system concerning the historical experience of the Confederate States of America, the Southern secession, and the Southern United...
movement. A 2000 special report by the SPLC's Mark Potok
Mark Potok
Mark Potok is a spokesman and director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a nonprofit organization that arose from the anti-segregation movement to counter extremism and hate crimes....
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
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
in neo-Confederate circles. The article quotes Father Alister Anderson, national chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Sons of Confederate Veterans is an American national heritage organization with members in all fifty states and in almost a dozen countries in Europe, Australia and South America...
, as giving an invocation that recalled "the last real Christian civilization on Earth," and also denounced "hypocrites and bigots," who dismiss "the righteous cause for which our ancestors fought." The SPLC has identified the Southern Legal Resource Center
Southern Legal Resource Center
The Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc. is a South Carolina non-profit public law corporation which offers legal support to defend what they see as First Amendment violations, violation of civil rights, or discrimination of advocates of Southern Heritage.-History:The SLRC was founded in 1995 by a...
(SLRC) as a neo-Confederate organization and has accused it of misleading its donors. The SPLC has also criticized the SLRC's founder, Kirk D. Lyons, for previously defending far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
figures such as Tom Metzger
Tom Metzger
Thomas Metzger is an American white nationalist who founded White Aryan Resistance . His far-right activist groups, including WAR, have been monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American organization that tracks hate groups...
and members of Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
. In the SPLC article "Whitewashing the Confederacy," George Ewert associated the 2003 Warner Bros. motion picture Gods and Generals
Gods and Generals (film)
Gods and Generals is a 2003 American film based on the novel Gods and Generals by Jeffrey Shaara. It depicts events that take place prior to those shown in the 1993 film Gettysburg, which was based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Shaara's father, Michael...
with the movement, stating that it presented a false pro-Confederate view of history that had "neo-Confederates salivating."
Academic assessments
In their study of the white separatist movement in the United States sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile said "we relied on the SPLC and ADL [Anti-Defamation League] for general information, but we have noted differences between the way 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 exaggeration in the SPLC's descriptions of the membership and goals of racist groups, Rory McVeigh, the Chair of the University of Notre Dame Sociology Department, wrote that "its outstanding reputation is well established, and the SPLC has been an excellent source of information for social scientists who study racist organizations."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
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
because it was "convinced that the day (would) come when nonprofit groups (would) no longer be able to rely on support through mail because of posting and printing costs." The SPLC has received criticism for perceived disproportionate endowment reserves and misleading fundraising practices. In 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser
Montgomery Advertiser
The Montgomery Advertiser is a daily newspaper located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.- History:The newspaper began publication in 1829 as The Planter's Gazette. It became the Montgomery Advertiser in 1833. In 1903, R.F. Hudson, a young Alabama newspaperman, joined the staff of the...
ran a series saying that 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
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation...
. In 1996 USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
called the SPLC "the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in asset
Asset
In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset...
s at the time. Commentators Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
writing in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
and Ken Silverstein
Ken Silverstein
Ken Silverstein is an American editor covering the Washington bureau for Harper's Magazine. In addition to contributing to the print edition of Harper's Magazine, Silverstein publishes a weblog entitled "Washington Babylon" on the magazine's website...
writing in Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
have been sharply critical of the SPLC's fundraising appeals and finances.
The SPLC stated that during 2008 it spent about 69% of total expenses on program services, and that at the end of 2008 the endowment stood at $156.2 million. According to Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
, SPLC's 2009 outlays fell into the following categories: program expenses of 67.5%, administrative expenses of 13.4%, and fundraising expenses of 18.9%. In October 2010 the SPLC reported its endowment at $216.2 million.
See also
- Anti-Defamation LeagueAnti-Defamation LeagueThe Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
- Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
- SoulforceSoulforce (organization)Soulforce is an American social justice and civil rights organization that supports acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people through dialogue and creative forms of nonviolent direct action...