Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, that is committed to advocacy for civil rights and racial equality. Formally incorporated in 1971 by Alabama lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin, the SPLC was founded as a small law firm dedicated to handling antidiscrimination cases in the United States. Supported by contributions from committed activists all across the country, the center is known for its tolerance programs, its legal victories against discrimination and white supremacist groups, and its investigations of alleged hate groups.

It has also come under scrutiny for its handling of its enormous endowment ($732 million as of October 2025) as well as the manner in which it designates organizations as “hate groups.” In April 2026 the U.S. Justice Department announced an indictment against the SPLC on charges that it improperly used donor money to pay informants to infiltrate some of those hate groups.

Early cases

With politician and civil rights leader Julian Bond as its first president, two of the SPLC’s early lawsuits resulted in the desegregation of the local YMCA’s athletic offerings and the racial integration of the Alabama State Troopers. Many of the SPLC’s cases changed the social landscape of the United States, set legal precedent, and resulted in landmark Supreme Court rulings.

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From the 1970s through the 1980s, SPLC legal cases challenged conditions in prisons and mental health facilities, worked to end involuntary sterilization of women on welfare, and fought for equal benefits for women in the armed forces. In 1979, when the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) disrupted a civil rights gathering in Decatur, Alabama, the SPLC filed a civil suit. Shortly thereafter it initiated the Klanwatch project (later renamed the Intelligence Project) to monitor organized hate activity, including antigovernment militia movements and political extremist groups.

The SPLC further sued white supremacist leaders—holding them responsible for the violence of their followers—on behalf of the victims, in effect weakening the financial structure of groups such as the KKK and Aryan Nations. The center’s quarterly Intelligence Report provides comprehensive updates and online hate crime training courses to law enforcement, the media, and the public.

Educational, community outreach

In 1991, to combat the causes of hate and to expand its outreach efforts, the SPLC launched the Teaching Tolerance project as an educational program to help K–12 teachers foster respect and understanding in the classroom. In 2021 the center changed the name of the program to Learning for Justice. Its website offers teaching materials to further antibias activism and dismantle bigotry.

The center also sponsored the creation of a civil rights memorial in downtown Montgomery. The black granite memorial, designed by architect Maya Lin, is a contemplative place visited by people from around the world to honor those killed during the struggle for civil rights and equality.

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Controversies

The SPLC’s activities have long generated both widespread acclaim and political controversy. The organization has been accused of financial mismanagement, misleading fundraising methods, and institutionalized racism. In addition it has been charged with exaggerating the threat of racism for purposes of fundraising, wrongfully applying the term hate group to legitimate organizations, and promoting a left-wing “politically correct” agenda under the guise of civil rights.

The SPLC has called out well-known conservative groups including James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA for their stands against LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights, as well as for fomenting fear. In its 2025 report on Turning Point USA, the center said,

Turning Point USA’s primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists.

The center has a long track record of sharing information it gathers on hate groups with local law enforcement and with the FBI, but in October 2025 FBI Director Kash Patel said that the agency would no longer work with the SPLC. In April 2026, while announcing the indictment against the center, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the SPLC of improperly using donor funds to send people into hate groups, including the KKK and Nazi organizations, to incite the type of violence the center has said its mission is to end. Blanche said the center was “doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing—not dismantling extremism, but funding it.”

Bryan Fair, CEO of the SPLC, denied the 11 charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering leveled in the indictment. He acknowledged that over the years, the center has paid people to inform on hate groups. The SPLC no longer uses that practice, but Fair lauded the work done by informants who had “risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation’s most radical and violent extremist groups.”