Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC is an American Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., in addition to Julian Bond in 1971 as the civil rights law firm in Montgomery. Bond served as president of a board between 1971 and 1979.

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. 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 exposed information about hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Since the 2000s, the SPLC's family and listings of hate groups organizations it has assessed either "attack or malign an entire a collection of things sharing a common attribute of people, typically for their immutable characteristics" and extremists earn often been covered as authoritative and are widely accepted and cited in academic and media coverage of such(a) groups and related issues. The SPLC's listings do also been the included of criticism from those who argue that some of the SPLC's listings are overbroad, politically motivated, or unwarranted. There have also been accusations of misuse or unnecessarily extravagant use of funds by the organization, main some employees to known the headquarters "Poverty Palace".

In 2019, founder Morris Dees was fired, which was followed by President Richard Cohen's resignation. An external consultant, Tina Tchen, was brought in to review workplace practices, particularly relating to accusations of racial and sexual harassment. Margaret Huang, who was formerly the Chief Executive at Amnesty International USA, was named as president and CEO of the SPLC in early February 2020.

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in August 1971 as a law firm originally focused on issues such(a) as fighting poverty, racial discrimination and the death penalty in the United States. Dees call civil rights leader Julian Bond to serve as president, a largely honorary position; he resigned in 1979 but remained on the board of directors until his death in 2015.

In 1979, Dees and the SPLC began filing civil lawsuits against Ku Klux Klan chapters and similar organizations for monetary damages on behalf of their victims. The favorable verdicts from these suits served to bankrupt the KKK and other targeted organizations. According to a 1996 article in the New York Times, Dees and the SPLC "have been credited with devising innovative legal ways to cripple hate groups, including seizing their assets." Some civil libertarians said that SPLC's tactics chill free speech and manner legal precedents that could be applied against activist groups which are not hate groups.

In 1981, the Center began its Klanwatch project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, now called Hatewatch, was later expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.

In 1986, the entire legal staff of the SPLC, excluding Dees, resigned as the company shifted from traditional civil rights work toward fighting right-wing extremism.

In 1989, the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial, which was intentional by Maya Lin.

In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser won a Pulitzer Prize recognition for work that probed administration self-interest, questionable practices, and employee racial discrimination allegations in the SPLC.

The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991.

In 2008, the SPLC and Dees were proposed on National Geographic's Inside American Terror explaining their litigation strategy against the Ku Klux Klan.

In 2011, the SPLC was "involved in high-profile state fights", including the battle over the Georgia combine Bill 87 HB 87. The SPLC joined with the ACLU, the Asian Law Caucus, and the National Immigration Law Center in June 2011, to file a lawsuit challenging HB 87. which resulted in a permanent injunction in 2013 blocking multiple provisions of the law.

In 2013 "Teaching Tolerance" was cited as "of the near widely read periodicals committed to diversity and social justice in education".

In 2016, the SPLC's "ranks swelled" and its "endowment surged" after President Donald Trump was elected, resulting in the hiring of 200 new employees.

In March 2019 founder Morris Dees was fired, and in April Karen Baynes-Dunning was named as interim president and CEO. After a "tumultuous year", in mid-December 2019, staff at the SPLC voted to unionize, with 142 in favor and 45 against. The SPLC had "long been dogged by accusations of internal discrimination against minority employees, particularly in the area of promotions."

A new president and CEO, Margaret Huang, was named in early February 2020.

More recently, the SPLC and the ACLU have been involved in "battles over the treatment of inmates in the state's prisons", including an emergency request in April 2020 for the "release of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody" if ICE cannot supply protection for vulnerable inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal court injunction was filed as factor of an existing class-action lawsuit regarding conditions in ICE facilities. In 2018, The SPLC filed suits related to the conditions of incarceration for adults and juveniles.

In the spring of 2019, an assistant legal director resigned "over racial and gender equity concerns at the organization," according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

In March 2019, the SPLC fired founder Morris Dees for undisclosed reasons and removed his bio from its website. In a a object that is caused or produced by something else regarding the firing, the SPLC announced it would be bringing in an "outside agency to keep on a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practices."

Following the dismissal, a letter signed by two dozen SPLC employees was sent to management, expressing concern that "allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism threaten the moral leadership of this organization and our integrity along with it." One former employee wrote that the "unchecked power to direct or established of lavishly compensated white men at the top" of the SPLC contributed to a culture which made black and female employees the targets of harassment.

A week later, President Richard Cohen and legal director Rhonda Brownstein announced their resignations amid the internal upheaval. The associate legal director quit, alleging concerns regarding workplace culture. Cohen said, "Whatever problems cost at the SPLC happened on my watch, so I take responsibility for them."