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Southern Poverty Law Center
Company typenon-profit organization
IndustryCivil rights law
Founded1971, Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
HeadquartersMontgomery, Alabama
Key peopleMorris Dees, Director
Revenue136,373,624 United States dollar (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets723,488,477 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Websitewww.splcenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American non-profit legal organization, whose stated purpose is to combat racism and promote civil rights through research, education and litigation.

The Center is based in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Southern United States. It was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and civil rights leader Julian Bond as a civil rights law firm. It is known for its tolerance programs, its many legal victories against white supremacist individuals and groups, and its investigations of alleged hate groups. In addition to free legal service to the victims of discrimination and hate crime, the Center publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report which investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States. The Center has been criticized for its tactics and financial practices as well as by racist groups.

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was organized by Dees and Levin in 1971 during a desegregation case (Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association), as a law firm to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. The organization's first president was Julian Bond, formerly of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond served as president of the SPLC until 1979 and remains on its board of directors. In 1979 the Center brought the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan. In 1981 the Center began its "Klanwatch" (now "Hatewatch") project to monitor and track the activities of the KKK, which has been expanded to include 7 other types of hate organizations.

In 1983, the Klan firebombed the center's office. Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill Dees or blow up the center.

Southern Poverty Law Center Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama.

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

In 1987 the group won a case against the United Klans of America. This included a $7 million judgment for the mother of Michael Donald, a black lynching victim in Alabama.

In 1990, the SPLC won $12.5 million in damages against Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance when a Portland, Ore., jury held the neo-Nazi group liable in the beating death of an Ethiopian immigrant.

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.

A 1996 USA Today article claimed that the Southern Poverty Law Center is "the nation's richest civil rights organization", with $68 million in assets at the time. Starting in 1971, the SPLC set aside money for its endowment in future programs, which is currently $111 million in order to "to carry on the struggle for tolerance and justice—for as long as it is needed."

In May 1998, three white supremacists were arrested for 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' 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 savagely beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent at a Kentucky county fair. Since filing the suit the SPLC has received nearly a dozen threats "promising the most dangerous threat" ever faced. A July 29 letter allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host.

Tolerance.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

Documentaries

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

Notable cases

The Southern Poverty Law Center provides free legal services to the victims of hate crime, and has won many notable civil cases with large money awards for the plaintiffs. In addition to providing free magazines and videos on race relations to more than 50,000 schools, Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets."

The first SPLC case was filed against the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama who "continued to segregate children, going so far as to ban kids who swam at an integrated pool from city-wide meets." In 1969, the YMCA refused to allow two African American children to its summer camp, and the SPLC sued on behalf of the children's parents. In the course of SPLC's 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 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."

File:Lynching-of-michael-donald.jpg
The lynching of Michael Donald, 1981

In 1987 the SPLC brought a civil case, on behalf of the victims family, against the United Klans of America (UKA) for being responsible in the lynching of Michael Donald, a nineteen year old black man. Unable to come up the $7 million dollars awarded by a jury, the UKA were forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother who then sold it.

On November 13, 1988 three white supremacists who were members of East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance violently beat Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college, to death. 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 dollars. The SPLC does not charge for their work, and Seraw did not share any money won with the SPLC because the Metzger's did not have millions, but rather the family only received assets from the Metzger's $125,000 house and a few thousand dollars. The Metzger's declared bankrupcty, and WAR went out of business. The cost of trial, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,, was absorbed by the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League.

In May 1991 Harold Mansfield, a black sailor in the United States Navy, was murdered by a member of the neo-Nazi Church of the Creator (COTC). SPLC represented the victim's family in a civil case winning a judgement of 1 million dollars from the "church" in March 1994. However, the church transferred ownership to William Pierce, head of the National Alliance, to avoid money being paid to Mansfield's heirs so 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 was worried it would be the end of the hate group.

In September 2000 the SPLC won a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations from an Idaho jury who awarded punitive and compensatory damages to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards. The lawsuit stemmed from the July 1998 attack when security guards at the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho shot at Victoria Keenan and her son. Bullets struck their car several times then the car crashed and Aryan member held the Keenans at gunpoint. As a result of the judgement, Richard Butler turned over the 20-acre compound to the Keenans and the Keenans in turn sold the property to a philanthropist who later donated it to a local college.

In July 2007 the SPLC filed suit on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Meade County, Kentucky where in July 2006, five Klansmen savagely beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent 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." Then, unprovoked two members of the Klan started calling the 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent a "spic." Subsquently, the boy, (5-foot-3 and weighs just 150 pounds) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of which is 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds). As a result of the beating, the victim had "two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, multiple cuts and bruises and jaw injuries requiring extensive dental repair."

Intelligence Report

The SPLC's Intelligence Project monitors hate groups and extremists in the United States with their Intelligence Report. The report is published quarterly since 1981 and provides information regarding organizational efforts and tactics of hate groups. In addition to the Report, the SPLC publishes HateWatch Weekly that follows racism and extremism.

Groups listed as hate groups

Main article: List of purported hate groups

The SPLC describes their definition of hate group as:

All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. Listing here does not imply that a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.

The SPLC further categorizes these groups as Black Separatism (such as Nation of Islam), Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Christian Identity, Racist Skinhead, Neo-Confederate, and "Other". Some organizations described by the SPLC as hate groups object strenuously to this characterization of them, particularly those in the Other category. As of 2005 there were 161 organizations in the U.S. categorized as Other. However, some of these groups have criticized the SPLC for being labelled.

Neoconfederate movement

The Southern Poverty Law Center is also the principal group reporting on the "neo-confederate" movement. A special report by the SPLC's Mark Potok in their magazine, Intelligence Report, describes a number of groups as "neo-confederate" in 2000.

The SPLC has carried subsequent articles on the neo-confederate movement. "Lincoln Reconstructed" published in 2003 in the Intelligence Report focuses on the resurgent demonization of Abraham Lincoln in the South. The article quotes the chaplain of the Sons of Confederate Veterans as giving an invocation which recalled "the last real Christian civilization on Earth." In the SPLC article "Whitewashing the Confederacy" by George Ewert he noted that Gods and Generals presented a false, pro-confederate view of history. David Horowitz's Front Page Magazine responded, see David Horowitz Freedom Center controversy below. Also its notable to mention that the David Horowitz Freedom Center itself was identified as a Neoconfederate group by the SPLC.

The Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) has also been identified by the SPLC as a Neoconfederate organization and it was criticism for misleading its supporters for donations. In addition the SLRC was criticized becausse its founder, Kirk D. Lyons' pre-SLRC defense of controversial right-wing figures such as Aryan Nations members and Tom Metzger. In response the SLRC has criticized the SPLC.

Controversy

The SPLC has attracted controversy surrounding its methods of identifying and monitoring "hate groups", and its fundraising practices.

Arson reporting controversy

It has been described by Thomas Edsall of the Washington Post as a "a controversial, liberal organization that tracks conservative militia and 'patriot' organizations" that has uncovered much information on extremist groups. In 1996 USA Today stated "... in a recent report on arsons at black churches in the South, his Klanwatch newsletter included five 1990 fires in Kentucky. The article doesn't mention they were set by a black man." The article reported Stephen Bright of the "Southern Center for Human Rights" stated that Dees "is a fraud who has milked a lot of very wonderful well-intentioned people. If it's got headlines, Morris is there."

Fundraising criticism

On February 13 and 14 1994 Dan Morse in the Montgomery Advertiser published a series alleging financial mismanagement, poor management practices, and misleading fundraising.The newspaper summarized its investigation as producing evidence of "a complex portrait of a wealthy civil rights organization essentially controlled by one man: Morris Dees." The paper took a random sampling of donors, and found at that the average donor did not the Center was so well funded. Yet, the articles were not all negative with the autors noting "Other Law Center lawsuits forced cotton mills to improve conditions for workers" and the Center "developed new strategies for defending suspects on death row.". The SPLC investigative series was a finalist for a 1995 Pulitzer Prize. Yet, more recently in 2007 the Montgomery Advertiser has praised the SPLC efforts for helping to teach tolerance in schools.

In November 2000, Harper's Magazine published an article critical of the SPLC. In "The Church of Morris Dees," Ken Silverstein wrote "Morris Dees doesn't need your financial support" because "the SPLC is already the wealthiest 'civil rights' group in America." Furthermore, Silverstein claimed "Back in 1978, when the Center had less than $10 million," but then it sought 50 million dollars and again "upped the bar to $100 million" to allow the Center "to cease the costly and often unreliable task of fund raising." However, in 2000 "the SPLC's treasury bulges with $120 million, and it spends twice as much on fund-raising — $5.76 million last year — as it does on legal services for victims of civil rights abuses." In fact, Silverstein cited the American Institute of Philanthropy who gave "the center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors, estimating that the SPLC could operate for 4.6 years without making another tax-exempt nickel from its investments or raising another tax-deductible cent from well-meaning 'people like you'."

Silverstein adds that most alleged "hate" groups on the SPLC's list are non-violent and reports that 95 percent of hate crimes are committed by "lone wolves." Further, he says that the SPLC's "'other important work for justice' consists mainly on spying on private citizens... a practice that, however seemingly justified, should give civil libertarians pause."

The charity evaluation organization Charity Navigator gives SPLC an overall rating of three out of four stars. The Center states that "During its last fiscal year, the Center spent approximately 65% of its total expenses on program services. The Center also placed a portion of its income into a special, board-designated endowment fund to support the Center's future work. At the end of the fiscal year, the endowment stood at $120.6 million."

David Horowitz Freedom Center

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

References

  1. "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. September 8, 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  2. "Attacking a Home-Town Icon" Jim Tharpe, Nieman Watchdog 1995.
  3. "Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 11, 1969. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  4. "Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2006". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  5. ^ Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," USA Today, August 3 1996, A-7
  6. ^ Klass, Kym (August 17, 2007). "Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security". Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page xiiv
  8. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page xiiv
  9. "dowment Supports Center's Future Work". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 2003. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  10. "Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. 2 others will plead guilty thursday." St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (May 13, 1998): pB1.
  11. "Tolerance.org: About us". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  12. "Teaching Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  13. "About Teaching Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  14. "Planet Tolerance". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  15. "Mix it up:Our Story". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2005. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  16. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 277
  17. "Conversations/Morris Dees; A Son of Alabama Takes On Americans Who Live to Hate." by Kevin Sack. The New York Times (May 12, 1996): pNA.
  18. ^ "Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 11, 1969. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  19. "Donald v. United Klans of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. 1988. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  20. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 11
  21. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 3
  22. Jury award the figure based on: Kyle Brewster- $500,000, Ken Mieske-$500,00, John Metzger-$1,000,000, WAR-$3,000,000, Tom Metzger-$5,000,000, and the jury awarded $2.5 million for Melegeta's unrealized future earnings, and pain and suffering.
  23. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 272
  24. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 277
  25. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 277
  26. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 116
  27. Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. Villard Books, 1993. page 277
  28. "Mansfield v. Church of the Creator". Southern Poverty Law Center. 03/07/1994. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "Mansfield v. Pierce". Southern Poverty Law Center. 03/07/1994. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. "Inside the Alliance". Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 1999. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  31. "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. September 8, 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  32. ^ "Keenan v. Aryan Nations". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  33. ^ "Jordan Gruver and Cynthia Gruver vs. Imperial Klans of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. July 25, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  34. "Intelligence Report". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  35. "Hatewatch Weekly". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  36. ^ "Lincoln Reconstructed". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2003. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  37. "Whitewashing the Confederacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2003. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  38. "Into the Mainstream". Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  39. "Cashing in on the Confederacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  40. "In the Lyons Den: Kirk Lyons, a white supremacist lawyer whose clients have been a 'Who's Who' of the radical right". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  41. Fact Sheet on Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center- Prepared by the Staff of the Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc.
  42. Edsall, Thomas (December 19, 1998). "Conservative Group Accused Of Ties to White Supremacists". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-11-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  43. Dan Morse. "A complex man: Opportunist or crusader?", Montgomery Advertiser, February 14 1994
  44. Dan Morse and Greg Jaffe. "Critics question $52 million reserve, tactics of wealthiest civil rights group", Montgomery Advertiser, February 14 1994
  45. Dan Morse and Greg Jaffe. "Critics question $52 million reserve, tactics of wealthiest civil rights group", Montgomery Advertiser, February 14 1994
  46. Panel Discussion: Nonprofit Organizations
  47. "SPLC teaching materials earn top honor from education publishers", Montgomery Advertiser, June 20, 2007
  48. Ken Silverstein, "The Church of Morris Dees," Harper's Magazine, 1 November, 2000, No. 1806, Vol. 301; Pg. 54 ; ISSN: 0017-789X.
  49. SPLC Financial Information
  50. Berlet, Chip (2003). "Into the Mainstream". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  51. Horowitz, David (2003). "An Open Letter To Morris Dees". FrontPageMagazine.com. FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2006-04-23.
  52. Berlet, Chip. "Response to David Horowitz's Complaint." FrontPageMag. 14 September 2003.
  54. Arabia, Chris (2003). "Chip Berlet: Leftist Lie Factory". FrontPageMagazine.com. FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2006-04-23.

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