Southern Poverty Law Center

Extracted Attributes

• Founded

  1971-01-01

• Founder

  Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., Julian Bond

• Headquarters

  Montgomery, Alabama, United States

• Notable Work

  Civil Rights Memorial

• Organization Type

  501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization

• Location Coordinates

  32.3756870, -86.3030121

Timeline

• The Southern Poverty Law Center is founded in Montgomery, Alabama, by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond. (Source: wikipedia)

  1971-01-01

• The SPLC begins its strategy of filing civil lawsuits against Ku Klux Klan chapters and other white supremacist organizations to seek monetary damages for victims. (Source: web_search_results)

  1979-01-01

• The SPLC establishes the Immigrant Justice Project in Montgomery, Alabama. (Source: web_search_results)

  2004-01-01

• The SPLC opens its first satellite office in Jackson, Mississippi, to house the Youth Justice Project. (Source: web_search_results)

  2005-01-01

• The Immigrant Justice Project is relocated from Montgomery to Atlanta, Georgia. (Source: web_search_results)

  2009-06-01

• The SPLC files an emergency request for the release of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Source: web_search_results)

  2020-04-01

• FBI Director Kash Patel officially cuts the federal agency's ties with the SPLC following pressure from right-wing allies of Donald Trump. (Source: wikipedia)

  2025-10-01

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. 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 anti-bias education. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights legal clinic in Montgomery. In 1980, the SPLC began a strategy of filing civil suits against the Ku Klux Klan for monetary damages on behalf of the victims of its violence. 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. Since the 2000s, the SPLC's classification and listings of hate groups and anti-government extremists have been widely relied upon by academic and media sources. 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. In October 2025, FBI director Kash Patel cut the agency's ties with the SPLC after a push to do so from right-wing allies of Republican president Donald Trump.

Web Search Results

• Southern Poverty Law Center - Wikipedia

  In November 2008, the SPLC's case against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), the nation's second-largest Klan organization, went to trial in Meade County, Kentucky.( The SPLC had filed suit for damages in July 2007 on behalf of Jordan Gruver and his mother against the IKA in Kentucky. In July 2006, 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". Two members of the Klan started calling Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, a "spic".( Subsequently, the boy, (5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) and weighing 150 pounds (68 kg)) was beaten and kicked by the Klansmen (one of whom was 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) and 300 pounds (140 kg)). As a result, the victim received "two cracked [...] The SPLC and the ACLU have been involved in "battles over the treatment of inmates in [Alabama's] prisons".( They also made an emergency request in April 2020 for the "release of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody" if ICE could not provide protection for vulnerable inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The request was filed as part of an existing class-action lawsuit regarding conditions in ICE facilities.( [...] 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 have said that the SPLC's tactics chill free speech and set legal precedents that could be applied against activist groups which are not hate groups.(

• The Southern Poverty Law Center: Advocating for the Powerless | America's Charities

  Representing immigrants caught in the nation’s deportation machine with pro bono legal services at five detention centers in the Southeast as part of our Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI). Exposing the abuse of prisoners stemming from mass incarceration policies and the exploitative, for-profit prison industry. Using legislation and litigation to reform the criminal justice system and eliminate excessive court fees, modern-day debtors’ prisons, and other practices that unfairly punish or exploit the poor. [...] Litigating against the worst of these groups in a manner similar to lawsuits the SPLC has used to win crippling court judgments against 10 major white supremacist organizations and 50 individuals who led them or participated in violent acts. Most recently, for example, we’ve sued Andrew Anglin, the founder of the most heavily trafficked neo-Nazi website, who orchestrated a harassment campaign that has relentlessly terrorized a Jewish woman and her family with anti-Semitic threats and messages. [...] These are a just a few of the ways the SPLC continues to promote and protect our nation’s most cherished ideals and stand up for those who have no other champions. Whether this mission takes the SPLC into the courts, the classroom, or elsewhere, it remains devoted to creating a better future by fighting hate, teaching tolerance, and seeking justice.

• Southern Poverty Law Center - Encyclopedia of Alabama

  The center's reach has expanded in the twenty-first century to include satellite offices in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. The first satellite office was opened in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2005 to house the SPLC's Youth Justice Project and now employs approximately seven full-time staff members and an attorney who also works with the center's New Orleans project. Dubbed the School-to-Prison Reform Project, the New Orleans project is a national initiative focused on shifting the trend away from mass imprisonment by educating children facing challenges such as learning disabilities. The program employs six full-time staff members. SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project, founded in 2004 in Montgomery, relocated to Atlanta in June 2009 and employs 19 full-time staff members. The SPLC [...] A group of people stands at the Civil Rights Memorial in front of the Southern Poverty Law Center building in Montgomery, Alabama Southern Poverty Law Center [...] A group of people stands at the Civil Rights Memorial in front of the Southern Poverty Law Center building in Montgomery, Alabama Southern Poverty Law Center

• Frequently Asked Questions about the Southern Poverty Law Center

  ## About the SPLC The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people. Founded in 1971 to ensure that the promise of the Civil Rights Movement became a reality for all, we continue to engage in both legal and community-based efforts to topple institutional racism and stamp out remnants of Jim Crow segregation; unmask and defeat some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist groups; and protect the civil rights of communities of color, children, women, the disabled, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, prisoners and many others who face discrimination, abuse or exploitation. [...] justice through information sharing, critical consciousness raising, civic participation and strategic calls to action. [...] The Southern Poverty Law Center is a tax-exempt, charitable organization incorporated in 1971 under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As a 501(c)(3) organization, we do not participate in political campaigns on behalf of candidates for elective public office. SPLC Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) affiliate organization to the SPLC. SPLC Action Fund’s policy experts fight legislative battles at every level of government — and through ballot initiatives — to advance inclusive legislation and defend against harmful policies. SPLC Action Fund also makes endorsements in select races throughout the Southeast, supporting candidates who are committed to addressing the long-standing inequities that plague the Deep South and the nation. ## How do I contact the SPLC?

• LDF Statement on the Investigation of the Southern Poverty Law Center

  “The Southern Poverty Law Center has been at the forefront of the fight against hate groups and violent white supremacist organizations for more than five decades, often at great risk. Such extremist groups are a scourge on our democracy. For years, the Department of Justice has recognized white supremacy as a fundamental threat to our national security. In 2020, former FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that ‘the top threat we face from domestic violent extremists stems from those we now identify as racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists,’ emphasizing that these extremists ‘have been considered the most lethal of all domestic extremism movements since 2001.’

• Image

  

• Country

  United States

• Founder

  Julian Bond

• Located In

  Alabama

• Instance Of

  Q163740

• Notable Work

  Civil Rights Memorial

• Headquarters

  Montgomery

• Inception Date

  1/1/1971