Southern Poverty Law Center Chided for Staff Layoffs

(Dreamstime)

The Southern Poverty Law Center slashed part of its workforce Wednesday in an effort to “streamline” operations, according to the Alabama Reflector.

The SPLC said in a statement that personnel cuts were necessary to “streamline our activities and operations to strengthen our ability to advance a multiracial, inclusive democracy and ground our work in the perspectives and priorities of communities most affected by human rights violations.”

The center describes itself as a tax-exempt, charitable organization that is “a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.”

The SPLC Union posted its displeasure with the changes in a post on X: “Today, @splcenter – an organization with nearly a billion dollars in reserves, given an F rating by CharityWatch for ‘hoarding’ donations – gutted its staff by a quarter.”

The union’s statement simultaneously worked in the group’s quest to vanquish “white supremacy” while promoting “intersectional movements.”

“CEO and President Margaret Huang announced that the cuts would allow greater “focus” on racial justice, but failed to explain how eliminating immigrant justice work and anti-racist education work served that goal,” the union added.

According to the statement, Huang makes an annual salary of $500,000.

Hannah Gais, a senior research analyst at the activist group wrote on X:, “Today, SPLC — my employer — laid off over 60 of our union members, essentially shuttering multiple departments. Speaking in a personal capacity, I endorse each and every single word of this statement from our union. an organization with this much money has no excuse.”

The SPLC union, which was formed in 2019, said the timing of the layoffs was not by chance.

“Make no mistake — laying off dozens of employees, many of whom were Union activists, less than a year before we will bargain our second contract was no coincidence,” it said.

The SPLC claims to have tracked 1,430 hate and antigovernment groups across the U.S. in 2023. The organization defines hate as “as an organization or collection of individuals that — based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities — has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”