SPLC - Southern Poverty Law Center hate group

Decades ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) made a name for itself fighting genuinely extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Those groups have pretty much disappeared, leaving the SPLC suddenly at a loss for issues on which to fundraise. The solution was to find a hate group under every rock and around every corner. Thousands are still waiting to be uncovered! The job of the SPLC will never be done, and it will take a huge amount of donor support to continue this crusade.

We recommend the excellent book: Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, by Tyler O'Neil, 2020. Here is a good review of the book: How The Southern Poverty Law Center Started Inventing ‘Hate Groups’, by Kyle Shideler, The Federalist, April 24, 2020.

 

Here is a compilation of some of the articles, resources, and references exposing the SPLC fundraising machine.

The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, by Bob Moser, The New Yorker, 21 March 2019.

Turmoil Engulfs the SPLCA closer look at the underlying scam of the organization’s ‘hate group designation’, by Paul Nachma, The Social Contract, Spring, 2019.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been rated "poor" by Charity Navigator, stating that net assets were $152 million. The SPLC 2015 tax form 990 reveals that the SPLC has in fact amassed over $328 million in assets.

Immigration and the SPLC, Jerry Kammer, Center for Immigration Studies, March 2010:

Rather than engage in a debate, La Raza and its allies have waged a campaign to have the other side shunned by the press, civil society, and elected officials. It is an effort to destroy the reputations of its targets. It also seeks to intimidate and coerce others into silence. It undermines basic principles of civil society and democratic discussion...

Crazy SPLC smears black woman as white nationalist, Fred Elbel, CAIRCO, November 5, 2015.

Southern Poverty Law Center: Wellspring of Manufactured Hate, James Simpson, Organization Trends, Capital Research Center, September 25, 2012:

SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok doesn’t mince words about illegal-immigration opponents:

“Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate crimes and so on … I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.…” [Watch video]...

Though trained as a lawyer, [SPLC Founder Morris] Dees is best known for his fundraising ability...

With over $238 million in net assets, the SPLC is one of the wealthiest nonprofit organizations in the United States. Despite this massive endowment, the Center devotes almost 20 percent of its $34.5 million operating expenses – $6.5 million in 2011 – to fundraising. This includes $1 million for fundraising services and $5.5 million in fundraising staff salaries and administrative expenses.

Meanwhile, the group spent only $11 million on its supposed primary mission: “providing legal services to victims of civil rights injustices and hate crimes.”...

Poverty Palace - How the Southern Poverty Law Center got rich fighting the Klan, John Egerton, The Progressive, July 1988. (Also see references on The SPLC and Fundraising Up-Close). Excerpt from 2008 letter:

Dees and [partner Millard Fuller] were in hot pursuit of their first million dollars, and each of them reached that goal in 1964. "Morris and I, from the first day of our partnership, shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money," Fuller wrote in a book some years later. "We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. During the eight years we worked together, we never wavered in that resolve."

SPLC Poverty Palace

Southern Poverty Law Center – Manufacturing Hate for Fun and Profit, James Simpson, Breitbart, February 16, 2016.

Associated Press: SPLC Using Hate Group Label to Target 'Conservative Viewpoints', Breitbart, January 22, 2016.

The SPLC exposed - Southern Poverty Law Center - Morris Dees and hate crimes, The Social Contract.

King of Fearmongers - Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, scaring donors since 1971, Charlotte Allen, The Weekley Standard, April 15, 2013:

What has infuriated the SPLC’s liberal critics is their suspicion that Morris Dees has used the SPLC primarily as a fundraising machine fueled by his direct-mail talents that generates a nice living for himself (the SPLC’s 2010 tax filing lists a compensation package of $345,000 for him as the organization’s chief trial counsel and highest-paid employee) and a handful of other high ranking SPLC officials plus luxurious offices and perks, but that does relatively little in the way of providing the legal services to poor people that its name implies.

CharityWatch (formerly the American Institute of Philanthropy), an independent organization that monitors and rates leading nonprofits for their fundraising efficiency, has consistently given the SPLC its lowest grade of “F” (i.e., “poor”) for its stockpiling of assets far beyond what CharityWatch deems a reasonable reserve (three years’ worth of operating expenses) to tide it over during donation-lean years. But even if the SPLC weren’t sitting on an unspent $256 million, according to CharityWatch, it would still be a mediocre (“C+”) performer among nonprofits.

Southern Poverty Law Center's Lucrative 'Hate Group' Label, Rosslyn Smith, American Thinker. August 22, 2012.

Racial Racketeering for Fun and Profit: The Southern Poverty Law Center Scam, Thomas J. DiLorenzo, published on LewRockwell.com, June 22, 2011:

There have never been any left-wing groups on the SPLC’s lengthy list of "hate groups." It’s "Hate Watch" Web site clearly states that it is supposedly "Keeping and Eye on the Radical Right." There is no mention of the Radical Left, such as the organizations the SPLC’s board members all have founded or belong to and associate with. When pressed, the professional political haters at the SPLC will admit, as Mark Potok, author of the laughingly-named "Intelligence Report" did, that his "hate group" list is "all about ideology," as Menzies writes.

CIS: SPLC Manipulated the media with smear campaign, Center for Immigration Studies.

King of the Hate Business, Alexander Cockburn, Creators, 2009:

The sun is dipping low in the evening sky over the Republican Party as the Other Leading Brand... It's also horrible news for people who raise money and make money selling the notion there's a right resurgence out there in the hinterland with massed legions of haters, ready to march down Main Street draped in Klan robes, a copy of "Mein Kampf" tucked under one arm and a Bible under the other.

What is the arch-salesman of hate mongering, Mr. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, going to do now?...

Dees and his hate-seekers scour the landscape for hate like the arms manufacturers inventing new threats and for the same reason: It's their staple.

The Church of Morris Dees, Ken Silverstein, Originally published by Harpers Magazine, November, 2000:

In 1986, the center's entire legal staff quit in protest of Dees's refusal to address issues--such as homelessness, voter registration, and affirmative action--that they considered far more pertinent to poor minorities, if far less marketable to affluent benefactors, than fighting the KKK. Another lawyer, Gloria Browne, who resigned a few years later, told reporters that the center's programs were calculated to cash in on "black pain and white guilt."

Lump of Coal, Fairfax Journal, December 16, 2003:

... human nature being what it is, there always seems to be a lump of coal lurking among the sugarplums. We were reminded of this unpleasant fact again by a Journal reader in Arlington who considered making a contribution to the Southern Poverty Law Center, listed as No. 0454 in the Combined Federal Campaign...

In fact, unknown to most CFC donors, the tax-exempt SPLC flunked an audit by the Arlington-based Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, which requires that "a reasonable percentage, at least 50 percent of total income from all sources, should be applied to programs and activities directly related to the purposes for which the organization exists."

...SPLC...spent 89 percent of its total income on fund-raising and administrative costs...

Granted, administrative costs tend to run high when executive salaries are in the six-figure range. For example,... Morris Dees, SPLC's chief trial lawyer, pulls down a cool $280,699...

... give your hard-earned dollars to a real charity, not a bunch of slick, parasitic hucksters who live high on the hog by raising money on behalf of needy people who never see a dime of it.

When a hate crime is something to love, Wesley Pruden, Editor in Chief, The Washington Times, February, 2004:

...Morris Dees [founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center] won a judgment for a black woman whose son was killed by Klansmen. She received $51,875 as settlement. Mr. Dees, according to an investigation by the Montgomery Advertiser, pulled in $9 million from fund-raising solicitation letters that featured a particularly gruesome photograph of the grieving mother's son. Mr. Dees, who pays himself an annual salary of $275,000, offered the grieving mother none of the $9 million her son's death made for him.

Mr. Dees, in fact, earns - or is paid, which is not necessarily the same thing - more than nearly any officer of other advocacy groups surveyed by the National Journal, more than the chairmen of the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Children's Defense Fund.

"You are a fraud and a con man," Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which actually takes on dozens of death-penalty appeals for poor blacks every year, once told him. "You spend so much, accomplish so little, and promote yourself so shamelessly."...

White guilt can be manipulated with black pain, but it has to be done carefully. It's a sordid scam. Some people would call what Morris Dees does a hate crime, but it's a living, and a very good one.

The Southern Poverty Law Center: A Twisted Definition of Hate, Matthew Vadum, Capital Research Center, November, 2006.

The truth about 'hate crimes' and the racial justice racket, Ron Smith, Baltimore Sun, December 3, 2008.

The Southern Poverty Law Center - No Artistry in its Smears, Don Feder, DiscoverTheNetworks.org, February 8, 2001.

Mission Creep and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Misguided Focus, Carol M. Swain, Political Analyst, Professor of Political Science and Law at Vanderbilt University (original article, August 10, 2009).

Who is the Southern Poverty Law Center and What is Their Role in the Campaign Against Prop. 200?, FAIR, August 24, 2004.

Intolerance Identified - Morris Dees and The Southern Poverty Law Center, Karen De Coster, originally published on ZolaTimes.com, December, 2000, and The Laissez Faire City Times, December, 2000.

Wypijewski Replies on the Southern Poverty Law Center, JoAnn Wypijewski, The Nation, February 8, 2001.

Hate and Slander for Profit - Dissecting the Southern Poverty Law Center Report, Digger's Realm, August, 2009.

Morris Dees Fact Sheet, Originally published by The Patriotist.

Morris Dees background information, Discover the Networks.

Morris Dees Personal Information, references and video compiled by The Social Contract.

Charity Navigator gave the SPLC an overall rating of only one star and a score of only 39 in 2004.

The American Institute of Philanthropy's Charity Watch gave the SPLC an overall rating of F from 1999 through August, 2009.

 

The SPLC File - An Exclusive Report on the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Social Contract, Spring 2018. The entire issue covers the SPLC. Articles include:

The SPLC File - the Social Contract

  1. A Note from the Editor - Watching the 'Watchers' - the SPLC Unmasked, by Wayne Lutton, Ph.D.
  2. The $outhern Poverty Law Center ...and the latest scourge of blacklisting, career-purging, and political cleansing, by The Social Contract Editors
  3. A Peek Into Hate, Inc., by Peter B. Gemma
  4. The Southern Poverty Law Center - Institution of weaponized hate, by James Simpson
  5. Cooking the Books on 'Hate' - A closer look at SPLC's famous list, by Steven Menzies
  6. The Church of Morris Dees - How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance, by Ken Silverstein
  7. Why the Government Should Sever Its Ties with the SPLC, by Social Contract Editors
  8. In the War to Defend Western Civilization from Jihadist Islam, the SPLC Sides with the Enemy, by Brenda Walker
  9. Law Enforcement Agent Condemns SPLC, by Social Contract Editors
  10. SPLC: Extreme Left-Wing 'Muckrakers', by The Social Contract Editors
  11. Teaching Tolerance - The SPLC's youth mission, by Martin Witkerk
  12. Bill Ayers and the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance Project, by The Social Contract Editors
  13. SPLC: Radical Evil Posing as Good, by John Vinson
  14. An Expert on Fringe Political Movements Reflects on the SPLC’s Political Agenda An exclusive interview with author and researcher Laird Wilcox, by Peter B. Gemma
  15. The Practice of Ritual Defamation - How values, opinions, and beliefs are controlled in democratic societies, by Laird Wilcox
  16. SPLC: Morris Dees' Award-Winning Cash Machine, by Wayne Lutton
  17. The SPLC’s Censorship Collaboration with Google, by Fred Elbel
  18. The Deceptive Methods of the Southern Poverty Law Center, by Dave Gibson
  19. The SPLC State ...and the unprecedented threat to civil liberties, by James Kirkpatrick
  20. SPLC’s MO: Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret (Slander boldly, something always sticks), by John H. Tanton
  21. Rules for Radicals: Handbook for the SPLC and Its Allies, by Wayne Lutton

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center - A Special Report, The Social Contract, Spring 2010. The entire issue covers the SPLC. Articles include:

SPLC - Profiteers of Hate - the Social Contract

  1. A Note from the Editor - The SPLC: Poisoning Public Discourse
  2. The Southern Poverty Law Center - An Introduction
  3. Fighting 'Hate' for Profit and Power: The SPLC's Political Agenda Up Close
  4. Cooking the Books on 'Hate'- A Closer Look at SPLC's Famous List
  5. The Church of Morris Dees - How the Southern Poverty Law Center Profits from Intolerance
  6. SPLC: America's Left-Wing Hate Machine
  7. Bashing for Dollars The SPLC's Predatory Game
  8. The Hidden Agenda of the SPLC
  9. An Expert on Fringe Political Movements Reflects on the SPLC's Political Agenda - An Exclusive Interview with Author and Researcher Laird Wilcox
  10. The Practice of Ritual Defamation - How Values, Opinions, and Beliefs Are Controlled in Democratic Societies
  11. The Southern Poverty Law (and Investing) Center - Will SPLC, a Beneficiary of Financial Swindler Bernie Madoff, Return Its Madoff Money?
  12. Good News: SPLC Loses $50 Million; Bad News: SPLC Can Afford It
  13. Targeting the Tea Parties

 

 

Wacky SPLC furthers repressive Sharia agenda, Fred Elbel, CAIRCO, February 16, 2016.

Frank Gaffney discusses the SPLC on Tipping Point with Liz Wheeler, February 10, 2016 (video removed from youtube).

Video: Pamela Geller: SPLC Hit List, February 22, 2016:

 

Cultural Marxism and Political Correctness

The Political Spectrum

Here is a collection of articles exposing the SPLC that are archived on CAIRCO.

SPLC targets Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform for Punishment, Stephen Byron Gassaway, Global Gulag, February 19, 2016.

To make a long story short, out of the blue, the Southern Poverty Law Center put Ranch Rescue Colorado on their notorious Hate Map. Apparently, for the SPLC, the mere act of defending a White person before the INS was all the evidence they needed to brand our organization as "anti-immigrant" and racist. All of a sudden, our support for the Afrikaaner woman became toxic to her case and the INS dismissed her claim of political, racial and religious persecution and had her deported back to South Africa, where she was murdered shortly after her return.

Southern Poverty Law Center Transfers Millions in Cash to Offshore Entities - Left-wing nonprofit pays lucrative six-figure salaries to top management, by Joe Schoffstall, Washington Free Beacon, August 31, 2017.

Southern Poverty Law Center Now Has $162 Million Stashed in Offshore Accounts - Organization paid disgraced former leaders over $1 million last year, Washington Free Beacon, April 29, 2020.

Hate Profiteering: The SPLC Hate Hustlers, by Mark Alexander, Patriot Post, August 30, 2017.

SPLC Truth Report

SPLC Exposed

Charity Watch downgrades SPLC to "F" rating, March, 2019.

Lawsuit Against SPLC Hate Group Moves Forward, by Fred Elbel, CAIRCO, 4 April 2023.

 

 

And finally:

Oh no! The hateful SPLC hate group hates us!, Fred Elbel, CAIRCO, February 17, 2016:

Can you believe it? The Denver Pravda Post called the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform a hate group! Here's the article: Colorado had 16 hate groups in 2015, says Southern Poverty Law Center.

What a hoot!

Can you imagine? The discredited SPLC moneymaking machine has christened the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform a hate group!

CAIRCO.org has been active in Colorado since the mid 1990s. Our primary focus is - and always has been - issues of sustainability, and the environmental and societal consequences of unending immigration-driven population growth.

Franklin D. Roosevelt remarked, "I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

Unfortunately, the SPLC is in a (bottom-dwelling) class of their own. They aren't capable of debating serious issues on their own merits, so they presumptuously resort to name calling in faltering attempts at intimidation.

You know, that's a formal debating tactic. It's called an ad hominem attack - something to be used in last resort when all serious logical arguments fail. As such, we really can't consider the SPLC an enemy of substance. But they tried.

I am embarrassed for Noelle Phillips and the Denver Post for regurgitating this tripe without surmounting the modicum of energy required to initiate even so much as a perfunctory email to CAIRCO to confirm this imputation. Can you smell media laziness? Media bias?

In any case, it's an honor - albeit an indiscernible one - to be included on the hateful SPLC's hate list.

Fred Elbel
Director, Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform
CAIRCO.org

 

Update February 22, 2018: The Denver Post contacted CAIRCO and published a statement from CAIRCO on the hateful SPLC hate group. It's nice to see reporting that is a bit more thorough. However, we noticed that the article completely ignored the multitude of articles and journals thoroughly discrediting the SPLC hate group. That omission reveals the implicit bias of the Denver Post.

 

SPLC Poverty Palace

 

SPLC Poverty Palace