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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a far left American nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. It is noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups, its legal representation for victims of hate groups, its classification of militia movement and other extremist organizations, and its educational programs that promote tolerance.〔("Southern Poverty Law Center" ). ''The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties''.〕〔("Southern Poverty Law Center" ). ''Free Legal Dictionary''.〕 The SPLC also classifies and lists hate groups—organizations that in its opinion "attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."〔("Hate Map" ). SPLC. Retrieved August 9, 2015.〕 The SPLC's hate group list has been the source of some controversy.〔Jonsson, Patrik (February 23, 2011). ("Annual report cites rise in hate groups, but some ask: What is hate?" ). ''Christian Science Monitor''.〕 In 1971, Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. founded the SPLC as a civil rights law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama. Civil rights leader Julian Bond joined Dees and Levin and served as president of the board between 1971 and 1979.〔Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1991. ''A Season For Justice''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 132-133.〕 The SPLC's litigating strategy involves filing civil suits for damages on behalf of the victims of hate group harassment, threats, and violence. While it originally focused on damages done by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, given the decline in such groups, over the years the SPLC has become involved in other civil rights causes, among them, cases concerned with institutional racial segregation and discrimination, discrimination based on sexual orientation, the mistreatment of undocumented immigrants, and the separation of church and state. Along with civil rights organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the SPLC has provided information about hate groups to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The SPLC has been criticized by conservative politicians and media, by organizations that have been listed as hate groups in their reports, and by some left-leaning commentators.〔Cockburn, Alexander (November 9, 1998), ("The Conscience Industry" ), ''The Nation'', "Morris Dees has raised an endowment of close to $100 million, with which he's done little, by frightening elderly liberals that the heirs of Adolf Hitler are about to march down Main Street, lynching blacks and putting Jews into ovens. The fund raising of Dees and the richly rewarded efforts of terror mongers like Leonard Zeskind offer a dreadfully distorted view of American political realities."〕〔Silverstein, Ken (November 1, 2000), ("The Church of Morris Dees: How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance" ), ''Harper's Magazine'', p. 54〕〔Silverstein, Ken (March 2, 2007), ("This Week in Babylon: Southern Poverty: richer than Tonga" ), ''Harper's Magazine''. , 〕 The SPLC does not accept government funds, nor does it charge its clients legal fees or share in their court-awarded judgments. Most of its funds come from direct mail campaigns which have helped it to build substantial monetary reserves. ==History== The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. in 1971 as a law firm designed to handle anti-discrimination cases in the United States. SPLC's first president was Julian Bond, who served as president until 1979 and remained on its board of directors until his death on August 15, 2015. In 1979, the SPLC brought the first of its many cases against the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations. In 1981, the Center began its ''Klanwatch'' project to monitor the activities of the KKK. That project, now called ''Hatewatch,'' has been expanded to include seven other types of hate organizations. In July 1983, the center's office was firebombed, destroying the building and records. In February 1985 Klan members and a Klan sympathizer pleaded guilty to federal and state charges related to the fire. At the trial, Klansmen Joe M. Garner and Roy T. Downs Jr. along with Charles Bailey pleaded guilty to conspiring to intimidate, oppress and threaten members of black organizations represented by SPLC.〔 According to Dees, more than 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill him or blow up the center. In 1984, Dees became an assassination target of The Order, a revolutionary white supremacist group. Another target, radio host Alan Berg, was murdered outside his Colorado home. In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama. The SPLC used an unprecedented legal strategy of holding an organization responsible for the crimes of individual members to help produce a $7 million judgment for the victim's mother.〔 The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy. Its national headquarters was sold for approximately $52,000 to help satisfy the judgment. In 1987, five members of a Klan offshoot, the White Patriot Party, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees. In 1989, the Center unveiled its Civil Rights Memorial, which was designed by Maya Lin. In October 1990, the SPLC won $12.5 million in damages against Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance when a Portland, Oregon, jury held the neo-Nazi group liable in the beating death of an Ethiopian immigrant. While Metzger lost his home and ability to publish material, only a small fraction of the multimillion-dollar damages were recoverable. In 1995, four white men were indicted for planning to blow up the SPLC. The Center's "Teaching Tolerance" project was initiated in 1991, and its "Klanwatch" program has gradually expanded to include other anti-hate monitoring projects and a list of reported hate groups in the United States. In May 1998, three white supremacists were arrested for allegedly planning a nationwide campaign of assassinations and bombings targeting "Morris Dees, an undisclosed federal judge in Illinois, a black radio-show host in Missouri, Dees's Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and the Anti-Defamation League in New York."〔"Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. Two others will plead guilty Thursday." ''St Louis Post-Dispatch'' (MO) (May 13, 1998): p B1.〕 In 1999 the SPLC broke ground on their new headquarters building. It was completed in 2001. The SPLC has been criticized for using hyperbole and overstating the prevalence of hate groups to raise large amounts of money. In a 2000 ''Harper's Magazine'' article, Ken Silverstein said that Dees has kept the SPLC focused on fighting anti-minority groups like the KKK, whose membership has declined to just 2,000, instead of on issues like homelessness, mostly because the former issue makes for more lucrative fundraising. The article claimed the SPLC "spends twice as much on fund-raising -- $5.76 million last year -- as it does on legal services for victims of civil rights abuses."〔(The church of Morris Dees: How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance ), Ken Silverstein, ''Harper's Magazine'', November 2000〕 ''Harper's'' pointed out that more than 95% of hate crimes are committed by lone wolves without any connection to militia groups the SPLC speaks of.〔 In July 2007, the SPLC filed suit against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Meade County, where in July 2006 five Klansmen allegedly beat Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, at a Kentucky county fair.〔 After filing the suit, the SPLC received nearly a dozen threats.〔 During the November 2008 civil trial, a former member of the IKA said that the Klan head told him to kill Dees. In 2008, the SPLC and Dees were featured on ''National Geographic''s ''Inside American Terror'' exploring their litigation against several branches of the Ku Klux Klan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Southern Poverty Law Center」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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