Southern Poverty Law Center

Founded	1971; 53 years ago (1971)
Founder	Morris Dees Joseph J. Levin, Jr.
Type	Public-interest law firm Civil rights advocacy organization
Tax ID no.	63-0598743 (EIN)
Focus	Hate groups Racism Civil rights Anti-semitism
Location	Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Area served	United States
Product	Legal representation Public education
Key people	J. Richard Cohen, President
Revenue	$40,418,368 (2012 FY)[1]
Endowment	$303 million
Employees	254[1]
Volunteers	14
Website	www.splcenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. It is noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups, its legal representation for victims of hate groups, its classification of militia movement and other extremist organizations, and its educational programs that promote tolerance.^[2][3][4] The SPLC also classifies and lists hate groups—organizations that in its opinion "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."^[5] The SPLC's hate group list has been the source of some controversy.^[6][7]

In 1971, Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. founded the SPLC as a civil rights law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama.^[8] Civil rights leader Julian Bond joined Dees and Levin and served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979.^[9] The SPLC's litigating strategy involves filing civil suits for damages on behalf of the victims of hate group harassment, threats, and violence.

While it originally focused on damages done by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, given the decline in such groups, over the years the SPLC has become involved in other civil rights causes, among them, cases concerned with institutional racial segregation and discrimination, discrimination based on sexual orientation, the mistreatment of illegal immigrants, and the separation of church and state. Along with civil rights organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the SPLC has provided information about hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).^[10] The SPLC has been criticized for its listing of hate groups by conservative politicians and media, and by several other sources for the size of its endowment.^[11][12][13]

The SPLC does not accept government funds, nor does it charge its clients legal fees or share in their court-awarded judgments. Most of its funds come from direct mail campaigns^[14] which have helped it to build substantial monetary reserves.

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in 1971 as a law firm designed to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. SPLC's first president was Julian Bond, who served as president until 1979 and remained on its board of directors until his death on August 15, 2015. In 1979, the SPLC brought the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations. In 1981, the Center began its Klanwatch project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, now called Hatewatch, has been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.^[15]

In July 1983, the center's office was firebombed, destroying the building and records.^[16] In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pleaded guilty to federal and state charges related to the fire.^[17] 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.^[17] According to Dees, more than 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or blow up the center.^[18]

In 1984, Dees became an assassination target of The Order, a revolutionary white supremacist group.^[19] Another target, radio host Alan Berg, was murdered outside his Colorado home.^[20]

In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama.^[21] 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.^[21] The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy. Its national headquarters was sold for approximately $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment.^[22] In 1987, five members of a Klan offshoot, the White Patriot Party, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees.^[23]

In 1989, the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial, which was designed by Maya Lin.^[24] 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.^[25] While Metzger lost his home and ability to publish material, only a small fraction of the multimillion-dollar damages were recoverable.^[26] 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.^{[citation needed]} In 1995, four white men were indicted for planning to blow up the SPLC.^[27]

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."^[28] In 1999^[29] the SPLC broke ground on their new headquarters building. It was completed in 2001.^[30]

The SPLC has been criticized for using hyperbole and overstating the prevalence of hate groups to raise large amounts of money. In a 2000 Harper's Magazine article, Ken Silverstein said that Dees has kept the SPLC focused on fighting anti-minority groups like the KKK, whose membership has declined to just 2,000, instead of on issues like homelessness, mostly because the former issue makes for more lucrative fundraising. The article claimed the SPLC "spends twice as much on fund-raising -- $5.76 million last year -- as it does on legal services for victims of civil rights abuses."^[31] Harper's pointed out that more than 95% of hate crimes are committed by lone wolves without any connection to militia groups the SPLC speaks of.^[31]

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.^[18] After filing the suit, the SPLC received nearly a dozen threats.^[18] During the November 2008 civil trial, a former member of the IKA said that the Klan head told him to kill Dees.^[32]

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.^[33]

Litigation

The Southern Poverty Law Center has won multiple civil cases resulting in monetary awards for the plaintiffs. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments.^[34][35] Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets."^[36] The SPLC has also entered suits related to mass incarceration and children's rights in prison and criminal justice issues.

YMCA, Montgomery, Alabama

In 1969, prior to founding the SPLC, Dees sued the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama at the request of civil rights activist Mary Louise Smith, whose son Vincent and nephew Edward^[37] the YMCA had refused to allow to attend its summer camp.^[38] The YMCA, being a private organization, was presumptively not bound by the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,^[39] which would have forbidden them to discriminate against children on the basis of race.^[40] However, Dees discovered that, in order to avoid desegregating its recreational facilities,^[38] the city of Montgomery had instead signed a secret agreement with the YMCA to operate them as private facilities but on the city's behalf.^[40] This led the trial court to rule that the YMCA had a "municipal charter" and was therefore bound by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to desegregate its facilities.^[41] According to historian Timothy Minchin, Dees was "emboldened by this victory" when he founded the SPLC in 1971.^[40] The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit^(α) later affirmed the trial judge's finding, reversing only his order that the YMCA use affirmative action to racially integrate its board of directors.^[42]

Vietnamese fishermen

In 1981, the SPLC took Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam's Klan-associated militia, the Texas Emergency Reserve (TER),^[43] to court to stop racial harassment and intimidation of Vietnamese shrimpers in and around Galveston Bay.^[44] The Klan's actions against approximately 100 Vietnamese shrimpers in the area included a cross burning,^[45] sniper fire aimed at them, and arsonists burning their boats.^[46] In May 1981 U.S. District Court judge Gabrielle McDonald^[47] issued a preliminary injunction against the Klan, requiring them to cease intimidating, threatening, or harassing the Vietnamese.^[48] McDonald eventually found the TER and Beam guilty of tortious interference, violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and of various civil rights statutes and thus permanently enjoined them against violence, threatening behavior, and other harassment of the Vietnamese shrimpers.^[47] The SPLC also uncovered an obscure Texas law "that forbade private armies in that state."^[49] McDonald found that Beam's organization violated it and hence ordered the TER to close its military training camp.^[49]

White Patriot Party

In 1982 armed members of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Bobby Person, a black prison guard, and members of his family. They harassed and threatened others, including a white woman who had befriended blacks. In 1984 Person became the lead plaintiff in Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a lawsuit brought by the SPLC in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The harassment and threats continued during litigation and the court issued an order prohibiting any person from interfering with others inside the courthouse.^[50] In January 1985, the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon", Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, holding parades in black neighborhoods, and from harassing, threatening or harming any black person or white persons who associated with black persons. Subsequently, the court dismissed the plaintiff's claim for damages.^[50]

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.^[51][52]

United Klans of America

In 1987, the SPLC successfully brought a civil case against the United Klans of America (UKA) for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama by two of the UKA's members.^[53] 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 for $51,875 and used the money to purchase her first house.^[54][55]

White Aryan Resistance

On November 13, 1988, in Portland, Oregon, three white supremacist members of East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR) beat Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college, to death.^[56] In October 1990, the SPLC won a civil case on behalf of Seraw's family against WAR's operator Tom Metzger and his son, John, for a total of $12.5 million.^[57][58] The Metzgers declared bankruptcy, and WAR went out of business. The cost of work for the trial was absorbed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as well as the SPLC.^[59] As of August 2007^[update], Metzger still makes payments to Seraw's family.^[60]

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 and won a judgement of $1 million from the church in March 1994.^[61] The church transferred ownership to William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, to avoid paying money to Mansfield's heirs. The SPLC filed suit against Pierce for his role in the fraudulent scheme and won an $85,000 judgment against him in 1995.^[62] The amount was upheld on appeal and the money was collected prior to Pierce's death in 2002.^[62]

Christian Knights of the KKK

The SPLC won a $37.8 million verdict on behalf of Macedonia Baptist Church, a 100-year-old black church in Manning, South Carolina, against two Ku Klux Klan chapters and five Klansmen (Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Invisible Empire, Inc.) in July 1998.^[63] The money was awarded stemming from arson convictions in which the Klan burned down the historic black church in 1995.^[64] 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."^[65] According to The Washington Post the amount is the "largest-ever civil award for damages in a hate crime case."^[65]

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.^[8] The lawsuit stemmed from the July 1998 attack when security guards at the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden Lake, in northern Idaho shot at Victoria Keenan and her son.^[why?][66] Bullets struck their car several times, causing the car to crash. An Aryan Nations member then held the Keenans at gunpoint.^[66] As a result of the judgement, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre (81,000 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".^[67] Because of the lawsuit, members of the AN drew up a plan to kill Dees, which was disrupted by the FBI.^[68]

Ten Commandments monument

In 2002, the SPLC and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for placing a two-ton display of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.^[69] Moore, who had final authority over what decorations were to be placed in the Alabama State Judicial Building's Rotunda, had installed a 5,280 pound (2400 kg) granite block, three feet wide by three feet deep by four feet tall, of the Ten Commandments late at night without the knowledge of any other court justice.^[70] After defying several court rulings, Moore was eventually removed from the court, and the monument was removed as well.^[71]

Ranch Rescue

On March 18, 2003, two illegal immigrants 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 vigilantes known as Ranch Rescue who were recruited by Sutton to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region nearby.^[51] 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 dog was allowed to attack him. The SPLC said Gonzáles and Medina were threatened with death and otherwise terrorized before being released.^[51] However, the Salvadorans stated 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 no one was convicted of pistol-whipping.^[72]

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 Ranch Rescue's leader, Torre John Foote. 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 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.^[51][73]

Billy Ray Johnson

Billy Ray Johnson, a black, 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 "nigger", and left bleeding in a ditch.^[74][75] Due to the attack, "Johnson, 46, who suffered serious, permanent brain injuries from the attack, will require care for the rest of his life."^[76][77] At a criminal trial the four men received sentences of 30 to 60 days in county jail.^[74][78]

On April 20, 2007, Johnson was awarded $9 million in damages by a civil jury in Linden, Texas.^[75][77][79] Members of the jury said they hoped 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".^[74]

Imperial Klans of America

In November 2008, the SPLC's case against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), the nation's second largest Klan organization, began in Meade County, Kentucky.^[80] 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.^[81] 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".^[81] 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."^[81]

In a related criminal case in February 2007, Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins were sentenced to three years in prison for beating Gruver.^[80] 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.^[82] The two other defendants, Andrew Watkins and Joshua Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit.^[83]

Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility

Together with the ACLU National Prison Project, the SPLC filed a class-action suit in November 2010 against the owner/operators of the private Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County, Mississippi, and oversight state agencies. This was the largest youth facility in the nation. They charged that conditions, including understaffing and neglect of medical care, produced numerous and repeated abuses of youthful prisoners, and high rates of violence and injury; one prisoner suffered permanent brain-damage.^[84] A federal civil rights investigation was also undertaken by the United States Department of Justice, and the issues received national coverage. Mississippi ended its contract with Geo Group in 2012, which settled the suit. In addition, under the court decree, the Mississippi Department of Corrections has moved youthful offenders from Walnut Grove to other facilities that meet juvenile justice standards. In 2012 it opened a new youthful offender unit at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.^[85] As a landmark element of the settlement, the state is prohibited by the court from subjecting any youthful offenders to solitary confinement. Under the settlement decree, a court monitor is conducting regular reviews of conditions at Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, now reserved for adult prisoners.^[86]

Education

Tolerance.org

The SPLC's initiatives include the website Tolerance.org, past winner of the international Webby Award.^[87] The site provides daily news on tolerance issues, educational games for children, guidebooks for activists, and resources for parents and teachers.^[88]

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 is for elementary school children, providing material on the history of the civil rights movement.^[89] The center's material 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[90] 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 "10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus" suggest ideas for community activism and diversity education.^[91]

Teaching Tolerance also provides advice to parents, encouraging multiculturalism in the upbringing of their children.^[87] 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."^[92] 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."^[93][94]

Documentaries

The SPLC also produces documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for documentary short subject: Mighty Times: The Children's March (2005), and A Time for Justice (1995). Another film was Wall of Tolerance, starring Jennifer Welker. Five others have been nominated for awards.^{[citation needed]}

Law enforcement training

The SPLC offers training for local, state and federal law enforcement officers by request, focusing "on the history, background, leaders and activities of far-right extremists in the United States".^{[95][96][97][98][99][100]}

Tracking of hate groups and extremists

Hate group listings

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 so listed by the SPLC engage in criminal activity.^[5] The FBI has partnered with the SPLC and many other local and national organizations "to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems".^[101]

The SPLC reported that 784 hate groups were active in the United States in 2014, down from 939 in 2013^[5] and 1,007 in 2012.^[102] These included:

• 196 neo-Nazi groups with 89 websites
• 186 separate Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups with 52 websites
• 113 black separatist groups with 40 websites
• 111 White nationalist groups with 190 websites
• 98 White power skinhead groups with 25 websites
• 93 neo-Confederate groups with 25 websites
• 39 Christian Identity groups with 37 websites
• 90 additional groups divided by the SPLC into categories such as anti-gay, Holocaust denial, white power music, radical traditionalist Catholic, among other categories for designated hate groups,^[103][104] which maintained another 172 websites.^[105] Only organizations active in 2013 were counted, excluding those that appear to exist only on the Internet.^[5]

J.M. Berger, writing for Foreign Policy, disputed the 2012 numbers and said that after merging separate groups of similar names "the list of 1,007 becomes a list of 358".^[106]

In 2016, the SPLC reported that 892 hate groups were active in the United States in 2015, an increase of 14% over the 784 active the year before.^[107]

The top 5 states with the most hate groups are: California (57), Florida (50), New York (44), New Jersey (40), Pennsylvania (38).^[108]

The top 5 states based on hate groups per population are: Montana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Vermont, and New Hampshire.^[109]

Anti-government 'patriot' groups

The SPLC's Intelligence Project states that it "identified 1,360 anti-government 'Patriot' groups that were active in 2012" The SPLC describes these groups as parts of an extremist Patriot Movement characterized by anti-government doctrines, conspiracy theories or opposition to a 'New World Order'. The SPLC states that its listing of groups does not imply that such groups "engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist".^[102][110]

Nativist extremist groups

The SPLC identified 38 groups which it lists as nativist extremist groups active in 2012. These groups (ordered by the number of groups) were based in 13 states: Maryland (14), California (5), Arizona (3), Texas (3), Florida (2), Missouri (2), New Jersey (2), North Carolina (2), Oregon (1), Rhode Island (1), Pennsylvania (1), Minnesota (1), Georgia (1).^[102][111]

Intelligence Report

Since 1981, the SPLC's Intelligence Project has published a quarterly Intelligence Report that monitors what the SPLC considers radical right hate groups and extremists in the United States.^[112][113] The Intelligence Report provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of these groups, and has been cited by scholars as reliable and as the most comprehensive source on U.S. right-wing extremism and hate groups.^{[114][115][116][117]} The SPLC also publishes HateWatch Weekly, a newsletter that follows racism and extremism, and the Hatewatch blog, whose subtitle is "Keeping an Eye on the Radical Right".^[118]

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,^[119][120] and "Southern Gothic", by David Holthouse and Casey Sanchez, took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007.^[121][122] 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.^[123]

Year in Hate and Extremism

Since 2001, the SPLC has released an annual issue of the Intelligence Project called Year in Hate later renamed Year in Hate and Extremism, in which they present statistics on the numbers of hate groups in America. The current format of the report covers racial hate groups, nativist hate groups, and other right-wing extremist groups such as groups within the Patriot Movement.^[124]

Academic assessment

In their study of the white separatist movement in the United States, sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile referred to the SPLC's Klanwatch Intelligence Reports in saying "we relied on the SPLC and ADL 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."^[125] 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."^[114]

Controversy over hate group listings

The SPLC's identifications and listings of hate groups have been the subject of controversy, with critics, including journalist Ken Silverstein and political fringe movements researcher Laird Wilcox arguing that the SPLC has taken an incautious approach to assigning the label.^{[126][127][128]} In the wake of an August 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the Family Research Council in which a guard was wounded, some columnists criticized the SPLC's listing of the Family Research Council as an anti-gay hate group while others defended the categorization.^{[7][128][129]} The SPLC defended its listing of anti-gay hate groups, stating that groups were selected not because of their stances on political issues such as gay marriage, but rather on their "propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT people ... that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities".^[130][131] In 2010, a group of Republican politicians and conservative organizations criticized the SPLC in full-page advertisements in two Washington, D.C., newspapers for what they described as "character assassination" for having listed the Family Research Council as a hate group.^{[6][132][failed verification][133][failed verification]}

J.M. Berger of Foreign Policy disputes SPLC analysis in its Intelligence Report and Year in Hate and Extremism reports, and believes the SPLC carries a political slant. He questions the methodologies used by the SPLC and suggests that it overstates the presence of extremists in the United States.^[134] Jesse Walker, writing in the libertarian magazine Reason, charges the SPLC with fear-mongering in its portrayal of Patriot groups.^[135]

In October 2014, the SPLC added Ben Carson to its extremist watch list, citing his association with groups it considers extreme, and his alleged "linking of gays with pedophiles".^[136][137] In February 2015, the SPLC concluded the Carson profile did not meet SPLC standards, removed his listing and apologized to him.^[138][139]

The SPLC has itself been labeled as a hate group by conservative website Human Events ^[140]. A Washington Times editorial also referred to the SPLC as both a hate group and run by scammers.^[141]

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.^[142] Starting in 1974, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment stating that 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."^[142] The SPLC has received criticism for perceived disproportionate endowment reserves and misleading fundraising practices. In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser ran a series reporting that the SPLC was financially mismanaged and employed misleading fundraising practices.^[143][144] In response, SPLC co-founder 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."^[145] The series was a finalist for but did not win a 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism.^[146] In 1996, USA Today called the SPLC "the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in assets at the time.^[147][148] In the past, Alexander Cockburn writing in The Nation and Ken Silverstein writing in Harper's Magazine were sharply critical of the SPLC's fundraising appeals and finances.^[11][12][13] Charity Navigator rates the SPLC an 83.5 out of 100 on financial health matters and 97 out of 100 on accountability and transparency of its operations.^[149] The SPLC stated that during 2014 it spent about 68% of total expenses on program services, and that at the end of 2014 the endowment stood at approximately $303 million.^[150]

See also

• Right Wing Watch

Notes

^α At the time of the case Alabama was under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Circuit. In 1981 the circuit was split and Alabama was added to the newly created Eleventh Circuit.

References

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. ASIN B008TCFV46. ISBN 978-0195150360.
• 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
• Official Teaching Tolerance website
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Mark Potok from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association of Montgomery Inc. (462 F. 2d 634), United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decision in the SPLC's case against the Montgomery, Alabama YMCA. Open Jurist. Retrieved April 22, 2014