In a flagrant example of government waste, a radical leftwing group that slanders conservative organizations in an interactive “Hate Map” has received millions of taxpayer dollars to spread its hateful message and materials across the United States, including in public schools. Nearly $4 million in taxpayer funds have gone to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extremist Alabama-based nonprofit dedicated to racial justice in the last decade alone, according to an alarming report issued by Open the Books, a Florida-based group that runs a vast database of public spending for all to see. The money came from states, cities, counties, universities, school districts, and other public entities to help fulfill the SPLC’s stated mission of “dismantling white supremacy” and “creating a world where Black and Brown communities are represented and respected by our democracy.” Since 2016 the SPLC has received at least $3.85 million to help spread its teaching materials in America’s public school classrooms, the recently published report confirms.
The cash flowed from predictable government entities such as New York City, which is run by liberals, to others with varying ideological perspectives such as Florida, Kansas, New Jersey and Michigan. “Incoming public revenue for the SPLC peaked in FY 2021 thanks in part to Fulton County, Georgia,” the probe found. “That county made the largest set of payments on August 6: three separate payments of $30,000; $6,262.00; and $3,019.37 for a total of $39,281.47.” Many of the awards do not include an explanation even though the disbursement of public funds is supposed to. Some of the allocations identify what the money is funding and the projects clearly promote leftist ideology. For example, a public school district in a suburb of Rochester, New York paid $4,000 to teach students “tolerance” and Cincinnati Public Schools in Ohio gave the SPLC $2,000 for a similar program. This is not the first time taxpayer dollars have funded the SPLC’s effort to infiltrate the nation’s public education system. “Open the Books recently uncovered a multimillion-dollar grant to a public university that involved injecting the SPLC’s “Teaching Tolerance” curriculum into half a dozen K-12 schools in Michigan,” the report states, confirming that the group’s extensive research uncovered a “radical curriculum.”
The multimillion-dollar grant went to the University of Michigan for a project that infused the SPLC’s radical “Teaching Tolerance” into the curriculum at several elementary and high schools in Michigan. Among them was a $2.5 million award called “Youth Empowerment Solutions: Engaging Youth for Anti-Racism and Cultural Equity (YES-ERACE).” The money flowed from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded an after-school curriculum based on extremist SPLC “Learning for Justice” materials which aim to erase racial injustice. The project integrated “the Teaching Tolerance curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center” into an existing local middle school program called Youth Empowerment Solutions, according to records obtained by Open the Books. Researchers at the University of Michigan said they would use a “group-randomized trial design in the summer programs across 6 middle schools” and “examine the effects of the curriculum on individual youths’ sense of empowerment, racist behaviors, and violent behavior.” Tens of thousands of dollars were spent to hire an expert on adolescence racism and racial identity, an advisory board with expertise in health equity and anti-racism training and staff specialized in anti-racism and cultural equity.
While public money flows into its coffers, the SPLC is embroiled in a big legal battle. In late April, a federal grand jury indicted the leftist organization for wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says that for years the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million to individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups—such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations—or who infiltrated the groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to supporters of the “civil rights” nonprofit, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups while the SPLC denounced them on its website. “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.” FBI Director Kash Patel says the SPLC deceived donors by promising to dismantle extremist groups while paying the leaders of those same groups, even utilizing the funds to have the groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes.
