Margaret Huang (President and CEO) Bryan Fair (Board Chairman)
Revenue
$136.3 million (2018 FY)[1]
Endowment
$471.0 million (2018 FY)[1]
Employees
421 in 2021 [2]
Website
SPLCenter.org
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation.[3] Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs.[4][5]: 1500 The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.[6]
In 1980, the SPLC began a litigation strategy of filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of the victims of violence from the Ku Klux Klan.[7] The SPLC also became involved in other civil rights causes, including cases to challenge what it sees as institutional racial segregation and discrimination, inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in prisons and detention centers, discrimination based on sexual orientation, mistreatment of illegal immigrants, and the unconstitutional mixing of church and state. The SPLC has provided information about hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies.[8][9]
Since the 2000s, the SPLC's classification and listings of hate groups (organizations that "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics")[10] and anti-government extremists[11] are widely relied upon by academic and media sources.[12][13][14] The SPLC's listings have also been criticized by those who argue that some of the SPLC's listings are overbroad, politically motivated, or unwarranted.[15][16][17][18] The organization has also been accused of an overindulgent use of funds, leading some employees to call its headquarters "Poverty Palace".[19]
^ abCite error: The named reference financial statements was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"2021 Form 990 U.S. Federal Tax Return" (PDF). Southern Poverty law Center. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
^"Southern Poverty Law Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. May 9, 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
^"With Justice For All". The Times-Picayune. November 5, 2006. Archived from the original on April 17, 2008.
^Cite error: The named reference Finkelman_Encyclopedia_2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Chebium, Raju (September 8, 2000). "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
^Cite error: The named reference Chalmers_Backfire_2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Michael (2012), p. 32.
^"What We Investigate: Hate Crimes: The FBI's Role: Public Outreach". www.fbi.gov. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017. The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems....The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information, address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems. These groups include such organizations as the...Southern Poverty Law Center.
^"Hate Map". SPLC. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
^"What We Do". SPLC.
^"Does the Southern Poverty Law Center target conservatives?" The Christian Science Monitor, February 18, 2016
^Chen, Hsinchun (2006). Intelligence and Security Informatics for International Security: Information Sharing and Data Mining. New York: Springer. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-387-24379-5. ... the web sites of the "Southern Poverty Law Center" [...] and the Anti-Defamation League [...] are authoritative sources for identifying domestic extremists and hate groups.
^Swain, Carol (2002). The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-521-80886-6.
^Chokshi, Niraj (February 17, 2016). "The Year of 'Enormous Rage': Number of Hate Groups Rose by 14 Percent in 2015". The Washington Post.
^Cite error: The named reference politico was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Jonsson, Patrik (February 23, 2011). "Annual report cites rise in hate groups, but some ask: What is hate?". The Christian Science Monitor
^Graham, David A. (June 18, 2018). "The Unlabelling of an 'Anti-Muslim Extremist'". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 5, 2018. While the fabled nonprofit has long had its critics, many of them hatemongers like Gaffney, the new chorus included sympathetic observers and fellow researchers on hate groups, who worried that SPLC was mixing its research and activist strains.
^Moser, Bob (March 21, 2019). "The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 22, 2020. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers' allegations of racial discrimination within the organization.
and 25 Related for: Southern Poverty Law Center information
-based organizations that are classified as hate groups by the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC). The SPLC is an American nonprofit legal advocacy organization...
SouthernPovertyLawCenter. Retrieved May 30, 2022. Hodges, Raven (October 8, 2020). "Equity Through Accuracy: Changes to Our Hate Map". Southern Poverty...
and notably in his "88 Precepts" manifesto. According to the SouthernPovertyLawCenter, inspiration for the Fourteen Words "are derived from a passage...
groups founded by Tanton were designated as hate groups by the SouthernPovertyLawCenter. Earlier in his advocacy career, he founded the Petoskey chapter...
justice advocate, and president and chief executive officer of SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC), an American civil rights nonprofit. She joined the organization...
overtly racist events and events centered around fascist, anti-left, and anti-socialist violence. The SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC) has called the group...
fire and a significant number of fatalities. According to the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC), these events "only confirmed his belief in the inexorable...
Out SouthernPovertyLawCenter". Lantos Foundation. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2016. Crowe, Jack (19 April 2018). "SouthernPovertyLaw Center...
antisemitic statements and views have been condemned by the SouthernPovertyLawCenter, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and other organizations. Farrakhan's...
intimidate vulnerable communities and subvert our democracy". The SouthernPovertyLawCenter stated that "Five years after white supremacists descended on...
smoke bombs during demonstrations and protests. According to the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC), "Patriot Front focuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism...
estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC) has characterized it as "the nation's oldest major white...
Matt Naham (18 June 2018). "SouthernPovertyLawCenter Must Pay $3.3 Million After Falsely Naming Anti-Muslim Extremists". Law & Crime. Archived from the...
Israelites] are outspoken anti-Semites and racists." In 2017, the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC) listed the Black Hebrew Israelites as one of the "black...
"filing an assault report with DC police". On June 9, 2022, the SouthernPovertyLawCenter listed Posobiec as an extremist, citing his links to hate groups...
Traditionalist Catholicism published by the legal advocacy organization SouthernPovertyLawCenter. Defenders of the SSPX have strongly criticised the report and...
Jenkins of One People's Project who put him in contact with the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC). After "several weeks of conversation," SPLC representatives...
compare it to white nationalism and white supremacy. However, the SouthernPovertyLawCenter says that black nationalist groups exist in a "categorically...
casual use of racial and anti-gay slurs, as described by the SouthernPovertyLawCenter (SPLC). In 2012, McInnes wrote a memoir book called How to Piss...
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