User:Becritical/Southern Poverty Law Center lead

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to the free legal defense hate group victims. The SPLC was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. as a civil rights law firm and is based in Montgomery, Alabama. Later, civil rights leader Julian Bond became its president. The SPLC classifies as hate groups those organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Creativity Movement which denigrate or assault entire groups of people for attributes which are beyond their control. The SPLC has successfully litigated against many such groups. SPLC publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report that investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States. SPLC also runs educational programs dedicated to promoting tolerance.