southern poverty law center

Morris Dees, Founder Industry Civil rights law Website http://www.splcenter.org

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American non-profit legal organization, internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of organizations it calls hate groups.

The SPLC is based in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Southern United States. It was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. as a civil rights law firm.[1] Later, Civil rights leader Julian Bond became its president.[2] In addition to free legal service to the victims of discrimination and hate crime, the Center publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report which investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Tolerance.org 2.1 Documentaries 3 Notable cases 3.1 Young Men's Christian Association 3.2 Invisible Empire, Knights of the KKK 3.3 Vietnamese fishermen 3.4 White Patriot Party 3.5 United Klans of America 3.6 White Aryan Resistance 3.7 Church of the Creator 3.8 Christian Knights of the KKK 3.9 Aryan Nations 3.10 Separation of church and state 3.11 Ranch Rescue 3.12 Billy Ray Johnson 3.13 Imperial Klans of America 4 Intelligence Report 5 "Hate group" listings 6 Neo-Confederate movement 7 Fundraising 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links //

History

The Southern Poverty Law Center was organized by Dees and Levin in 1971 during a desegregation case (Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association[3]), as a law firm to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. The organization's first president was Julian Bond, formerly of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond served as president of the SPLC until 1979 and remains on its board of directors. In 1979 the Center brought the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan. In 1981 the Center began its "Klanwatch" (now "Hatewatch") project to monitor and track the activities of the KKK, which has been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations.[4] Southern Poverty Law Center Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama.

In July 1983 Klan members firebombed the center's office destroying the building and records.[5] Federal investigators said "the intruders went to work quickly, dousing files, desks and carpets with a petroleum based liquid, perhaps gasoline mixed with motor oil or diesel fuel and concentrating on the four corners of the 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) building."[5] In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pled guilty to federal and state charges to the fire.[6] At the trial, "Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr., identified as klansmen, and Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging them with conspiring to threaten, oppress and intimidate members of black organizations