Message from Margaret Huang, President & CEO
2023 was a tumultuous year for democracy in the Deep South and throughout the country. After a decade of cascading attacks on voting rights brought on by the Shelby County v. Holder decision, we arrived at a pivot point in which challenges to democracy reached alarming levels never before seen in this country.
Efforts to suppress the votes of communities of color, seniors, young people, people with disabilities and others have been deliberately incubated in our region, with states seemingly competing to design the worst voting restrictions in the nation. The Deep South, in particular, has been a testing ground for discriminatory anti-voter laws and intimidation tactics intended to shut people out of the political process.
At the same time, we have seen unprecedented attacks on public education. Teachers have been threatened and disciplined for giving lessons on diversity and inclusion. Schools and universities have been targeted for teaching accurate history that acknowledges the wrongdoings of this country and addresses the connection that our past has to racial disparities that persist today.
Make no mistake — these attacks work jointly toward a common goal of derailing democracy. They chip away at our democratic institutions in the present, while attempting to create future generations that do not understand or acknowledge the fragility of our democracy and the sacrifices that the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement endured to secure equal access to education, housing, employment and the ballot box.
But 2023 was also marked by our will to persevere in the face of these challenges. Over this
past year, we have worked diligently to overcome the rising threats to equality and justice
and lead collective action to protect our democracy, eradicate poverty, end mass incarceration and combat hate.
No single organization or leader has ever been able to win change alone. The SPLC is made stronger when aligned with partners in all of our work, whether in litigation, advocacy, community organizing or public education. And it was through those partnerships that we were able to secure some of our most impactful victories this year, including helping Black communities throughout the Deep South preserve and protect historic sites, ensuring that communities of color were fairly represented in redistricting efforts, and restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions.
As you read this annual report, you will recognize the obstacles that we are confronting in the march toward a more inclusive, multiracial democracy. But you will also see that our unyielding commitment to justice is resulting in transformative change that gives hope for a better tomorrow.
Combating Hate
In 2023, we saw a dramatic rise in the number of hate and antigovernment extremist groups operating within the United States. Our annual Year in Hate and Extremism report documented more than 1,400 active groups, with a 14% increase in the number of hate groups, fueled by growth in the white nationalist movement.
Among their targets were communities of color, the Jewish community and the LGBTQ+ community. In a separate report exploring anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience, the SPLC exposed the network of openly anti-transgender actors who use the language of science to support legislative and legal campaigns to limit bodily autonomy and LGBTQ+ people’s human rights.
The Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes that combating hate in any form starts by understanding the true history that has led us to this point. To counter efforts across the Deep South to stifle learning about race and history in the U.S., Learning for Justice released a framework for teaching about the Civil Rights Movement, as well as multiple resource guides for educators designed to help them advocate for inclusive learning.
Ending Over-Criminalization and Mass Incarceration
Beyond inclusive curriculums, children across the region, in particular students of color, also deserve fair access to quality public education. Yet overly harsh disciplinary policies and practices have created a “school-to-prison pipeline” in many states that threaten to trap young people in a cycle of incarceration.
This year, the SPLC highlighted the broken youth legal systems in both Louisiana and Mississippi as part of our Only Young Once report series. In Louisiana, the SPLC successfully worked with partners to remove children from the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary. During Louisiana’s legislative session, the SPLC Action Fund, the SPLC’s lobbying arm, also helped defeat a bill to make juvenile court records public in majority-Black parishes.
Outside of our work in Louisiana, we, along with our legal partners, won important settlements for Latinx workers who were illegally targeted and detained during a workplace raid, as well as detained immigrants forced into abusive working conditions at a for-profit immigrant prison in Georgia.
Eradicating Poverty and Economic Inequality
This year, state legislatures across the country have chosen to target the most economically vulnerable individuals by attempting to criminalize people experiencing homelessness. To protect the rights of unhoused people, the SPLC secured a federal injunction against two Alabama statutes that criminalized soliciting donations and begging.
We also began a new venture to work with Black communities throughout the Deep South to prevent the commercial development of historic sites that would have led to the gentrification and displacement of communities of color. Our successful efforts in Eatonville, Florida, to support a community-organized campaign against the development of a tract of land that had previously housed a prestigious private school for Black students led to our organization taking on similar work in Royal, Florida, and Sapelo Island, Georgia. Working in partnerships with local organizations, we will continue to push for the creation of economic opportunities that benefit legacy residents.
Strengthening Democracy
Engagement with local communities has also underpinned our efforts to safeguard our democracy. In 2023, the SPLC’s Vote Your Voice campaign provided grants to grassroots voting organizations across the Deep South to build capacity and scale up voter outreach and civic engagement over the next decade. Our Mississippi state office launched the Defenders of Democracy campaign to educate teens and college students about the importance of civic participation through town halls, community events and campus forums. And the opening of our Alabama state office has positioned us to more directly and effectively collaborate with communities on the ground as the SPLC launches our first-ever civic engagement campaign in 2024.
As we have done over the past year, we will continue to challenge anti-voter laws and gerrymandered voting maps in the courts. But to truly achieve racial justice in the Deep South and beyond, everyone must have a stake in our future. Our goal over the next year will be to convince those who are disengaged to join our movement. Dismantling white supremacy, reforming our justice system, and building an economy that works for everybody can only happen if those who believe in equality and democracy exercise their right to vote.
Onward,
Margaret Huang
SPLC President and CEO
Illustration by Jordan Andrew Carter.