Southern Poverty Law Center

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Southern Poverty Law Center
SPLC Logo.svg.png
Founded 1971; 53 years ago (1971)
Founder <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Type <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Public-interest law firm
  • Civil rights advocacy organization
63-0598743 (EIN)
Focus <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Location
Area served
United States
Product <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Legal representation
  • Public education
Key people
J. Richard Cohen (former president)
Revenue
$40,418,368 (2012 FY)[1]
Endowment $319 million
Employees
254[1]
Website www.splcenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (often referred to as SPLC) is a traditionally Jewish-American[2] far-left organization specializing in activist civil rights cases and what it calls public interest litigation. Backed by the money of George Soros, it has increasingly been accused of having strong anti-white sympathies, while also being xenophilic.[3] Based in Montgomery, Alabama, the nonprofit group initiates legal cases against pro-white, white identity, white nationalist, and white supremacist groups, supports migrant rights and the rights of newly arriving populations in the United States from the Third World (with an increasing focus on Muslim-Americans), classifies what it considers to be unacceptable (mostly right-wing) hate groups and "extremist" organizations, and advocates in favor of cultural and ethnic diversity and tolerance from an almost entirely left-wing perspective.[4][5][6] The SPLC's classification and listing of hate groups – organizations that in its assessment "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics"[7] – and its labeling of people it disagrees with as "extremists", have been the source of massive controversy.[8] Though their work is almost universally praised from the mainstream political left, it has been accused of having a marked progressive or even culturally Marxist political bias by its opponents.[9][10] Critics of the SPLC have described it as a far-left extremist organization, and often as a "hate group" in its own right; right-wing economist Thomas DiLorenzo has called them the "Soviet Poverty Lie Center", who are allegedly responsible for some hate crime hoaxes.[11]

SPLC was founded by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery, Alabama.[12] Civil rights leader Julian Bond joined Dees and Levin and served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979.[13]

The SPLC maintains a list of so-called "hate groups", which, outside of white racial organizations, also includes many socially conservative, Christian right, pro-traditional family, or pro-life groups; one noted example being the Family Research Council. According to their opponents, anybody who questions their atheist, materialist, permissive, pro-abortion and LGBT agenda may be labelled a "hate group". Though opposed to any role in society for mainstream Christianity or Western religious traditions in general, the SPLC is generally sympathetic towards Islam, extending legal help to Muslim immigrants to the USA in the belief that this creates cultural and ethnic diversity and tolerance.[4][14][15]

In 1979, the SPLC began filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of claimed and actual victims of the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist and supremacist groups, with all damages recovered given to the plaintiffs or donated to other organizations. The SPLC also filed suit against cases of racial segregation and discrimination, landowners seeking to restrict low-income or unreliable or violent tenants, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in prisons and detention centers, discrimination based on sexual orientation, certain types of mistreatment of illegal immigrants, and what it called the unconstitutional mixing of church and state. The SPLC provides information about what it considers hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies.[16][17]

2019 Scandal

On 14 March 2019, the SPLC’s co-founder, Morris Dees, president Richard Cohen and legal director Rhonda Brownstein were all fired after a scandal over workplace conduct, reportedly involving racial prejudice and sexual harassment. [18]

Since then, the organization is argued to have become even more explicitly anti-white, distancing itself from previous categorizations of some organizations as black nationalist and black separatist, along with some mild criticisms of anti-white racism, to the point it has drawn extensive criticism from its political opponents.[19]

History

The SPLC headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in 1971 as a law firm originally focused on issues such as fighting poverty, racial discrimination and the death penalty in the United States. The SPLC's first president was Julian Bond, who served until 1979 and then remained on the board of directors until his death in 2015. In 1979, Dees and the SPLC began monitoring groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, a section of the Southern faction of the Democrat Party, sharing their observations with law enforcement agencies (which, after the COINTELPRO program was revealed, were forbidden from monitoring such groups without evidence of criminal activity).[20] They initiated civil suits against KKK chapters and similar organizations for monetary damages to gain justice on behalf of their victims.[20] 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.[21]

In 1986, the entire legal staff of the SPLC, excluding Dees, resigned as the organization shifted from traditional civil rights work toward fighting what they call "right-wing extremism".[20]

In 1989, the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial, which was designed by Maya Lin.[22] The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991.

In 2008, the SPLC and Dees were featured on National Geographic's Inside American Terror explaining their litigation against several branches of the Ku Klux Klan.[23]

Criminal plots against the SPLC

In July 1983, the SPLC headquarters was firebombed, destroying the building and records.[24] As a result of the arson, Klansmen Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr., along with Klan sympathizer Charles Bailey, pleaded guilty in February 1985 to conspiring to intimidate, oppress and threaten members of black organizations represented by SPLC.[25] The SPLC rebuilt its headquarters building from 1999 to 2001.[26][27]

In 1984, Dees became an assassination target of The Order, a revolutionary white supremacist group.[28] By 2007, according to Dees, more than 30 people had been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or to blow up SPLC offices.[29][self-published source?]

In 1995, four men were indicted for planning to blow up the SPLC.[30] 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."[31]

Notable cases

The Southern Poverty Law Center has initiated a number of civil cases seeking injunctive relief and monetary awards on behalf of its clients. The SPLC has said it does not accept any portion of monetary judgments.[32][33] Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets."[34] However, this has led to criticism from some civil libertarians, who contend that the SPLC's tactics chill free speech and set legal precedents that could be applied against activist groups which are not hate groups.[20] The SPLC has also filed suits related to the conditions of incarceration for adults and juveniles.

Alabama political districts

Starting from their home base, the first notable SPLC case was Sims v. Amos (consolidated with Nixon v. Brewer) in which a Federal District Court in Alabama ordered the state legislature to reapportion its election system. The result of the decision, which was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, was that 15 black legislators were elected in 1974.[35]

Vietnamese fishermen

In 1981, the SPLC took Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam's Klan-associated militia, the Texas Emergency Reserve (TER),[36] to court to stop racial harassment and intimidation of Vietnamese shrimpers in and around Galveston Bay.[37] The Klan's actions against approximately 100 Vietnamese shrimpers in the area included a cross burning,[38] sniper fire aimed at them, and arsonists burning their boats.[39] In May 1981 U.S. District Court judge Gabrielle McDonald[40] issued a preliminary injunction against the Klan, requiring them to cease intimidating, threatening, or harassing the Vietnamese.[41] McDonald eventually found the TER and Beam liable for tortious interference, violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and of various civil rights statutes and thus permanently enjoined them against violence, threatening behavior, and other harassment of the Vietnamese shrimpers.[40] The SPLC also uncovered an obscure Texas law "that forbade private armies in that state."[42] McDonald found that Beam's organization violated it and hence ordered the TER to close its military training camp.[42]

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.[43] In January 1985, the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon", Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, holding parades in black neighborhoods, and from harassing, threatening or harming any black person or white persons who associated with black persons. Subsequently, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim for damages.[43]

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.[44][45]

United Klans of America

In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama.[46] 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.[46] The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy. Its national headquarters was sold for approximately $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment.[47] In 1987, five members of a Klan offshoot, the White Patriot Party, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees.[48] The SPLC has since successfully used this precedent to force numerous Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups into bankruptcy.[49]

The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery

White Aryan Resistance

On November 13, 1988, in Portland, Oregon, three white supremacist members of East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR) fatally assaulted Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college.[50] 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.[51][52] 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.[53] As of August 2007, Metzger still makes payments to Seraw's family.[54][needs update]

Church of the Creator

In May 1991, Harold Mansfield Jr, a black war veteran in the United States Navy, was murdered by George Loeb, a member of the neo-Nazi "Church of the Creator" (now called the Creativity Movement).[55] SPLC represented the victim's family in a civil case and won a judgement of $1 million from the church in March 1994.[56] 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.[57] The amount was upheld on appeal and the money was collected prior to Pierce's death in 2002.[57]

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.[58] The money was awarded stemming from arson convictions; these Klan units burned down the historic black church in 1995.[59] 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."[60] According to The Washington Post the amount is the "largest-ever civil award for damages in a hate crime case."

Aryan Nations

In September 2000, the SPLC won a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations (AN) from an Idaho jury who awarded punitive and compensatory damages to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards.[12] 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.[61] Bullets struck their car several times, causing the car to crash. An Aryan Nations member held the Keenans at gunpoint.[61] As a result of the judgement, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre (81,000 m2) compound to the Keenans, who sold the property to a philanthropist. He donated the land to North Idaho College, which called the area a "peace park".[62] Because of the lawsuit, members of the AN drew up a plan to kill Dees, which was disrupted by the FBI.[citation needed]

Ten Commandments monument

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

In 2002, the SPLC and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for placing a display of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Moore, who had final authority over what decorations were to be placed in the Alabama State Judicial Building's Rotunda, had installed a 5,280 pound (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. After defying several court rulings, Moore was eventually removed from the court and the Supreme Court justices had the monument removed from the building.[63]

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 voluntary militia members from Ranch Rescue, who were recruited by Sutton to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border region nearby.[44] Mancía, Leiva, and the SPLC alleged that members of Ranch Rescue held the two illegal immigrants at gunpoint while attempting and failing to summon law enforcement, threatened them with death, and otherwise terrorized them; they also alleged that Mancía was struck on the back of the head with a handgun and that a Rottweiler dog was allowed to attack him.[44][64] Mancía and Leiva also stated that the vigilantes gave them water, cookies and a blanket before letting them go after about an hour.[64]

Later that year, 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 the temporary detention of illegal immigrants attempting to secretly enter the USA. In April 2005, SPLC obtained judgments totaling $1 million against Ranch Rescue member Casey James 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 was also charged by Texas prosecutors of pistol-whipping Mancía (which Nethercott denied). A jury deadlocked on the pistol-whipping charge but convicted Nethercott of being a felon in possession of a firearm (as he had a prior assault conviction in California).[64] SPLC staff worked with Texas prosecutors to obtain Nethercott's conviction.[44][65]

Billy Ray Johnson

The SPLC brought a civil suit on behalf of Billy Ray Johnson, a black, mentally disabled man, who was severely beaten by four white males in Texas and left bleeding in a ditch, suffering permanent injuries. In 2007 Johnson was awarded $9 million in damages by a Linden, Texas jury.[66][67] At a criminal trial, the four men were convicted of assault and received sentences of 30 to 60 days in county jail.[68][69]

Imperial Klans of America

In November 2008, the SPLC's case against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), the nation's second-largest Klan organization, went to trial in Meade County, Kentucky.[70] The SPLC had filed suit for damages in July 2007 on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the IKA in Kentucky. In July 2006, five Klan members went to the Meade County Fairgrounds in Brandenburg, Kentucky, "to hand out business cards and flyers advertising a 'white-only' IKA function." Two members of the Klan started calling Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, a "spic".[71] 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."[71]

In a related criminal case in February 2007, Jarred Hensley and Andrew Watkins were sentenced to three years in prison for beating Gruver.[70] 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.[72]

Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Together with the ACLU National Prison Project, the SPLC filed a class-action suit in November 2010 against the owner/operators of the private Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Department of Corrections. They charged that conditions, including under-staffing and neglect of medical care, produced numerous and repeated abuses of youthful prisoners, high rates of violence and injury, and that one prisoner suffered brain damage because of inmate-on-inmate attacks.[73] A federal civil rights investigation was undertaken by the United States Department of Justice. In settling the suit, Mississippi ended its contract with Geo Group in 2012. Additionally, under the court decree, the Mississippi Department of Corrections moved the youthful offenders to state-run units. In 2012 Mississippi opened a new youthful offender unit at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County.[74] The state also agreed to not subject youthful offenders to solitary confinement and a court monitor conducted regular reviews of conditions at the facility.[75]

Polk County Florida Sheriff

In 2012 the SPLC initiated a class action federal lawsuit against the Polk County, Florida sheriff, alleging that seven juveniles confined by the sheriff were suffering in improper conditions.[76] U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday found in favor of Sheriff Judd, who said the SPLC's allegations "were not supported by the facts or court precedence [sic]."[77] The judge wrote that "the conditions of juvenile detention at (Central County Jail) are not consistent with (Southern Poverty's) dark, grim, and condemning portrayal."[78] While the county sheriff's department did not recover an estimated $1 million in attorney's fees defending the case, Judge Merryday did award $103,000 in court costs to Polk County.[79]

East Mississippi Correctional Facility

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Together with the ACLU National Prison Project, the SPLC filed a class-action suit in May 2013 against Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the for-profit operator of the private East Mississippi Correctional Facility, and the Mississippi Department of Corrections.[80] MTC had been awarded a contract for this and two other facilities in Mississippi in 2012 following the removal of GEO Group. The suit charged failure of MTC to make needed improvements, and to maintain proper conditions and treatment for this special needs population of state prisoners, who are low-functioning and said to suffer from severe mental illness.[81] In 2015 the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification.[82][needs update]

Andrew Anglin and The Daily Stormer

In April 2017, the SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Tanya Gersh, accusing Andrew Anglin, publisher of the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, of instigating an antisemitic harassment campaign against Gersh, a Whitefish, Montana progressive activist.[83][84] Anglin maintains that she initiated a deliberate harassment campaign against him first, and that he only asked his readers to send her peaceful protest messages.[85]

Information activism

Tolerance.org

Closeup of the Civil Rights Memorial

SPLC's projects include the website Tolerance.org, which provides news on efforts to increase the spread of diversity (and coordinates the fight against the SPLC's opponents), children's advocacy programs (with materials for parents and teachers), and guidebooks for activists.[86] The website received Webby Awards in 2002 and 2004 for Best Activism.[87] Another product of Tolerance.org is the "10 Ways To Fight Hate on Campus: A Response Guide for College Activists" booklet.[88] While the SPLC calls these efforts educational, right-wing activists call them propaganda.

Documentaries

The SPLC also produces left-wing documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for Documentary Short Subject: A Time for Justice (1994) and Mighty Times: The Children's March (2004).[89]

Cooperation with law enforcement

The SPLC communicates with law enforcement agencies and provides them with materials focusing on their interpretation of "the history, background, leaders and activities of far-right extremists in the United States".[90] The FBI has partnered with the SPLC and many other organizations "to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems" related to hate crimes.[91]

Tracking of hate groups and extremists

Hate group and extremist designations

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

The SPLC is the organization most widely known for tracking hate groups in the United States. It maintains lists of hate groups, which they define 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. Not all groups so listed by the SPLC engage in criminal activity. The process for determining which groups are included involves "talking through" cases that are not clear-cut.[7][92]

Number of SPLC hate groups per million people, as of 2013

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.[93] The Intelligence Report provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of these groups and persons, and has been cited by scholars as a reliable and comprehensive source on U.S. right-wing extremism and hate groups.[94] 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".[95]

Two articles published in Intelligence Report have won "Green Eyeshade Excellence in Journalism" awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. "Communing with the Council", written by Heidi Beirich and Bob Moser, took third place for Investigative Journalism in the Magazine Division in 2004, and "Southern Gothic", by David Holthouse and Casey Sanchez, took second place for Feature Reporting in the Magazine Division in 2007.[96]

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.[97] Jesse Walker, writing in Reason.com, criticized the 2016 report, questioning whether the count was reliable, as it focused on the number of groups rather than the number of people in those groups or the size of the groups. Walker gives the example that the 2016 report itself concedes an increase in the number of KKK groups could be due to two large groups falling apart, leading to members creating smaller local groups.[98]

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."[99]

In 2013, J.M. Berger wrote in Foreign Policy that media organizations should be more cautious when citing the SPLC and ADL, arguing that they are "not objective purveyors of data".[100]

Controversy over hate group and extremist listings

The SPLC's identification and listings of hate groups and extremists has been the subject of controversy.

  • In 2009, the Federation for American Immigration Reform argued that the Allies of America's Voice and Media Matters had used the SPLC designation of FAIR as a hate group to "engage in unsubstantiated, invidious name-calling, smearing millions of people in this movement."[101] FAIR and its leadership have been criticized by the SPLC as being sympathetic to, or overtly supportive of, white supremacist and identitarian ideologies, as the group's founder has stated his goal as ensuring that the United States remains a majority-white country.[102]
  • In 2010, journalist Ken Silverstein and analyst of political fringe movements Laird Wilcox said the SPLC had taken an incautious approach to assigning the labels hate group and extremist.[103]
  • In 2010, a group of Republican politicians and conservative organizations criticized the SPLC in full-page advertisements in two Washington, D.C., newspapers for what they described as "character assassination" because the SPLC had listed the Family Research Council as a hate group due to its characterization of LGBT people as sexual deviants, predators and pedophiles.[104][8][105] In the wake of the August 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the FRC, in which a security guard was wounded, some columnists also criticized the SPLC's listing of the FRC as an anti-gay hate group while others defended the categorization. The SPLC defended its listing of anti-gay hate groups, stating that the groups were selected not because of their 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."[106]
  • In October 2014, the SPLC added Ben Carson to its extremist watch list, citing his association with groups it considers extreme, and his "linking of gays with pedophiles".[107] In February 2015, the SPLC concluded its profile of Carson did not meet its standards, removed his listing, and apologized to him.[108]
  • In October 2016, the SPLC published a list of "anti-Muslim extremists", including British activist Maajid Nawaz and ex-Muslim activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, attracting controversy. Nawaz, who identifies as a "liberal, reform Muslim", denounced the listing as a "smear", saying that the SPLC listing had made him a target of jihadists. Mark Potok of the SPLC responded "Our point is not to make these people targets for violence.... The point is to tamp down the really baseless targeting."[109]
  • The SPLC has implicitly denied the existence of human biodiversity since its founding, holding that anyone who engages in debate on this matter is likely to have racist leanings and should be exposed as such. The organization began to take a more explicit stand against such talk in the 2010s. In a January 2014 profile of controversial political scientist Charles Murray, the SPLC labeled Murray a "white nationalist."[110] Following the disruption of a presentation by Murray at Middlebury College in March 2017, some commentators were critical of the SPLC's description of Murray.[111] Left-wing college activists were strongly supportive, charging The Bell Curve with laying the underpinnings for a resurgence of 19th-century scientific racism and the start of limited resistance against political correctness seen outside the universities and the mainstream media.[112]
  • In August 2017, a defamation lawsuit was filed against the SPLC by the D. James Kennedy Ministries for calling it an "active hate group” because of their views on LGBT rights.[113][114][115] The SPLC lists D. James Kennedy Ministries and its predecessor, Truth in Action, as anti-LGBT hate groups because of what the SPLC describes as the group's history of spreading homophobic propaganda, including D. James Kennedy's statement that "homosexuals prey on adolescent boys", and allegedly false claims about the transmission of AIDS.[116]
  • The SPLC first came out against the alt-right political movement in an intelligence report published during the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and in many statements since then, often condemning non-mainstream neo-conservatives as racists. In the same initial paper, the SPLC further rejected the concept of human biodiversity, and it holds that the major proponents of this debate are likely racists whose scientific competence may have been distorted by hate.[117]
  • Kristen Waggoner, the leader of Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote in a 2019 article for The Wall Street Journal that "The SPLC... falsely maligns ideological opponents in an effort to crush them rather than debate their ideas honestly. I know, because in 2016 the SPLC branded my organization, the religious-liberty nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, a “hate group.”"[118]
  • The SPLC has also been described as a "hate group" in its own right by Josh Goldstein.[119]
  • Bob Moser, who left the SPLC in 2004, wrote, “It was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam... We were part of the con, and we knew it.” Mr. Moser added that he and his colleagues had a cynical slogan: “The SPLC — making hate pay.” [120]

Finances

The SPLC's activities including litigation are supported by fundraising efforts, and it does not accept any fees or share in legal judgments awarded to clients it represents in court. Starting in 1974, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment stating that it was "convinced that the day [would] come when nonprofit groups [would] no longer be able to rely on support through mail because of posting and printing costs."[121]

In 1994 the Montgomery Advertiser published an eight-part critical report on the SPLC, saying that it exaggerated the threat posed by the Klan and similar groups in order to raise money, discriminated against black employees, and used misleading fundraising tactics. The SPLC dismissed the series as a "hatchet job" and 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."[122] The series was a finalist for, but did not win the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism.[123]

Also in the 1990s and 2000s Ken Silverstein writing in Harper's Magazine, and others were critical of the SPLC's fundraising appeals and finances, alleging that the group has used hyperbole and overstated the prevalence of hate groups to raise large amounts of money. Silverstein additionally criticized what he argued was the high level of Dees' compensation relative to other nonprofits.[124]

Based on 2015 figures, Charity Navigator rated the SPLC an 80.44 on financial health matters, 97.00 on accountability and transparency, and 86.00 (out of 100) overall, and GuideStar gives the SPLC a Gold-level rating.[125] The SPLC stated that during 2014 it spent about 68% of total expenses on program services. At the end of 2016, its endowment was approximately $319 million.[126]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. https://rwm4prez2012.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/is-heidi-beirich-splc-jewish/ ; https://thezog.wordpress.com/who-controls-the-southern-poverty-law-center/
  3. https://clarionproject.org/southern-poverty-law-center-covers-anti-white-hate-crime/ | https://thefederalist.com/2018/05/07/5-reasons-southern-poverty-law-center-hate-mongering-scam/
  4. 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. "Southern Poverty Law Center". The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties.
  6. "Southern Poverty Law Center". Free Legal Dictionary.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Hate Map". SPLC. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Jonsson, Patrik (February 23, 2011). "Annual report cites rise in hate groups, but some ask: What is hate?". The Christian Science Monitor.
  9. J. Matt Barber (Mar 25, 2010) http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/mbarber/100325
  10. Austin Ruse (Mar 10, 2014) https://www.amren.com/news/2014/03/study-southern-poverty-law-center-ignores-liberal-hate/
  11. https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/soviet-poverty-lie-centers-hate-crime-hoaxes/
  12. 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. "Southern Poverty Law Center". The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties.
  15. "Southern Poverty Law Center". Free Legal Dictionary.
  16. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. Kristen Waggoner, "We Were Smeared by the SPLC", Wall Street Journal, 3rd April 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-were-smeared-by-the-splc-11554332764?fbclid=IwAR3hi3ygTuH27uCzfSuniM7pAPUQ82tWtIHr8mZF_Qg1pDuSF8vAiPta7Ms
  19. https://vdare.com/articles/the-southern-poverty-law-center-vanishes-its-insufficiently-woke-past
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. "Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. Two others will plead guilty Thursday." St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (May 13, 1998): p. B1.
  32. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. See:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. 40.0 40.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. 42.0 42.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. 43.0 43.1 "Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" Archived February 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Southern Poverty Law Center website. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
  44. 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 “Fighting hate in the courtroom.” SPLC Report. Special Issue, vol. 38, no. 4. Winter 2008. p. 4.
  45. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. 46.0 46.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. Wade, Wyn Craig.
  50. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. The jury divided the judgment as follows: Kyle Brewster, $500,000; Ken Mieske, $500,000; John Metzger, $1 million; WAR, $3 million; Tom Metzger, $5 million; in addition, $2.5 million was awarded for Mulugeta's unrealized future earnings and pain and suffering.
  52. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. Dees & Fiffer 1993, p. 277
  54. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. 57.0 57.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. "Klan Chapters Held Liable in Church Fire; Jury Awards $37.8 Million in Damages", The Washington Post July 25, 1998.
  61. 61.0 61.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  63. Regarding the 10 Commandments controversy see:
    • Glassroth v. Moore (PDF) (M.D. Ala. 2002).
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  64. 64.0 64.1 64.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. "Leiva v. Ranch Rescue" Archived February 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
  66. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. $9 million award in beating case Chicago Tribune, April 21, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2010
  68. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  69. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  70. 70.0 70.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  71. 71.0 71.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  72. See: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: two other defendants in the civil case, Watkins and Cowles, previously agreed to confidential settlements and were dropped from the suit. See: Kenning, Chris. 2008. “$2.5 million awarded in Klan beating”, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), November 15, 2008, p. 1.
  73. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  74. "MDOC Opens Youthful Offender Unit" Archived January 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, 12 December 2012, Mississippi Dept. of Corrections, accessed 30 January 2016
  75. C.B., et al. v. Walnut Grove Correctional Authority, et al., Southern Poverty Law Center
  76. SPLC – Hughes v. Sheriff Grady Judd Case Number 8:12-cv-00568-SDM-MAP
  77. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  78. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  79. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  80. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  81. Gabriel Eber (May 30, 2013). "New Lawsuit: Massive Human Rights Violations at Mississippi Prison", ACLU. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  82. Dockery v. Epps, updated September 2015, Cases: Prisoners' Rights, ACLU official website; accessed 7 March 2017
  83. Lawsuit: Neo-Nazi Led Anti-Semitic Harassment Campaign Against Montana Woman. Talking Points Memo, 18 April 2017
  84. White supremacist website hit with lawsuit over harassment campaign. The Verge, 18 April 2017
  85. (retrieved July 2017) https://www.dailystormer.com/tag/splc
  86. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  87. 6th Annual Webby Awards – 2002 – Best Activism and 8th Annual Webby Awards – 2004 – Best Activism
  88. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  89. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. and 2005 Academy Awards
  90. For information on training see:
    • "Law Enforcement Training | Southern Poverty Law Center". Southern Poverty Law Center.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  91. For information about hate groups provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). See:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  92. [1]
  93. OCLC 70790007
  94. See:
  95. OCLC 753911264
  96. For the articles and awards see:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  97. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  98. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  99. Betty A. Dobratz, Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile, The White Separatist Movement in the United States: "White Power, White Pride!", The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 1–3.
  100. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  101. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  102. Federation for American Immigration Reform. Southern Poverty Law Center
  103. See:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  104. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  105. Extremist Files: Family Research Council. Southern Poverty Law Center, 2016
  106. For commentary on the LGBT and FRC issues see:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • SPLC's Anti-Gay Hate List Compiled With Diligence and Clear Standards Archived September 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, splcenter.org. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  107. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  108. See:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  109. For the ‘anti-Muslim extremist’ controversy see:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  110. Charles Murray biography at SPLC
  111. For criticisms, see:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  112. See:
  113. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  114. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  115. Southern Poverty Law Center ‘hate group’ label hit in evangelicals’ lawsuit by Elizabeth Llorente, Fox News, August 24, 2017
  116. A Dozen Major Groups Help Drive the Religious Right's Anti-Gay Crusade. Southern Poverty Law Center, 2005.
  117. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alternative-right
  118. Kristen Waggoner, "We Were Smeared by the SPLC", Wall Street Journal, 3rd April 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-were-smeared-by-the-splc-11554332764?fbclid=IwAR3hi3ygTuH27uCzfSuniM7pAPUQ82tWtIHr8mZF_Qg1pDuSF8vAiPta7Ms
  119. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  120. Bob Moser, The New Yorker March 21 2019 quoted in Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-were-smeared-by-the-splc-11554332764?fbclid=IwAR0Zg9rfQs-TZGlhayHANt2sALxvgZsZcrYgOZLal08cH5xNRYaqD1zrMnk
  121. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  122. For the Advertiser articles, commentary, and SPLC response, see:
    • Morse, Dan (February 14, 1994), "A complex man: Opportunist or crusader?", Montgomery Advertiser.
    • Morse, Dan & Jaffe, Greg (February 14, 1994), "Critics question $52 million reserve, tactics of wealthiest civil rights group", Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Tharpe, Jim Attacking a Home-Town Icon, niemanwatchdog.org (1995).
  123. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  124. For charity evaluations see:
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  125. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer (1993). Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 067940614X.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Archived at Special Collections and University Archives Jean and Alexander Heard Library Vanderbilt University)
  • Fleming, Maria, ed. (2001). A Place At The Table: Struggles for Equality in America. New York: Oxford University Press in association with the Southern Poverty Law Center. ISBN 978-0195150360.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links