Civil rights organization that collects information about hate groups. SPLC-affiliated
lawyers also file lawsuits to enforce the
constitutional rights of Americans who are denied them by the authorities.
As the name implies, beneficiaries of the SPLC include people who are poor, and require legal protection from either racist violence or abusive,
indifferent agents of the state.
Bernard Monroe Sr., an elderly black man, was shot to death on his front porch by a
white police officer who had entered his house in Homer, La., without apparent justification or a warrant. The
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a wrongful death lawsuit that alleged two white officers created a volatile situation when they entered
Monroe's property during a gathering of his family and friends on Feb. 20, 2009.