While the Southern Poverty Law Center claims to support civil rights and oppose “hate,” it supports domestic terrorists and opposes mainstream values.
If an organization praised a domestic terror leader backed by Fidel Castro, whose terrorist group murdered police officers, bombed multiple U.S. targets including the NYPD headquarters, and plotted mass murder of Americans, would you consider that organization a trustworthy source of information? How about an organization that was cited in federal court by a convicted domestic terrorist as his inspiration to kill employees of a Christian pro-family group? Or a group that had repeatedly been caught lying, omitting crucial information, and dishonestly demonizing its political opponents? Meet the Southern Poverty Law Center, often known simply as the SPLC.
In various high-quality publications including its flagship Intelligence Report, distributed to police departments and government agencies across the country, the fantastically wealthy Alabama-based outfit presents itself as a neutral “civil-rights” group looking out for law enforcement. Its slick videos and the pages of its magazine warn of endless “hate groups” lurking all over the country that supposedly threaten America and police officers in particular. Of course, some of those groups, such as what’s left of the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist (Nazi) movement, are genuinely hateful and may even advocate violence. Others, though, are mainstream pro-family Christian organizations with millions of members, sandwiched in between the Nazis and KKK because they support traditional marriage a bit too vigorously for the SPLC’s taste.
But how credible is the SPLC? For starters, it is helpful to examine the SPLC’s ideology and the sources it recommends. Perhaps nothing shines as much light on this than its ringing endorsement of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground. As part of one of its projects, ironically dubbed “Teaching Tolerance,” the SPLC interviewed Ayers and described him as a “civil rights organizer, radical anti-Vietnam War activist, teacher and author.” It also claimed Ayers had developed “a rich vision of teaching that interweaves passion, responsibility and self-reflection.” Ayers is described as somebody “fighting for social justice,” too.
What the glowing introduction and the interview left out was far more important than the information the SPLC chose to include. Left unsaid, for example, is the fact that Ayers was the terrorist leader who co-founded the murderous Castro-backed terrorist group Weather Underground. One of the terror organization’s claims to fame was its 1981 murder of Waverly Brown, the first black police officer on the Nyack, New York, police force, during an armed robbery. When the Weathermen and their allies bombed the San Francisco Police Department Park Station in 1970, they murdered SFPD Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell. Another nine officers were wounded in the blast. Then the terrorists bombed Sergeant McDonnell’s funeral.
On June 9, 1970, the terror group bombed the headquarters of the New York City Police Department. In addition to murdering and bombing police officers, the Weathermen also bombed the Haymarket Police Memorial dedicated to the memory of brave Chicago police casualties. When the memorial was rebuilt, it was again blown up by the terrorist group. In a book written by one of his fellow terrorists, Ayers is quoted as saying, “When a pig gets iced that’s a good thing.” Ayers was, in short, a proud terrorist and cop-killing enthusiast.
The communist terror group, supported by the murderous Soviet puppet regime in Havana, also bombed Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the State Department, and other targets as retaliation for what were perceived to be U.S. attacks on communism at home and overseas. Beyond the bombing spree, the Weathermen also had dreams of interning and executing millions of “counter-revolutionary” Americans after overthrowing the nation with help from foreign dictatorships, according to the late Larry Grathwohl, who infiltrated Ayers’ terror group for the FBI.
When SPLC critics later began to highlight the SPLC’s bizarre praise for this unrepentant terrorist, the organization added an explanatory “editor’s note” dismissing and downplaying the criticism of the “former anti-war activist.” Despite finally acknowledging the bombing and terrorism and the fact that the charges were only dropped because of the evidence had allegedly been tainted, the SPLC went on to praise the terrorist yet again as a “highly respected figure.”
What the SPLC did not say is that Ayers continues to celebrate his terrorism to this day. “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough,” Ayers was quoted as saying in the New York Times on September 11, 2001. When he was asked whether he would plant bombs again, he said: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.” Indeed, he stated as much in his 2001 memoir about his days as a cop-killing fugitive. “I can’t imagine entirely dismissing the possibility,” Ayers says about planting more bombs in the future.
To the SPLC, this unrepentant, cop-bombing terrorist is a “highly respected figure” worthy of an extended interview about his “rich vision of teaching that interweaves passion, responsibility and self-reflection.” By contrast, mainstream Christian organizations such as the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, and others are labeled as “hate groups” alongside the KKK and Nazis. Mainstream conservative organizations, meanwhile, are dubbed “extremists” and “radical right” and painted as a danger.
What type of group celebrates a cop-killing terrorist as a “highly respected figure” and gives him a megaphone, but demonizes pro-family and pro-police groups as “extremists” and “haters”? Only the SPLC. The SPLC also supports the anti-police “Black Lives Matter” movement (see page 5), which openly counts as its ideological inspiration a cop-killing fugitive, Assata Shakur, hiding from the law in communist Cuba.
SPLC as Inspiration for Terror
The hatred drummed up by the SPLC against groups it disagrees with on issues such as marriage has already led to serious consequences. On August 15, 2012, for example, would-be terrorist and mass murderer Floyd Corkins walked into the lobby of the conservative-leaning Family Research Council (FRC) carrying a firearm and lots of ammunition. His plan was to massacre employees of the Christian pro-family group. And his inspiration was none other than the SPLC, Corkins later told the FBI.
Indeed, in addition to inspiring Corkins’ hateful attempted terrorist attack by slandering a Christian organization, the SPLC even produced a helpful “hate map” used by the domestic terrorist to locate his intended victims. Corkins was planning to target other victims of SPLC vitriol after massacring FRC employees and rubbing Chik-fil-A sandwiches on their faces. It was only the heroism of an unarmed security guard that day, who disarmed the deranged SPLC-inspired attacker, that prevented a tragedy of massive proportions. The guard was wounded in the process.
After practically every incident of violence that can in any conceivable way be exploited to demonize moderates, conservatives, and Christians, the SPLC always rushes to put out statements to the media and law enforcement implying some link. When a mentally disturbed Jared Loughner shot a congresswoman in Tucson, Arizona, for instance, the SPLC immediately sprang into action to paint him as a “right-wing” activist and member of the “Patriot” movement. In the real world, Loughner was described by friends as a “left-wing pothead.” The killer boasted on social media that he read communist and socialist propaganda of the type peddled by top SPLC leadership and its allies. Similar deception and fraud from the SPLC to demonize its ideological opponents, though, has become a regular occurrence.
By contrast, when FRC President Tony Perkins responded to the domestic terror attack on the organization he leads, he was much more measured. “Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday,” Perkins explained. “But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy.” He also called for the SPLC “to be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology that is leading to the intimidation and what the FBI here has categorized as an act of domestic terrorism.”
Prominent Christian activist and attorney Matt Barber, writing in Townhall.com, was among those who outline concerns that the SPLC may have dark motivations. “Motive to kill? Fomented. Who to kill? Provided. Where to kill? Pinpointed, with easy access to driving directions. The only thing the SPLC did not do was purchase Corkins’ gun and drive him to the crime scene,” Barber wrote. “Here’s why, to my own aghast bewilderment, I’m left with little choice but to believe the SPLC may be intentionally inciting anti-Christian violence.”
Despite being warned repeatedly over many years that its extreme rhetoric likening mainstream Christian and conservative organizations with practically defunct hate groups could result in bloodshed, the SPLC has never apologized. Instead, the SPLC stood its ground, labeling even more mainstream Americans as haters and extremists. Even liberal sources who disagree with groups like the FRC, such as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, have urged the SPLC to stop its “absurd” listing of mainstream Christian groups as hate organizations alongside neo-Nazis and Klansmen.
But the SPLC extremism continues. Indeed, it has gotten so bad that the American Family Association, a mainstream pro-family group with millions of members across the country, has labeled the SPLC an “anti-Christian hate group.”
A Problem of Credibility
On top of demonizing peaceful activists with whom it disagrees as violent haters who pose a threat to law enforcement and national security, the SPLC also has a history of publishing wildly misleading information. Consider a representative example of SPLC propaganda: In an early 2016 piece appearing in its Intelligence Report, the SPLC purports to expose what it described as the “anti-Indian movement.”
The primary “anti-Indian activist” targeted by the SPLC’s propaganda is Elaine Willman, described by the SPLC as the “silver-haired matriarch of the movement.” In the whole 1,500-plus word “intelligence” report, however, the author fails to mention even once that this “anti-Indian” leader is actually a Cherokee Indian. Her mother and grandmother were even both registered tribal members. Her husband is also an American Indian, and is, in fact, a direct descendant of Sacajawea, one of America’s most famous Indians.
How can a report purporting to unmask an “anti-Indian movement” omit the fact that the chief anti-Indian is an Indian married to an Indian? Unfortunately, such wild disinformation campaigns are par for the course at the SPLC, which has a long track record of deception — especially when it comes to briefing law enforcement.
The SPLC has gone so far as to brand widely held views as extremism. For instance, according to the SPLC, opposition to same-sex marriage is now a hallmark of what it calls the “radical right.” As recently as a few years ago, however, even Obama was still opposed to same-sex marriage, declaring marriage to be a sacred union between a man and a woman. Was Obama secretly a member of the “radical right” until just recently? The SPLC did not say.
Despite claiming to be non-partisan, the SPLC now regularly blasts the Republican Party for “radical right” and “extremist” positions — basically disparaging anything with which it vehemently disagrees. The SPLC also regularly claims in its publications that the “radical right” is “highly dangerous.” While exact numbers are hard to pin down, by the SPLC’s own definitions of the terms, tens of millions of Americans could be classified as “radical right” based on their religious or political views, and therefore be described by the SPLC as “highly dangerous.”
In 2013, the SPLC was cited as the source of information for a presentation that referred to evangelical Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews as “religious extremists” — on the same page as Islamic terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas. Those claims would make the overwhelming majority of Americans into “religious extremists.” The same training program based on SPLC propaganda also identified the KKK as a “Christian” group. Obviously, Christian and Jewish leaders were outraged at being equated with al-Qaeda. The SPLC never apologized.
The SPLC’s unwarranted smears against large swaths of American society have begun to be noticed by the national media. In early 2014, for example, SPLC “Senior Fellow” Mark Potok was ridiculed on national television after claiming, citing “the best data,” that “now more than half of white Americans have these anti-black attitudes.” In the real world, as a CNN contributor pointed out, racism has been on the decline for decades, as shown on every objective measure.
Many of the Liberal-Left Reject SPLC
As the SPLC has increasingly become contemptuous for what critics call its bigotry, lies, and hate, it is worth noting that the criticism against it comes from across the political spectrum. Indeed, it is important to highlight that some of the most potent criticism of the extreme group has actually come from its would-be ideological allies on the Left.
One prominent left-wing critic of the SPLC has been civil rights attorney and Southern Center for Human Rights President Stephen Bright. Citing investigations and even a federal judge, Bright lambasted SPLC founder Morris Dees as a “con man and fraud” who takes advantage of “naive, well-meaning people,” including the poor, for his own benefit. Other critics on the Left have been equally brutal in their assessments of the SPLC’s leader. Far-left Nation magazine’s JoAnn Wypijewski, for example, referred to him as a “millionaire huckster.” Journalist Alexander Cockburn called him the “arch-salesman of hate-mongering.” Illustrating his lack of principles is the fact that, before creating the SPLC, Dees actually defended white supremacists with KKK money in court.
Dees has been the subject of other serious criticism. In divorce papers filed in court, for example, he was accused of beating his wife, sexually molesting his underage stepdaughter, and a wide range of bizarre behavior. Dees’ former business partner also revealed that he and Dees “shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money.” “We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich,” the business partner was quoted as saying. Dees is reported to be worth millions, and his SPLC is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in its endowment. Dees’ former business partner, Millard Fuller, by contrast, went on to repent, giving away his fortune to the poor and founding the well-known charity Habitat for Humanity to truly serve those in need.
Some SPLC critics on the Left have argued that the group’s misleading propaganda actually puts law-enforcement officers and innocent citizens at risk — and not just because the group promotes terrorist leaders and cop-killers on its websites. One left-leaning expert who has warned of the danger of the SPLC’s dishonest tactics is Laird Wilcox, a longtime ACLU member nationally renowned for his studies of fringe political and subversive movements over more than four decades. The SPLC, Wilcox explained, unjustly demonizes its “ideological opponents, which includes a wide range of organizations and individuals who have nothing to do with racism.” It also bullies and stalks those it disagrees with, he said.
The unfair demonization of conservatives, Christians, and others can actually be life-threatening to both police and citizens, said Wilcox, who established the Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements at the University of Kansas. This is because police officers may over-react to bumper stickers or other “indicators” that the SPLC uses to identify and demonize those it disagrees with in the eyes of police and government agencies that rely on its propaganda. “By alleging ‘dangerousness’ on the basis of mere assumed values, opinions and beliefs, they put entirely innocent citizens at risk from law enforcement error and misconduct,” said Wilcox in his book The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist ‘Watchdog’ Groups.
The SPLC also has many intimate ties to the extreme Left and even to actual self-described communists with a history of radicalism, fomenting anti-police hatred and violence, and more. Even members of its board of directors have a broad array of contacts and associations with hateful extremists dedicated to the overthrow of America’s system of government. SPLC director James Rucker, for example, also serves as chairman of ColorOfChange.org. The radical group, aside from constantly fanning the flames of hate against police, was founded by self-described communist revolutionary Van Jones, who was a leader in the Marxist-Maoist revolutionary group STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement).
As the SPLC continues to discredit itself, praise cop-killing terrorists, inflame hatred, and endanger and bully law-abiding citizens over their mainstream political views, more than a few government agencies and media outlets across America have stopped relying on the outfit for information. LECF suggests all law enforcement cut ties with the SPLC.