Program areas at Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (splc) seeks justice by supporting victims of civil rights abuses and hate crimes, and promoting the civil and human rights of groups most affected by bias and discrimination in our society: minorities, immigrants, guest workers, children, the poor, and the lgbt community - both in the deep south and nationwide. Its case docket focuses on holding hate groups accountable for murders and other violent acts committed by their members; ending workplace exploitation of immigrants; challenging unconstitutional or discriminatory laws and policies affecting immigrants, minorities and the lgbt community; and working to reform juvenile justice, mental health, and education systems that fail children and routinely push students out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system, disproportionately harming african-american and latino students living in Poverty. The splc attorneys focus on these critical civil rights issues from five splc offices in the deep south.the Center has identified four areas of work that pose the greatest opportunities to achieving its mission. The Center has prioritized these areas of work in order to achieve maximum impact on its goals, including eradicating Poverty, decriminalizing and decarcerating black and brown people, protecting voting rights and civic engagement, and dismantling white nationalism and protecting democracy.
The splc's public information and education efforts seek to combat hate and bias in our society, expose extremism, and reduce discrimination and injustice. The splc provides information about hate groups and other extremists, their activities and their crimes to the public, Law enforcement, policymakers, human rights organizations, and the media with the goal of preventing hate and extremism from entering the mainstream. The splc also seeks to foster equality in the classroom and support tolerance education by providing award-winning, anti-bias materials to more than 400,000 teachers and schools nationwide. The splc educates the public on the structural causes, and impacts, of inequality and uses a multifaceted approach of community education, mobilization, media and legislative advocacy to combat bias and discrimination against minorities, immigrants, the poor, the lgbt community and other vulnerable members of society. All of the splc's work is provided free of charge.