A far-Left legal and activist organization created in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama with over 500 million in assets. It was founded by trial lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin, and its first president was civil rights leader Julian Bond, who would later take control of the NAACP. SPLC supports a wide variety of liberal positions; it is pro-immigration (both legal and illegal), advocates multiculturalism and the homosexual agenda, supports Muslims and racial preferences and defendants’ rights, and advocates against what it considers “hate groups”. In 2012, Black pastors confronted the Southern Poverty Law Center for smearing as “hate groups” pro-family organizations opposed to the homosexual agenda. Reverend Dr. Patrick Wooden admonished the SPLC in declaring that it is wrong to compare “my beautiful blackness” with homosexual perversion.
The SPLC’s op-ed writings have appeared in the Communist Party USA’s newspaper People’s World. This “controversial, liberal organization” has been criticized in mainstream press for being extravagant in its spending, and using charges of racism to stifle conservatives.
SPLC attacks on conservatives and Christians
While SPLC attacks obvious hate groups such as the KKK or Aryan Brotherhood, it also lumps in some conservative and Christian organizations in an attempt to defame and delegitimize them. For instance, SPLC considers Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) a “hate group”, because it opposes illegal immigration, and uses demonstrations as a method, which the SPLC deems intimidation. Similarly, the SPLC labels the immigration reductionist/reformist website VDARE as a “hate group”, because it argues against illegal immigration.
The SPLC followed Laird Wilson in publishing a list of “hate groups” but after Wilson rejected the usefulness of that approach, the SPLC continued with it, becoming prominent for using it against groups standing for traditional values. Laird Wilcox, claims to have provided SPLC with some of the information initially used to compile their list of “hate groups”. He “concluded that a lot of [the SPLC’s hate groups] were vanishingly small or didn’t exist, or could even be an invention of the SPLC.” Some of the “hate groups” were creations of SPLC informants, rather than legitimate groups. And with the advent of the internet, some of them exist “nowhere except in cyberspace.” Wilcox concludes, “The whole issue of “lists” is full of smoke and mirrors.”
In the wake of an August 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the Family Research Council, some columnists criticized the SPLC’s listing of the Family Research Council as an “anti-gay hate group”. Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post, wrote that the SPLC was “reckless in labeling as a “hate group” a policy shop that advocates for a full range of conservative Christian positions.” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, after the attack, “I believe [the gunman Floyd Corkins] was given a license to do that by a group such as the Southern Poverty Law Center who labeled us a hate group because we defend the family and stand for traditional orthodox Christianity.” Capital Research Center states that the SPLC “deliberately mischaracterizes conservatives and tea partiers as “extremists”.”
Also smeared as “hate groups” by the SPLC include: the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, Liberty Counsel, and The Social Contract Press (a liberal group publishing environmentalist works such as those of Garrett Hardin, apparently smeared solely because they republished French writer Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints which foretells catastrophe befalling Europe from boatloads of illegal immigrants arriving from South Asia).
Another example is the Council of Conservative Citizens, a conservative activist organization that advocates for states’ rights and against immigration, Communism, racial quotas, and gun control. SPLC labels the entire organization as “racist” because a minority of members had decades-past connections to segregationist organizations. In fact, the CCC attracts such mainstream speakers such as former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Gov. Kirk Fordice (R-MS) and Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), and engages in charitable and cultural events.
The SPLC has also recently added new categories to its categories of “hate groups”, including Traditionalist Catholics (that is, those who advocate for a return to the Latin Mass), and an “anti-gay” category of groups who do not support the homosexual agenda and/or advocate for homosexuals to come out of that lifestyle.
During the 1990s, the SPLC maintained a separate list of “patriot groups”, which although they did not include them as part of their “hate groups” list, carried the same intent: to smear those groups by association, and create the public impression those groups were some sort of threat to society. Their “patriot groups” list included groups opposed to the income tax, groups campaigning for jury and court reform, and the John Birch Society, among others.
In 2010, the SPLC created a list entitled “Meet the Patriots”, which included such people such as Chuck Baldwin, Orly Taitz, and Alex Jones as supporters of this “patriot movement”. A supplement entitled “The Enablers” was also released, which included Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, and Judge Napolitano.
In 2012, the SPLC found four individuals to file a lawsuit against a group providing therapy to homosexual men in order to help them become ex-homosexuals. The SPLC alleges the group violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Law in advertising that conversion therapy will help people become ex-homosexuals. Instead of being a pro-consumer lawsuit, as the SLPC implies, the suit is a collateral attack on conversion therapy and the free exercise of religion.
In 2017, the SPLC labeled the Alliance Defending Freedom a “hate group,” a label that mainstream media outlets picked up on. The SPLC caused serious financial harm to the Ruth Institute, a Catholic organization that combats the decline of the family, due to the SPLC’s “hate group” designation of the institute. That same year, D. James Kennedy Ministries, an evangelical Christian ministry based in Florida, filed a lawsuit against the SPLC due to its designation of the ministry as a “hate group.” In 2017, a college graduate was placed on the SPLC’s “hate group” list because she did an interview with the conservative Family Research Council.
All of the incidents listed above further prove the SPLC is a left-wing political organization, as well as itself being a hate group, rather than one focused on racism and civil rights. Despite labeling numerous mainstream conservative organizations as “hate groups”, the SPLC has refused to label Antifa a hate group.
Infiltration into the classroom
Additionally, the SPLC runs tolerance.org, a website that advocates multiculturalism, the homosexual agenda and “social justice”. It is designed with teachers in mind so that these ideas can influence young children in the classroom For instance, teachers can click “classroom activities” then “early grades” and “Tolerance Issues: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual issues:” or “tolerance issues: Gender Issues” and arrive at a pro-alternative family article, among others. Its magazine is sent to over 400,000 educators, and over 10,000 schools participate in its programs.
Cooperation with law enforcement
The SPLC has been criticized by civil rights writer Laird Wilcox for essentially functioning as a private intelligence gathering agency for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies, doing activities as a private organization that public law enforcement agencies are barred by law from doing (such as keeping dossiers on people solely because of their political or religious views) because for a government agency to do them would be a violation of civil rights. Wilcox points out the dangers of the FBI and other law enforcement working with ideologically-driven groups like the SPLC, which has its roots in 1960s radical liberal activism, because of the danger this poses that the SPLC’s own ideological differences with another group can be treated as a law enforcement issue rather than as an ideological dispute between a left-wing group (the SPLC) and a group on the right. This can, and has, led to attacks on such groups’ freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Indeed, the SPLC has a history of adding groups to its listing of purported “hate groups” in advance of a government law enforcement campaign against them. The SPLC inexplicably added the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) to its “hate groups” list just before FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was indicted on charges of arranging polygamous underage marriages. The timing of this listing by SPLC was suspicious, as is the accuracy of calling FLDS a “hate group” to begin with, any controversy over their polygamous practices notwithstanding.
The SPLC brags about being an informant for the FBI. Mark Potok, an SPLC spokesman, said, “Law enforcement agencies come to us every day with questions about particular groups.” This was done to circumvent policies against domestic political spying. But the FBI has recently disavowed the SPLC by drropping it from being listed as a resource on the FBI web site.
Finances
The SPLC’s IRS Form 990 for the year ending October 31, 2015 showed total income of $54.2 million, and expenses of $45.3 million with a surplus of $8.9 million. The organization has a net worth of $315 million, and the top salaries were paid to Morris Dees, Chief Trial Counsel, $337,146; Richard Cohen, President, $333,296; Wendy Via, Chief of Development, $186,645; Jerri Katzerman, Deputy Legal Director, $183,752; and Joseph Levin, General Counsel, $160,626.
The last year that the Better Business Bureau’s Philanthropic Advisory Service reported on the SPLC, in 1994, Dees and then Executive Director Edward Ashworth took home over $150,000 each, and the organization then possessed over $62 million in assets. It now controls over $200 million, and Dees pulls $286,000 in salary. In 2000, SPLC fundraised $27 million and made an additional $17 million from investments, but spent only $13 million on its civil rights program. It is no longer listed in the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance because that would require that “at least 50 percent of total income from all sources, should be applied to programs and activities directly related to the purposes for which the organization exists.” The SPLC spent 89 percent of its total income on fund-raising and administrative costs.
The SPLC has also been moving millions of dollars out of the U.S. into international accounts which is can use at will with no accountability. As a non-profit organization, this kind of activity is at the very least irregular if not illegal. By September 2017, they had amassed at least $67 million in these offshore accounts.
In addition to donations from liberal members, which are often elicited by sensationalizing hate crimes, the center raises a lot of revenue seizing assets of violent groups, and by extorting groups that do not want to be accused of racism. In 1987, the SPLC won a major case on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, the mother of a Klan lynching victim. This was the invention of a clever new tactic—suing domestic terrorist groups into bankruptcy—but Ms. Donald benefitted very little. Of the $7 million verdict, only $50,000 went to her. This was because the Klan chapter had no assets other than a warehouse used as a headquarters, the warehouse itself was valued at about $50,000.
The SPLC’s fundraising tactics came under heavy criticism most recently by the Council of Conservative Citizens, as well as by articles in Harper’s magazine in 2000 and in the local Montgomery Advertiser newspaper in 1994.
Corporate Partners
- Abbott Laboratories
- Apple
- Bank of America
- Charles Schwab
- Deutsche Bank
- Disney
- Freddie Mac
- J.Jill
- JPMorgan Chase
- Kraft Heinz
- Liberty Mutual
- Lyft
- MGM
- Newman’s Own
- Pfizer
- Progressive Insurance
- Shell
- Verizon
Manufacturing Hate for Fun and Profit
When an organization as prominent and powerful as the SPLC turns its guns on you, it can cost you your job, your livelihood – even your standing in the community. Not because you have done anything wrong. Not because what they say about you is true, but because a focused vilification campaign forces others to avoid you out of fear. You become what they call “radioactive.”
It is a form of psychological attack familiar to the Left. Vladimir Lenin wrote:
We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, law-breaking, withholding and concealing truth… We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree with us.
Herbert Marcuse, a German Communist scholar of the Marxist Frankfurt School, formalized this notion in a 1965 essay titled Repressive Tolerance; Marcuse argued that the First Amendment was insufficient in addressing the Left’s need to be heard. In racist, imperialist, oppressive America, their message would always be ignored. It wasn’t fair, he argued. Marcuse’s answer was to shut down the opposition:
Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left… Not ‘equal’ but more representation of the Left would be equalization of the prevailing inequality.
While most of us have never heard of Marcuse or his theory, his idea was enthusiastically embraced by the Left. Marcuse himself was an associate of Julian Bond, an SPLC board member from its founding. Marcuse and Bond were co-founders of the leftwing newspaper In These Times. They both served on the National Conference for New Politics and were involved in other radical activism.
Marcuse’s “Liberating tolerance” found its most practical application in Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which systematized the tactics of hate, ridicule and vilification to shut down opposing voices. While most leftists have memorized this tactic and we witness it every day in media and politics, I think it is the SPLC’s raison d’être.
Note that they never attempt to justify their position, because they never could. Their sole purpose is to destroy political opposition. That is why debating the Left is impossible. They are not debating. They are calculating ways to destroy you.
And if you think I exaggerate, perhaps I should quote the SPLC itself, whose spokesman Mark Potok has said, “Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate crimes and so on. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them…”
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