The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to the free legal defense hate group victims. The SPLC was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. as a civil rights law firm and is based in Montgomery, Alabama.[1] Later,[when?] civil rights leader Julian Bond became its president.[2] The SPLC classifies as hate groups those organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Creativity Movement which denigrate or assault entire groups of people for attributes which are beyond their control. The SPLC has successfully litigated against many such groups. SPLC publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report that investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States.[3][4] SPLC also runs educational programs dedicated to promoting tolerance.[5]
Refs
edit- ^ "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. September 8, 2000. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- ^ The Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1991. A Season For Justice. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 132-133.
- ^ SPLCenter.org: Hate Groups Map
- ^ Southern Poverty Law Center website: Who we are, http://www.splcenter.org/who-we-are, accessed August 1, 2010
- ^ With Justice For All November 5, 2006; The Times Picayune