Southern Poverty Law Center

Founded in 1971 by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr., the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in Montgomery, Alabama that specializes in civil rights and public interest litigation. The organization works to fight hate and bigotry and to seek justice for the most vulnerable members of society through litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy.

The SPLC is widely known for monitoring hate groups and extremist activity across the United States through its Intelligence Project (originally founded as Klanwatch in 1981), and for pursuing high-profile lawsuits against white supremacist organizations on behalf of victims. Today the organization’s programmatic focus includes promoting democracy and civic engagement, eliminating poverty, decarcerating and decriminalizing Black and Brown communities, and countering white supremacy, with an emphasis on advancing racial justice in the Deep South and beyond.

While not a Jewish organization itself, the SPLC is frequently engaged as a partner or resource by Jewish communal and civil rights groups due to its work tracking antisemitism, hate crimes, and extremist movements.