The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a controversial left-of-center advocacy group that claims to be a watchdog of extremist groups. It has been criticized for its financial practices and for characterizing non-violent conventional conservative organizations as equivalent to violent extremists. ¹

The SPLC was co-founded in 1971 by Morris Dees, a lawyer and direct-mail marketing pioneer, and fellow Alabama attorney Joseph Levin, Jr. ² The group appointed civil rights activist Julian Bond as SPLC’s first president. In its first two decades, the SPLC won high-profile civil rights cases and filed lawsuits credited with breaking the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC combined its legal successes with Dees’ direct mail marketing expertise to raise millions of dollars. In later years, the SPLC leveraged its influence to collect and create widely circulated reports about “hate group” activity around the country. ¹

Dees was fired from his position as SPLC chief trial counsel in March 2019 for unspecific conduct violations. ³ On April 2, 2019, the SPLC announced that attorney Karen Baynes-Dunning would replace Cohen as interim president. ⁴

Since its victories over the Klan in the 1980s, the SPLC has been widely criticized by both right-of-center and left-of-center observers for its excessive fundraising and controversial methodologies. SPLC’s labeling of political opponents has resulted in mainstream conservative individuals and groups and anti-extremist Muslims being conflated with neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other extremist elements. The SPLC uses its former credibility to smear its political foes; despite this, SPLC is cited by left-leaning mainstream media outlets as a credible source for information about the mainstream right, to widespread criticism ⁵

Technology companies such as Google and Amazon have enlisted the SPLC to help compile, track, and vet organizations based on alleged extremist activity. For a short time, charity aggregator Guidestar used SPLC’s “hate group” listings to apply so-called warning labels on 46 nonprofit organizations, but later removed the labels amid a heavy public backlash against its reliance on SPLC. ⁶

In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins attacked the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the social conservative advocacy group Family Research Council (FRC). In his guilty plea agreement, Corkins claimed the SPLC’s labeling of FRC as a hate group for its opposition to same-sex marriage as the reason he singled out FRC.  ⁷

CharityWatch, a watchdog group that focuses primarily on charities and nonprofit groups, gave the SPLC an “F” rating. Their page on the SPLC notes that they downgraded their rating from a b due to the SPLC’s large amount of assets. ⁸

History and Mission

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was co-founded as a civil rights litigation group in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1971 by Morris Dees, a lawyer and direct marketing expert, and lawyer Joseph Levin, Jr. The SPLC received nonprofit status in 1971. ⁹ Activist Julian Bond, who later chaired the NAACP, is also mentioned as a co-founder. ¹⁰

Dees and Levin spent much of their early years conducting pro bono legal services in death-penalty appeals and suing to desegregate the then-all-white Alabama Highway Patrol. ¹¹ In 1979, the SPLC shifted its legal strategy and began suing violent white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and its affiliates for hate crimes committed by their members. Large settlements and other legal sanctions bankrupted some of the groups and scared off many others; by the late 1980s, these groups had declined significantly in activity and influence. ¹²

The demise of the KKK and Aryan Nation prompted Dees to shift the SPLC’s mission from traditional civil rights issues to fight purported right-wing extremism. The SPLC broadened its scope from litigation to lobbying for hate crime laws and laws targeting supposed right-wing terrorism. ¹³ The change was so drastic that in one instance, the entire legal staff resigned in 1986. ¹²

The SPLC’s litigation includes the areas of immigrant rights, prison reform, and gay and lesbian issues. ¹⁴ The group is better known for tracking alleged hate groups and extremists in the U.S. through its “Intelligence Project” publication. ¹⁵ SPLC also maintains information on these groups on its website with a Hatewatch vertical, a Hate Map, and offers a magazine titled The Year in Hate and Extremism. ¹⁰ As the SPLC expanded its scope of activity, it also broadened its definition of hate groups to include groups with no propensity for violence, but whose peaceful political activities SPLC opposes, a decision for which the group has been criticized. ¹⁶

Additionally, the SPLC takes a strong interest in civic processes. The SPLC, via education and outreach, encourages “communities of color to register to vote and participate in elections,” as well as litigating to oppose voter ID laws and voter roll purges. ¹⁷

In the 2024 election, the SPLC described a get-out-the-vote effort conducted by the SPLC’s canvassing team. According to the organization’s statement on the matter, part of this effort was “reaching out to Black women between the ages of 18 and 50.” ¹⁸

Organizational Overview

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is headquartered in a 150,000 square foot, eight-story building in Montgomery, Alabama, designed by The Harmon Group, a New York-based architecture firm. ¹⁹ The building cost $15 million and construction was completed on March 31, 2001. ²⁰

The SPLC also maintains offices in the states of Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as Washington, D.C. ²¹ In May 2017, Dees told the Colorado Springs Independent the SPLC had 48 lawyers who litigate across the country. ²² The “Intelligence Project” employed 15 full-time and two part-time staffers. ¹⁰

In June 2024, the SPLC announced it planned to lay off nearly 80 employees. According to The Guardian, this prompted the SPLC employees’ union to hold a vote of no confidence in CEO Margaret Huang. The union argued “for Huang’s removal, the reversal of the layoff of 25% of the organization’s staff, and a call to involve the union in the hiring of a new CEO.” ²³

Funding

In 2024, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported a revenue of $129,063,290, expenses of $128,982,970, and net assets of $786,768,246. ²⁴

In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported revenues of $169,857,376, expenditures of $122,131,443, and total assets of $749,083,798. ²⁵

Direct Mail

Early funding for the SPLC came through direct mail solicitation. Morris Dees was a multi-millionaire by the late 1960s, gaining his wealth through direct mail sales. ¹⁴ He used his direct mail expertise to raise money for the 1972 presidential campaign of left-wing U.S. Senator George McGovern (D-SD) in exchange for the candidate’s 700,000-name campaign donor list as his payment. This list served as the basis for what became SPLC’s lucrative direct mail fundraising program. ¹¹

SPLC’s direct mail program is reported to solicit funds primarily through multi-page alarmist solicitation letters. ¹¹ This has led to criticism both for exaggerating threats and raising more money than the organization spends on its legitimate activities. Alexander Cockburn, former columnist of the left-wing magazine The Nation, wrote in 2009 that the letters have been “scaring dollars out of the pockets of trembling liberals aghast at his lurid depictions of hate-sodden America, in dire need of legal confrontation by the SPLC.” ²⁶

Lawsuits

The SPLC developed another revenue stream in the 1980s by suing violent white supremist groups. In 1984, Dees sued the United Klans of America (UKA) in Mobile, Alabama on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son was killed by two UKA members. Dees won a $7 million judgement against the UKA, $50,000 of which went to his client. SPLC raised another $9 million by leveraging the case with direct-mail solicitations. ¹¹ Former SPLC staffer Deborah Ellis, who quit SPLC in the 1980s, said of this legal strategy of grabbing headlines and exploiting verdicts through fundraising appeals, “I felt that Morris [Dees] was on the Klan kick because it was such an easy target — easy to beat in court, easy to raise big money on.”²⁷

Foundation Support

In addition to settlements and fundraising appeals, the SPLC has amassed contributions from corporations and foundations. The table below lists the largest contributors to the SPLC as recorded by Foundation Search and the Center for Public Integrity. ²⁸

SPLC Top Twelve Contributors 2000 - 2015
Contributor	Amount	Years
Picower Foundation	$3,793,112	2001-2008
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund	$2,307,330	2003-2015
JBP Foundation	$1,918,589	2011-2013
Cisco Systems Foundation	$1,620,000	2001-2004
Grove Foundation	$1,275,000	2003-2015
Public Welfare Foundation	$1,150,000	2008-2015
Americas Charities	$956,454	2011-2014
Unbound Philanthropy	$850,000	2006-2013
Rice Family Foundation	$785,000	2000-2015
Schwab Charitable Fund*	$758,540	2009-2014
Vanguard Charitable Endowment*	$747,980	2006-2014
W.K. Kellogg Foundation	$700,000	2010-2015
Source: Annual IRS Filings compiled by Foundation Search & the Center for Public Integrity		*Donor-Advised Fund Provider

The SPLC received a number of prominent pledges from left-of-center celebrities and corporations after an outbreak of violence between neo-Nazi and left-wing extremists in Charlottesville, Virginia. In August 2017, actor George Clooney and his wife, Amal, announced their foundation would donate $1 million to the SPLC. ²⁹ Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an email to employees in August 2017 declaring that the company would begin accepting donations for the SPLC and that Apple would donate $1 million each to the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League. Apple also launched a donations app for the SPLC in Apple’s iTunes digital store. ³⁰

Offshore Fundraising and Investments

SPLC keeps an undisclosed amount of money in offshore bank accounts in the tax-sheltered U.K. territories of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. ³¹ SPLC also engages in fundraising activities in Africa, South America, Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Iceland, Greenland, Europe, Central America and the Caribbean. ³²

The organization’s tax forms reveal that the organization has experienced a large increase in assets. In 2019, it received $97 million in annual contributions while in 2017 it received $132 million in annual contributions. However, the forms also show that in 2019 the organization accumulated $570 million in assets spread between its main organization and action fund. A $52 million increase in the organization’s assets from the previous year may be attributed to the SPLC’s investment portfolio, which included $162 million in offshore accounts. ³³

Initiatives

Intelligence Project

The Intelligence Project started in 1981 as a KKK-focused effort called Klanwatch. ³⁴ It rebranded as the Intelligence Project in 1998 to include a large variety of other allegedly extreme-right individuals, groups, and movements. ³⁵ Its primary product is the Intelligence Report, a quarterly magazine given for free to law enforcement officials, journalists, and news outlets. ³⁴ The Intelligence Report identifies and tracks groups and incidents the SPLC characterizes as hate-based. As of July 2017, the Intelligence Project had 15 full-time and two part-time staffers. Its reports are regularly cited by left-of-center mainstream media outlets¹⁰

In February 2018, the Poynter Institute’s Poynter’s News University held a SPLC-funded webinar called “Covering Hate and Extremism, From the Fringes to the Mainstream: An Overview from the Southern Poverty Law Center.” The webinar featured SPLC research and was presented by Intelligence Project director Heidi Beirich. ³⁶

Hatewatch, Hate Map, and Extremist Files

The SPLC maintains the Hatewatch blog, Hate Map, and Extremist Files, all of which purport to track and expose people and groups that hold positions and engage in political activities the SPLC opposes. ¹⁶

The SPLC Hatewatch blog contains news and headlines about groups it considers hate groups. ³⁷ SPLC sends its own reporters into the field to interview and research for the blog. ³⁵ The Hate Map keeps track of its so-called hate groups on an interactive map of the United States by geographical region, ideology, or group name. ³⁸ The map is compiled using information from organizations’ publications and websites, and news and law enforcement reports. SPLC circulates and promotes its map to journalists and academics since it began publishing the map in 1990. ³⁹

The Extremist Files database contains profiles of what it considers prominent extremists and extremist organizations, including histories and core beliefs. ⁴⁰

In August 2017, the SPLC joined ProPublica and the Google News Lab as part of a coalition called Documenting Hate to build the Hate News Index, a national database of hate crime-related news stories. In addition to the SPLC, the coalition includes Univision News, the New York Times, WNYC, BuzzFeed News, First Draft, Meedan, New America Media, The Root, Latino USA, The Advocate, 100 Days in Appalachia, Ushahidi, and the University of Miami School of Communications. ⁴¹

On October 8, 2020, the SPLC issued a statement on its website announcing that the ideology category of “Black Separatist” would be removed as a listing on its “Hate Map.” According to Raven Hodges, “Black separatist groups land on the SPLC’s hate map because they propagate antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ and male supremacist views, not because they oppose a white supremacist power structure.” ⁴² The statement continued that Black Separatist-linked groups would still be monitored, but current and future groups that may have been placed in that listing would instead be transferred, “to hate ideologies, including antisemitism, that better describe the harm their rhetoric inflicts.” ⁴² The SPLC defended this move by claiming the organization, “recognizes the common language shared by our Black Separatist listing and federal attempts to criminalize Black activism,” and that, “Contributing to a false dichotomy does not serve SPLC’s mission of racial equity.” ⁴²

“Teaching Tolerance”

SPLC began its classroom education project, called Teaching Tolerance, in 1991. ⁴³ The curriculum recommends educators talk about tolerance “as a basic American value, talk about it early, talk about it often, and talk about it in a lot of different contexts, so that when the context does seem a little bit political, it’s part of a bigger picture.”⁴⁴

Teaching Tolerance and its companion website, Tolerance.org, have promoted the work of controversial academic Bill Ayers, the founder of the Weather Underground far-left extremist group and former domestic terrorist.¹¹

Perspectives for a Diverse America is a project of Teaching Tolerance which “marries anti-bias social justice content with the rigor of the Common Core State Standards.” The program is designed to teach “Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action” themes, providing course materials and ideas that meet Common Core standards. ⁴⁵

In February 2018, the SPLC circulated results of its “Teaching Hard History: American Slavery” survey. The survey of high school seniors concluded that many young people know little about slavery’s origins and the government’s role in perpetuating it. The survey also suggested educators and textbook-makers were avoiding slavery’s hard truths and lasting impact. ⁴³

2018 Supreme Court Nominee

Following the Trump administration’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the SPLC lobbied against the nomination, claiming that Kavanaugh and the organizations that supported him are “committed to a hard-right agenda.” The SPLC engaged in weekly call-ins, reaching out to then-U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). ⁴⁶

“Hate-Free Philanthropy”

On March 10, 2020, SPLC, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Muslim Fund (AMF), released a white paper discussing how philanthropic nonprofits can deny funding to organizations classified as hate groups. Titled “Hate-Free Philanthropy,” the white paper discussed areas including the issue of “hate-funding” for philanthropies, understanding the role of donor-advised funds, the role of private sectors like Big Tech in pushing anti-hate policies, and how the philanthropic community can develop a framework for “greater reform.” ⁴⁷ The white paper itself was a product of a symposium in August 2019 that included CAIR, the SPLC, and AMF along with several dozen like-minded advocates. ⁴⁷

Turning Point USA

In 2024, the SPLC added Turning Point USA, a major conservative youth organization, to the Hate Map. Turning Point USA, founded by political activist Charlie Kirk, is a student-based right-of-center organization that claims to have a presence on 3,500 campuses. As The Independent points out, the inclusion of Turning Point USA on the Hate Map places the group alongside “regional chapters of the Ku Klux Klan and other far-right, neo-Nazi and Islamophobic organizations.” ⁴⁸

In an article titled “Turning Point USA: A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024,” SPLC group claimed that “Turning Point USA’s primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors.” The SPLC describes Turning Point USA’s advocacy as “hard right,” stating that the “hard right has historically used narratives about maternal responsibility and manufactured threats to children to mobilize women. White nationalist propaganda is full of depictions of mothers with their children.” ⁴⁹

In response to Turning Point USA’s inclusion on the Hate Map, Kirk accused the SPLC of “peddling their ‘hate map’ nonsense” to “line their own pockets,” according to The Independent.  ⁴⁸

As of September 2025, following the assassination of Kirk at a TPUSA rally in Orem, Utah, SPLC still has a poem on its website titled “A Civil Community” that allegedly glorifies domestic terrorist and convicted murderer Assata Shakur. Part of the poem reads, “Remember Martin, Remember Assata, reaching beyond that plantation haze…” ^{50 51} Shakur was a radical activist who shot and killed a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, before being arrested and later convicted of murder in 1977. She escaped prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba and made the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists’ List. Shakur remained in exile until her death on September 25, 2025. ⁵²

Hate Crimes Symposium

In November 2023, a representative from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) participated in a U.S. Department of Justice hate crimes symposium held in Columbia, South Carolina. The event, organized by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, included federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and other officials, and focused on the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. The SPLC presentation addressed trends in anti-LGBTQ+ violence and methods for identifying indicators of bias-motivated crimes. The organization’s involvement drew criticism due to its practice of designating certain conservative and religious organizations as “hate groups” on its widely publicized hate map. The SPLC has faced both support and scrutiny for its classification practices, which have resulted in legal challenges and public debate over its criteria and methodology. ⁵³

Other Activities

In August 2025, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of community activist group Progressive People’s Action (PPA), filed a motion to intervene in ongoing case Whaley v. St. Petersburg between restaurant owner Ronnica Whaley and the city of St. Petersburg, Florida. Whaley initially filed a lawsuit against the city requesting the city remove or prohibit homeless individuals from sleeping in public spaces under Florida House Bill 1365, “Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping” that went into effect in October 2024 as well as a local ordinance passed by the city in November 2024 to comply with the state law. PPA argued against Whaley’s lawsuit, claiming “Progressive People’s Action stands in full solidarity with our unhoused neighbors and friends. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” ⁵⁴ SPLC senior staff attorney Jacqueline Azis also released a statement arguing “Homelessness is not a crime, yet Whaley seeks a cruel interpretation of Florida’s public camping statute by demanding the court jail or banish people experiencing homelessness from public space.” ⁵⁴ According to the request to intervene in the case, SPLC argued for the city to allow the PPA “to intervene to represent the interests and constitutional rights of St. Petersburg residents who are experiencing homelessness.” ⁵⁴

Criticism and Controversies

Morris Dees Firing

On March 14, 2019, Morris Dees was fired from his position as chief trial counsel for unspecified reasons. Among allegations reported was the need to improve the SPLC’s office culture and treatment of its employees. According to internal documents and reports from staff, Dees demonstrated racist sentiments to the point his black employees “felt threatened and banded together.” ³ Over 20 employees reportedly voiced concern to management about internal allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination against Dees. Then-SPLC president Richard Cohen, who resigned shortly after Dees’s termination was announced, said that the group would bring in an outside evaluator to improve its workplace environment. ⁵⁵

On March 18, 2019, the SPLC board of directors announced that it would be retaining Tina Tchen, then-president of the Time’s Up Foundation, to lead “a comprehensive review of the SPLC’s workplace culture and its past policies.” ⁵⁶

On April 2, 2019, the SPLC announced that attorney Karen Baynes-Dunning would replace Cohen as interim president. ⁴

Left-leaning journalists employed by the SPLC during the time of Tchen’s investigation later claimed that the investigation suffered from a lack of transparency and that its findings were never put into writing that SPLC employees were shown. According to a former SPLC employee, once Tchen’s investigation began “it became abundantly clear to many of us that she had been hired to protect the reputation of the SPLC, and not to enact or recommend changes that would benefit staff—changes that we desperately needed.” ⁵⁷

On August 26, 2021, Tchen resigned from Time’s Up after it was revealed that she had aided in the suppression of sexual harassment allegations against then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. ⁵⁸

Ignoring Left-Wing Extremism

SPLC has faced criticism for failing to track leftist political violence. When five Occupy Wall Street members were arrested for attempting to set bombs at a Cleveland, Ohio bridge in 2012,⁵⁹ National Review r reporter Charles C.W. Cooke questioned an SPLC representative to determine if SPLC would track left-wing extremism as it purports to track right-wing extremism. ⁶⁰ The SPLC representative responded, “They were Anarchists…  We’re not really set up to cover the extreme Left.”⁶⁰

In 2021, SPLC published a poem titled “A Civil Community” on it’s website that mentioned Assata Shakur. Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army who fatally shot a police officer during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1977. She was later sentenced to life in prison in 1979, however she managed to escape and flee to Cuba, where she passed away in late September of 2025. ⁶¹ The section of the Poem that mentions Shakur goes as follows: ⁵⁰

“Remeber our people
The dreamers.
The Browns and the Blacks
The ones who built bridges from inland to coast.
The ones who fought for justice and freedom.
The ones who couldn’t be silenced-the hollering
of their heartbeat,
the hope in their words.

Remember Martin
Remember Assata
reaching beyond
that planation haze,
sword-lilies blossoming
during our darkest times.
Sparrows singing.
our victory song. “

Attacks on Mainstream Figures

In April 2018, SPLC removed its “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” from its website after Maajid Nawaz, a British Muslim who defected from Islamist extremism to become an advocate for reform within Islam, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list. Published in December 2016, the report purported to list promoters of hateful propaganda. ⁴⁰ The guide also listed Somali-born former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an author and former member of the Dutch parliament for the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who stridently opposes Islamism and the practice of female genital mutilation, as an “anti-Muslim extremist.”⁶²

On February 14, 2019, Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right group Proud Boys, filed a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC in response to the SPLC’s labeling of Proud Boys as a “hate group.” ⁶³ McInnes argues that by calling him and his group misogynistic and Islamophobic, the SPLC has personally cost him economic opportunities and prompted various social media platforms to ban him. ⁶⁴

The SPLC once listed U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ben Carson, a surgeon and Republican activist who would later serve as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the first Trump administration, among neo-Nazis and white supremacists on its extremist lists. SPLC backed down after putting Carson on the list in 2014, removing his name and apologizing. ¹⁰

2012 Family Research Council Shooting

SPLC’s classification of “hate groups” has been cited by at least one violent left-wing extremist for helping to inspire him to attempt a terrorist attack on a mainstream social right-leaning advocacy group. In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins II carried a pistol and nearly 100 rounds of ammunition into the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC), a social conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage and supports the right to life. Corkins shot one employee non-fatally and declared that he had intended to kill as many FRC staff as possible. Corkins later told law enforcement that he targeted FRC after discovering the group on the SPLC’s online list of anti-gay groups. ¹²

The FRC is listed on the SPLC’s “Hate Map” ⁶⁵ and is described at length in its “Extremist Files” as of June 2025. ^{66 12 67}

Associations with Nonpartisan Organizations

In June 2017, the online charity clearinghouse Guidestar added “warning labels” to 46 charitable organizations accused by SPLC of spreading hate. Less than one month later, Guidestar removed the labels amid immediate outcry by conservative groups, which objected to listing groups targeted as hateful for opposing same-sex marriage. Representatives of conservative organizations sent a letter to Guidestar describing the SPLC’s hate group list as a political weapon and “ad hoc, partisan, and agenda-driven.”⁶⁸

In June 2018, the Daily Caller revealed that the SPLC was among the 300 non-governmental organizations and government agencies in YouTube’s “Trusted Flaggers” program, helping YouTube identify extremist content.  ⁶⁹ The SPLC was the only participant in the program given the authority to determine the eligibility of other organizations. ⁷⁰

SPLC was used by Amazon to vet charitable organizations allowed to take part in its AmazonSmile program, which donates 0.5 percent of eligible purchases to organizations chosen by customers. ⁷¹ Amazon removed the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent social conservative public interest law firm which has won cases before the Supreme Court, from its AmazonSmile program in May 2018, citing SPLC’s listing of ADF as a “hate group.”⁷²

Financial Assets

The SPLC has been criticized by conservatives and liberals as hypocritical for seeking millions of dollars in donations instead of the alleviation of poverty. In 2012, the Daily Kos, a left-of-center website, criticized the SPLC for “pimping out the word poverty” in order to solicit millions of dollars in donations. In particular, the article pointed to the organization’s $238 million in assets reported for 2011 and offshore bank accounts, writing: “Folks living in poverty across America must feel so empowered to know this organization is fighting to lift them up from their poor economic status, by shipping unknown of U.S. dollars (thousands? millions?) to two tax havens abroad.”⁷³

Criticism of Trump Administration

In April 2019, the SPLC signed a letter, titled ““An Open Letter to America’s CEOs,” condemning the immigration policies of the first Trump administration while urging American CEOs not to employ anyone involved with the policy. It accused these officials of being directly guilty for physical abuse, sexual assault, and even the death of illegal immigrant children. ⁷⁴

Offshore Accounts

According to its financial statement covering the period between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center stored $41 million in offshore accounts, bringing the total to $162 million when added to the financial information disclosed in the previous release period. ⁷⁵ This comes after 2018 tax forms revealed a decrease in contributions to the organization, from $132 million in 2017 to $97 million in 2018. The same tax forms also showed a $52 million increase in total assets between the SPLC and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund from the previous year, now totaling $570 million. ⁷⁵

In addition, the records showed that over $1 million had been provided to SPLC co-founder and former chief trial counsel Morris Dees, former SPLC president Richard Cohen, and former SPLC legal director Rhonda Brownstein. ⁷⁵ Dees had been fired from his position in March 2019 due to complaints of racial discrimination and sexual harassment within the workplace, with Cohen and Brownstein resigning from their positions shortly after. The latter two had also received a six-figure severance package following their resignation, according to financial records. ⁷⁵

Dustin Inman Society

On March 31, 2023, U.S District Judge W. Keith Watkins rejected a motion filed by the SPLC to dismiss a lawsuit filed by advocacy group The Dustin Inman Society, which had been labeled a “hate group” under the SPLC’s “Hate Map” in 2018. ⁷⁶

D.A King founded the Society to “honor our immigration system and the real, legal immigrants that we bring into the country every year by enforcing our immigration laws.” The Society was named after a 16-year old boy killed in a car accident in 2000 caused by an illegal immigrant after a 16-year old boy killed in a car accident in 2000 caused by an illegal immigrant. ^{76 77}

The SPLC had initially labeled the Society a “hate group” in 2018 by claiming the group, “denigrates immigrants and supports efforts to make the lives of immigrants so hard that they leave on their own.” ⁷⁶ The Society challenged the SPLC’s labeling of the Society as a hate group, which the SPLC claimed was protected under the First Amendment as a “non-actionable opinion.” D.A King commented on the motion rejection in an interview with the Washington Examiner by stating, “We’ve overcome what I am told is the biggest and most often interjected hurdle when people try to fight back against the well-funded Southern Poverty Law Center.”⁷⁶ As of April 2023, King stated that he and his team are now seeking a trial as well as, “compensatory damages, punitive damages, and an injunction requiring the SPLC to remove its label, issue a public retraction, and publicly apologize.” ⁷⁶

Stop Cop City Demonstrations

In March 2023, Tom Jurgens, a staff attorney with the SPLC, was one of 35 activists arrested for taking part in a violent protest against the city of Atlanta’s proposed Public Safety Training Center, commonly nicknamed, “Cop City.” ⁷⁸ Of the 35 arrested during the attack, 22 were charged with domestic terrorism including Jurgens. ⁷⁹ Jurgens’s deleted LinkedIn profile showed that he joined the SPLC in 2021. ⁷⁸ According to the SPLC, Jurgens had been present at the site as a “legal observer” for the National Lawyers Guild. ⁷⁹

According to a statement released by the Atlanta Police Department, on March 5, “violent agitators” used, “the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers.” ⁷⁹ The statement continued explaining that activists, “entered the construction area and began to throw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers.” ⁷⁹ The attacks resulted in the destruction of, “multiple pieces of construction equipment by fire and vandalism.” ^{78 80} Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum called the riot a, “very violent attack” and an, “attempt to destabilize,” while Georgia Governor Brian Kemp labeled it as “domestic terrorism.” ⁷⁸

On March 7, Jurgens was the only one of the 22 charged activists to be granted consent bail at $5,000. According to DeKalb County Court Magistrate Judge Anna Davis, “Given the fact that he is a [barred] attorney, his claim at this point, he’s a legal observer. I can’t stand here and say there’s evidence he threw something.” ⁷⁹ The SPLC issued a statement upon Jurgens’s release, claiming, “Tom was performing a public service, documenting potential violations of protesters’ rights…we are outraged that police officers present at the protest refused to acknowledge Tom’s role as a legal observer and instead chose to arrest him.” ⁷⁹

Lawyers Accused of Engaging in Misconduct

A 2024 report by three judges from federal district courts of Alabama accused lawyers from the SPLC of “misconduct” following their involvement in three separate lawsuits to challenge the state’s 2022 Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act meant to eliminate hormonal and surgical gender reassignment procedures on minors. The report accused lawyers of “judge-shopping,” with one of the judges claiming the lawyers were involved in “a particularly pernicious form of forum shopping…a practice that has the propensity to create the appearance of impropriety in the judicial system.”  ⁸¹ The group of lawyers are also from similar left-of-center organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. ⁸¹

2024 “Year in Hate and Extremism” Report

In June 2024, the SPLC released its “Year in Hate and Extremism” report claiming that it documented roughly 86 active anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups, which is about 33 percent higher than the number of similar groups detailed in 2022, Several of the new groups added include state affiliates of family policy councils, medical groups that oppose experimental transgender treatments for “gender-affirming care,” and local chapters of the gay and lesbian activist group Gays Against Groomers. Several right-wing groups remained on the yearly list including Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council (FRC).  ^{82 83}

In 2025, the SPLC made “policy recommendations” based on the 2024 report. The report criticized the Trump’s administration decision to pardon “1,500 people who had been charged with crimes associated with the deadly events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol,” and the decision to pardon “23 anti-abortion activists.” In the report on how to combat political violence, the SPLC was critical of the Trump administration, however, noticeably made no mention of the two assassination attempts on then-former President Donald Trump in the same year.  ⁸⁴

Immigration Assistance Under Biden Administration

In June 2025, the SPLC was one of 215 non-governmental organizations (NGO) the U.S House of Homeland Security Committee noted as having received federal funding during the Biden Administration to settle undocumented migrants in the United Stated while helping “fuel the worst border crisis in our nation’s history.” ⁸⁵ House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Subcommittee Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK) sent letters to the over 200 organizations demanding the full amount in “federal grants, contracts or payments” they received  “between Jan. 19, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025” as well as additional information on potential legal action they might have taken against the Federal Government and all services they provided to undocumented migrants during that period of time. The letters further read “[t]he Committee remains deeply concerned that NGOs that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars benefitted from the border crisis created by the Biden Administration, and stand ready to do so under future Democrat administrations.” ^{85 86}

Related Organizations

For more on SPLC Action Fund, see SPLC Action Fund.

The SPLC has multiple related organizations including the SPLC Action Fund, the New Southern Leaders PAC, and the New Southern Majority IE PAC. ⁸⁷

The SPLC Action Fund is the lobbying and advocacy arm of the SPLC. The group shares SPLC’s mission to “dismantle white nationalism” and “[expand] voting rights and civic engagement among communities of color.” Furthermore, the SPLC Action Fund endorses local candidates in certain races in the American southeast, up to and including elections for aldermen, city council members, and mayors. ^{88 89}

The New Southern Leaders PAC and the New Southern Majority IE PAC are both political action committees based in Georgia that the SPLC claimed as related organizations in 2023. ⁸⁷

Leadership

Margaret Huang

Margaret Huang is the chief executive officer and president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Prior to working at the Southern Poverty Law Center, she worked as the executive director of Amnesty International USA where she organized campaigns to support the human rights of migrants and refugees, survivors of torture, and victims of gun violence. Previously, she also worked as the executive director of the Rights Working Group, director of the U.S. program at Global Rights, director of the director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, program manager for the Asia Foundation and as a committee staff member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ⁹⁰ In 2024, the SPLC employee union demanded the replacement of Huang as CEO, after the SPLC laid off nearly 80 employees, according to The Guardian. ²³

Former Leadership

Moris Dees

Morris Dees is a co-founder of the SPLC and served as chief trial counsel for the group until March 2019, when he was fired from his position. While still in college, Dees and business partner Millard Fuller created the Fuller & Dees Marketing Group. ⁹¹ His former partner admits the pair shared an “overriding purpose of making a pile of money” and becoming “independently rich.”⁹² The company grew into one of the largest publishers in the South and the largest cookbook publisher in the U.S. ⁹³ Fuller and Dees parted ways with the sale of the company to Time Warner in 1969. ⁹¹ Fuller went on to found Habitat for Humanity, and later the Fuller Center for Housing before his death in 2009. ⁹³ Dees went on to join lawyer Joseph Levin, Jr. to found the SPLC. In 1998, Dees was named to the Direct Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame. ⁹¹

Dees’ total compensation in 2017 was $416,948. ⁹⁴

On March 14, 2019 the SPLC announced that it had fired Dees for unspecified conduct violations. Internal documents reviewed by Newsweek allege charges of “racism against Dees,” where staffers claim that black employees “felt threatened and banded together.” ³ A series of sexual harassment allegations against Dees were also reported to SPLC management from employees shortly prior to his dismissal. ⁵⁵

According to a local newspaper which spoke to Dees after his firing, over the past decade Dees had not tried any cases nor participated in the SPLC’s day-to-day activities—despite his role as the group’s chief litigator. While the specific reasons for Dees’s termination are unclear, the SPLC announced that it will call in an independent organization to assess its workplace culture and office environment. ⁹⁵

Other former leadership

Richard Cohen served as the SPLC president and CEO from 2003 until he resigned on March 14, 2019 following Morris Dees’ termination as chief trial counsel on March 13, 2019. ⁹⁶ Cohen joined the SPLC in 1986 and has led the group in numerous legal victories including a $37.6 million judgment in 1998 against the Ku Klux Klan for burning down a church in rural South Carolina. ⁹⁷ Cohen also spearheaded the SPLC’s ultimately successful efforts to remove controversial former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R), both for his refusal to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments on the steps of his court and for attempting to preserve Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriages in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling mandating recognition of such unions. ⁹⁸ Cohen’s 2017 total compensation was $390,686. ⁹⁹

Joseph Levin, Jr. is an SPLC co-founder and legal director. In 1976, he left the SPLC to work on then-President-elect Jimmy Carter’s transition team, then worked in the Carter administration as chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. After leaving government, he worked in private practice until 1996 and then returned to the SPLC. He previously worked for SPLC as board chair, president and CEO, and general counsel. He retired in 2016. ¹⁰⁰

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4. Darran Simon. “Southern Poverty Law Center names new interim president and CEO.” CNN. April 2, 2019. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/us/southern-poverty-law-center-leadership-change/index.html
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36. “Covering Hate and Extremism, From the Fringes to the Mainstream: An Overview from the Southern Poverty Law Center.” Poynter’s News University. Accessed May 20, 2018. http://www.newsu.org/courses/covering-hate-and-extremism-fringes-to-mainstream.
37. Foundation Center. “Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map.” Philanthropy News Digest (PND). August 15, 2017. Accessed May 17, 2018. https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/on-the-web/southern-poverty-law-center-s-hate-map.
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39. Hrynkiw, Ivana. “Conservative Groups Ask Media Outlets to Stop Using SPLC ‘hatewatch’ Data.” AL.com. September 07, 2017. Accessed May 13, 2018. https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/conservative_groups_ask_media.html.
40. Crowe, Jack. “Southern Poverty Law Center Quietly Deleted List of ‘Anti-Muslim’ Extremists After Legal Threat.” National Review. April 20, 2018. Accessed May 17, 2018. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/southern-poverty-law-center-removes-extremist-list-after-legal-threat/.
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42. Hodges, Raven. “EQUITY THROUGH ACCURACY: CHANGES TO OUR HATE MAP.” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 8, 2020. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/10/08/equity-through-accuracy-changes-our-hate-map
43. Turner, Cory. “Why Schools Fail To Teach Slavery’s ‘Hard History’.” NPR. February 04, 2018. Accessed May 20, 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/02/04/582468315/why-schools-fail-to-teach-slaverys-hard-history.
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46. “Tell These Senators to Vote “no” on Supreme Court Nomination.” Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed February 04, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/tell-these-senators-vote-no-supreme-court-nomination.
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49. “Case Study of the Hard Right: 2024 Year in Hate & Extremism.” Southern Poverty Law Center, May 24, 2025. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/turning-point-usa-case-study-hard-right-2024/.
50. “A Civil Community.” Southern Poverty Law Center, April 22, 2021. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/civil-community/
51. Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando). ” The SPLC has a poem on their website glorifying convicted murderer and domestic terrorist Assata Shakur, The SPLC gets to decide who is and is not an “extremist.” X, September 27, 2025. https://x.com/oilfield_rando/status/1971949097717584265?s=46&t=jI5pta-LqWTQoagVEw7hsA
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54. “SPLC Represents Progressive People’s Action to Intervene in Lawsuit to Defend Rights of Unhoused St. Petersburg Residents.” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 29, 2025. https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/lawsuit-defend-rights-unhoused-st-petersburg-florida-residents/
55. Truong, Kimberly. “Southern Poverty Law Center Co-Founder Ousted Over Alleged Misconduct.” The Cut. March 15, 2019. Accessed March 15, 2019. https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/southern-poverty-law-center-fires-co-founder-morris-dees.html.
56. “SPLC Board of Directors Retains Tina Tchen to Lead Comprehensive Workplace Review.” Southern Poverty Law Center, March 18, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-board-directors-retains-tina-tchen-lead-comprehensive-workplace-review.
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61. Marcelo, Philip. “Assata Shakur, Fugitive Black Activist Who Escaped Life Sentence for Killing Police Officer, Dies in Cuba.” PBS, September 26, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/assata-shakur-fugitive-black-activist-who-escaped-life-sentence-for-killing-police-officer-dies-in-cuba.
62. “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists: Ayaan Hirsi Ali.” Southern Poverty Law Center. October 25, 2016. Accessed July 17, 2017. https://www.splcenter.org/20161025/journalists-manual-field-guide-anti-muslim-extremists#ali.
63. Watts, Susan. “Proud Boys Founder Sues Southern Poverty Law Center over Hate Group Label.” NBCNews.com. February 04, 2019. Accessed February 04, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/proud-boys-founder-gavin-mcinnes-sues-southern-poverty-law-center-n966701.
64. Fredericks, Bob. “Gavin McInnes Files Lawsuit over Proud Boys Being Labeled Hate Group.” New York Post. February 04, 2019. Accessed February 04, 2019. https://nypost.com/2019/02/04/gavin-mcinnes-files-lawsuit-over-proud-boys-being-labeled-hate-group/.
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67. “Family Research Council.” Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/family-research-council
68. Hogan, Susan. “After Conservative Backlash, Charity Tracker GuideStar Removes ‘hate Group’ Labels.” The Washington Post. June 26, 2017. Accessed May 20, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/26/after-conservative-backlash-charity-tracker-guidestar-removes-hate-group-labels/?utm_term=.d721d766c710.
69. Hasson, Peter. “EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Secretly Using SPLC To Police Videos.” The Daily Caller. March 06, 2018. Accessed May 20, 2018. http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/27/google-youtube-southern-poverty-law-center-censorship/.
70. Hasson, Peter. “EXCLUSIVE: Facebook, Amazon, Google And Twitter All Work With Left-Wing SPLC.” The Daily Caller. June 7, 2018. Accessed June 13, 2018. http://dailycaller.com/2018/06/06/splc-partner-google-facebook-amazon/.
71. “AmazonSmile Org Central: Customers Shop. Amazon Gives.” Amazon. Accessed May 20, 2018. https://org.amazon.com/.
72. Payton, Bre. “Amazon Boots Christian Nonprofit From Donations Program Because Of SPLC’s ‘Hate List’.” The Federalist. May 03, 2018. Accessed May 20, 2018. http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/03/amazon-boots-christian-nonprofit-from-donations-program-because-of-splcs-hate-list/.
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76. Theis, Breccan F. “SPLC ‘hate group’ labeling of conservative groups gets legal scrutiny.” The Washington Examiner, April 6, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/splc-hate-group-labeling-of-conservative-groups-lawsuit
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78. Wilson, Ben. “Southern Poverty Law Center Attorney Charged With Domestic Terrorism.” Washington Free Beacon, March 6, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/southern-poverty-law-center-attorney-charged-with-domestic-terrorism/
79. Richardson, Valerie. “Judge denies bail to all suspects in ‘Cop City’ attack — except Southern Poverty Law Center lawyer.” Washington Times, March 7, 2023. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/7/thomas-webb-jurgens-southern-poverty-law-center-la/
80. Salzmann, Karl. “‘Domestic Terrorism’: Anti-Cop Rioters Attack Proposed Atlanta Police Training Center.” Washington Free Beacon, March 6, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/domestic-terrorism-anti-cop-rioters-attack-proposed-atlanta-police-training-center/
81. Spakovsky, Hans Von and Sarah Parshall Perry. “Deeds done in the dark: Leftist lawyers caught engaging in attorney misconduct.” Washington Times, April 17, 2024. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/17/deeds-done-in-dark-leftist-lawyers-caught-engaging/
82. O’Neil, Tyler. “SPLC Adds Openly Gay Group to List of ‘Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Groups’.” The Daily Signal, June 5, 2024. https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/06/05/splc-gays-groomers-doctors-who-oppose-gender-affirming-care-hate-map-klan-chapters/
83. Tremoglie, Christopher. “The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate organization.” Washington Examiner, May 27, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3422368/the-southern-poverty-law-center-is-a-hate-organization/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1748358818&utm_campaign=Beltway+Confidential&utm_term=Postup
84. “Year in Hate and Extremism Report 2024 Policy Recommendations.” Southern Poverty Law Center, May 24, 2025. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/year-hate-extremism-2024-policy-recommendations/.
85. Christenson, Josh. “House panel demands records of more than 200 NGOs that nabbed billions of taxpayer dollars to ‘fuel’ border crisis.” New York Post, June 10, 2025. https://nypost.com/2025/06/10/us-news/house-panel-demands-records-of-over-200-ngos-that-nabbed-billions-of-taxpayer-dollars-to-fuel-border-crisis/
86. “Chairmen Green, Brecheen Launch Probe into 200+ Ngos over Their Use of Taxpayer Dollars during the Biden-Harris Border Crisis.” Committee on Homeland Security, June 11, 2025. https://homeland.house.gov/2025/06/11/chairmen-green-brecheen-launch-probe-into-200-ngos-over-their-use-of-taxpayer-dollars-during-the-biden-harris-border-crisis/.
87. “Southern Poverty Law Center,” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990) 2023. Schedule R.
88. “Endorsements Archive.” Action Fund. Accessed June 2, 2025. https://www.splcactionfund.org/endorsements/.
89.  “About.” Action Fund, May 2, 2025. https://www.splcactionfund.org/about/.
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