SPLC Indictment, Charlottesville, Klan Funding: The Alleged ‘Manufacturing’ of Racism

The federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy, in the Middle District of Alabama (which includes its headquarters in Montgomery), is a richly deserved humiliation and comeuppance for one of the most toxic organizations in American politics. It is also objectively hilarious. That said, we should bear in mind two things: that the allegations in the indictment have yet to be proven in court and might not be true (or at least may be missing crucial context) and that even if true, the charges may not stick legally.

The story here is that the SPLC, which bills itself as an organization aimed at rooting out racism, was actually secretly bankrolling major figures in racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) Party of America, and a member of the leadership group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. The indictment details just shy of $2 million in transfers to those figures over the past twelve years.

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Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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The federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy, in the Middle District of Alabama (which includes its headquarters in Montgomery), is a richly deserved humiliation and comeuppance for one of the most toxic organizations in American politics. It is also objectively hilarious. That said, we should bear in mind two things: that the allegations in the indictment have yet to be proven in court and might not be true (or at least may be missing crucial context) and that even if true, the charges may not stick legally.

The story here is that the SPLC, which bills itself as an organization aimed at rooting out racism, was actually secretly bankrolling major figures in racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) Party of America, and a member of the leadership group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. The indictment details just shy of $2 million in transfers to those figures over the past twelve years.