Here's What You Need To Know About The Organization Accusing Parent Groups Of "Hate And Extremism"

According to the new SPLC report, schools "have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks."

After being "spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures," parental rights groups appeared to have "grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities," according to the SPLC, which has tax-exempt status from the IRS.

"Like many other hard-right groups, these reactionary anti-student inclusion groups are constantly painting themselves as an oppressed class, while vilifying those discriminated against," the SPLC added.

The SPLC has faced a long history of allegations of discrimination while simultaneously purporting to be a "catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond."

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Despite its controversial past, the SPLC often partners with the federal government and is frequently cited as a reference by agencies at the state and national levels.

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For instance, the SPLC began partnering with the FBI in 2007 for its "Cold Case Initiative," seeking to identify racially-motivated murders committed decades ago, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). SPLC research and data analyst Zachary Mahafza was recently enlisted as a panelist who helped shape the administration's "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights."

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Founded in 1971, the Alabama-based SPLC gained prominence in the 1980s for winning several civil lawsuits on behalf of Ku Klux Klan victims. However, except for its co-founder Morris Dees, the SPLC's entire legal staff resigned in protest in 1986 over a disagreement about the organization's direction. They wanted to focus on civil rights, while Dees wanted to continue targeting white supremacist groups like the KKK, AL.com reported in 2019.

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In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser published an eight-part series about the SPLC that went on to be a Pulitzer Prize finalist, examining the "litany of problems and questionable practices at the SPLC, including a deeply troubled history with its relatively few black employees, some of whom reported hearing the use of racial slurs by the organization's staff and others who 'likened the center to a plantation'" and "misleading donors with aggressive direct-mail tactics," the publication's former managing editor, Jim Tharpe, recounted in 2019 op-ed for The Washington Post.

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Tharpe's editorial came soon after the SPLC fired Dees in March 2019 following accusations of unchecked internal racism and sexism. His ouster came after the SPLC faced two dozen employee complaints saying its workplace fostered an intolerable workplace environment, including mistreatment, sexual harassment, and a lack of diversity based on race and gender.

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The New York Times reported that several employees were subject to "racially callousbehavior" and that the SPLC had "struggled to address complaints about mistreatment of women and people of color."

Despite these controversies, the SPLC continues to wield significant influence in the political and social justice spheres. Its annual "Hate and Extremism" report is widely cited by media outlets and politicians, and its designation of certain groups as "hate groups" can have severe consequences for those organizations.

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Critics of the SPLC argue that the organization has become too politicized and is no longer a reliable source of information on hate groups and extremism. They point to including mainstream conservative organizations like the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom on the SPLC's "hate group" list as evidence of bias.

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In recent years, several organizations have filed lawsuits against the SPLC, accusing the group of defamation and other wrongdoing. In 2019, the SPLC agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle a case brought by Maajid Nawaz, a British Muslim activist falsely labeled an "anti-Muslim extremist" by the organization.