The Southern Poverty Law Center has “gutted its staff” despite nearly $1 billion in reserves, its union said.
The SPLC Union on Wednesday posted the following to X: “Today, @splcenter — an organization with nearly a billion dollars in reserves, given an F rating by CharityWatch for ‘hoarding’ donations — gutted its staff by a quarter.”
‘The organization has sometimes been criticized for its aggressive fundraising tactics. In 2022, the organization reported having $711 million in assets and receiving more than $100 million in donations each year since 2019.’
The union added, “SPLC’s decision has a catastrophic impact on the organization’s work in support of immigrants seeking justice and its mission to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance human rights through support of educators.”
The union added a dozen subsequent posts on X. One of them noted, “More than 60 SPLC Union members, including five Union stewards and our Union Chair, were informed that they would be losing their jobs. We are devastated for our Union and for our colleagues.”
Another said, “The layoffs of all 16 staff in the Southern Immigrant Freedom Initiative and its office closure will decimate free legal representation to detained immigrants across Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.” Another added, “The dismantling of the full Immigrant Justice team ends SPLC’s decade-long commitment to the rights of migrant workers and the deep coalition work to advocate for immigrants’ rights and decriminalize migration across the Southeast.”
The Associated Press said the SPLC didn’t confirm how many staffers were laid off but issued a statement saying it is “undergoing an organizational restructuring,” which will result in a staff reduction.
More from the AP:
The Montgomery, Alabama-based law center was founded in 1971 as a watchdog for minorities and the underprivileged. A decade later, the organization won a $7 million judgment against the United Klans of America on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son was killed by KKK members in Mobile. Over the years, the organization has advocated for expanding voting access, protections for immigrants and equal rights for members of the LGBTQ community. It has also maintained a list of extremist organizations.
The organization has sometimes been criticized for its aggressive fundraising tactics. In 2022, the organization reported having $711 million in assets and receiving more than $100 million in donations each year since 2019.
Employees of Southern Poverty Law Center voted to unionize in 2019. The employees voted to join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.
Anything else?
Mainstream news outlets frequently cite the SPLC as the authority on what organizations are hate groups.
Fox News said the SPLC had to apologize after calling neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson an “extremist.” The SPLC recently called Moms for Liberty an “anti-government extremist group.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in a scathing 2023 opinion piece, suggested that the SPLC’s corruption and terror-links disqualified lawyer Nancy Abudu from serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals. President Joe Biden nominated Abudu, who supervised and strategized SPLC litigation since 2019. She began serving on the Eleventh Circuit on June 1, 2023.
An SPLC attorney was arrested for domestic terrorism in a group of 23 who allegedly violently attacked the future site of an Atlanta police training facility last year.
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