Southern Poverty Law Center

Raúl Fernández-Calienes

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit legal services organization with a long record of involvement in groundbreaking civil rights litigation, advocacy, and education. It seeks justice by helping individuals and organizations to transcend hatred and discrimination. This entry describes the history and work of the center. Founded in 1971 by two attorneys, Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin, Jr., SPLC began as a small legal firm based in Montgomery, Alabama, focusing on civil rights and dedicated to taking pro bono cases. Since its founding, SPLC has spearheaded or supported important lawsuits against government entities, industries, companies, organizations, and individuals at local, state, regional, and federal levels, including several pioneering cases brought to the U.S. Supreme Court. It has achieved remarkable and, at times, historic results: eliminating segregationist laws, removing racist policies, changing entrenched discriminatory practices, setting legal precedents, uncovering new information in long-unsolved cases, and many other ...

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