By Guy Page
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which in 2023 called Vermont Parents’ Rights in Education a ‘hate group,’ has been indicted for paying the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, and other fringe groups.
The group paid the fringe groups to stir up trouble, so that the SPCL could then fund-raise from concerned donors, the indictment maintains. “They [SPCL] lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups,” FBI Director Kash Patel said April 21.
Parents Rights in Education, which educates parents about (among other topics) transgenderism advocacy in schools, is one of two Vermont organizations on the SPLC’s ‘Hate Map.’ The SPLC painted Parents Rights in Education with the ‘hate group’ brush, despite PRE protests that it seeks to empower parents to resist rising, activist transgenderism in public schools. For example, the organization promoted and staged a public meeting featuring detransitioning movement leader Walt Heyer at Vergennes High School.
But now it is the SPLC, founded by crusading civil rights lawyer Morris Dees of Alabama in 1971, that is under scrutiny for aiding far-right hate groups. In a federal indictment unveiled April 21 in U.S. District Court in Alabama, the SPLC is accused of fraudulently perpetuating racist organizations: “Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.”
In particular, the SPLC helped plan the notorious 2017 Charlottesville, VA rally of pro-Nazi, white nationalist groups, the indictment claims:
“The SPLC’s paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website. The SPLC also had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia. That field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.”
The DOJ press release (see below) provides background information about the claims made against the SPLC:
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”
“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”
The SPLC is a non-profit organization headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, whose mission, according to its website during the relevant time period, was to be a “catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.”
According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.