Reports
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
The false fear of ‘white genocide’
In 2024, one of the most influential anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups, the Family Research Council (FRC), focused its animus on immigrants, pushing what were once considered fringe, racist beliefs into mainstream political narratives. Not surprisingly, much of the rhetoric and conspiracy theories about immigrants mirrored what was said during the 2024 elections by candidates, social media…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Director’s Note: Remember, Focus, Hope
In 2024, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 1,371 hate and antigovernment extremist groups across the United States. These groups use a range of tactics. There are those that manipulate our political system, while others use violence and propaganda, and some take advantage of online platforms. All of these tactics are part of a larger…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Part III: New Forms of Public Memory
Our Heritage Lost Cause mythology holds that Confederate symbols do not represent white supremacy or an attempt to rewrite history but instead embody an innocuous preserving of “Southern heritage.” This is not true. Historical evidence reveals that the existence of more than 2,000 Confederate memorials across the country is the result of an organized propaganda…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Part II: The Contemporary Landscape
The Politics of Civil War Memory At no point during the Civil War did any Confederate symbol come within six miles of the U.S. Capitol. Yet on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioter Kevin Seefried carried a Confederate battle flag right inside. What we think of today as the Confederate flag was one of many flags…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Part I: Whose Heritage Do Confederate Memorials Represent?
“The Confederacy Is Dead; Long Live the Confederacy!“ In February 1865, two months before the end of the Civil War, the Confederate mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered. One person who accepted his surrender was William Dupree, Second Lieutenant of the Massachusetts 55th Infantry Regiment — a Black regiment. Imagine the power of an African…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Whose Heritage? 4th Edition: Director’s Note
There Is Still Room for Truth Depending on your location, you may find that where statues once stood honoring white supremacist Confederate leaders, there are now plaques explaining the truthful, painful history of Black enslavement and subjugation. Or you may still be forced to bear witness to the carved stone faces of, or buildings named…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Ending Business as Usual: The Need for Alabama Civil Asset Forfeiture Data Transparency
Introduction Alabama residents Greg and Teresa Almond lost their home, business and reputation, and were forced to live in a utility shed without running water, after law enforcement raided their home over $50 worth of marijuana that was allegedly not even theirs — all stemming from the practice of civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture…
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Annual Report
Even in the most hostile climates, the Southern Poverty Law Center defended people’s rights.
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Mississippi underfunding worsens a racially disparate education system
Mississippi’s education system has consistently ranked at or near the bottom nationally due to chronic underfunding as well as systemic issues of poverty and racial injustice that are rooted in the legacy of chattel slavery and oppression. For Black and Brown children in Mississippi, who comprise nearly a plurality of the state’s public school students,…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Georgia’s youth legal system overemphasizes punishment
In 2022, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that three teenagers died within weeks of each other in Georgia’s youth detention facilities – one after participating in a “fight game” in front of a correctional officer – drawing scrutiny to how incarcerated youth in Georgia are treated. However, these reports of abuse told a troublesome narrative of…