On June 9, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for allegedly channeling funds to racist and white nationalist groups like the Klu Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations to fan the flames of the division it claims to fight. The irony of this apparent scandal is that while the SPLC claims to “fight hate” by placing conservative and faith-based organizations on its “Hate Map,” it is actively aiding and abetting white nationalist rallies and Ku Klux Klan-style cross burnings.
As a trusted voice on the goodness of the Gospel and the unity of all men and women regardless of race, longtime pro-life advocate Dr. Alveda King was invited to testify at the hearing. In her opening statement, she offered a compelling message of hope:
I have a dream that Americans will one day see each other, not as enemies, but as neighbors. I dream that we will hear each other, see each other, and recognize that every human life has value from womb to tomb and beyond. We are, as Scripture teaches, one blood, one human race. And if we remember that truth, we can build a future worthy of the sacrifices made by those who came before us. We must speak out for truth and against the forces that would manufacture hate, fear, division, and violence simply to line their pockets and further their political ambitions.
Also in attendance, SPLC Interim CEO Bryan Fair dodged almost every question he was asked on why and how his organization illicitly gave money to legitimate hate groups, and Committee Democrats were largely distracted from the subject altogether. One such Democrat, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas 30th), disparaged Dr. King by claiming that the Judiciary Committee invited her to testify to merely “parade someone who has the name, Dr. King.” With grace, Dr. King replied as Rep. Crockett left the room: “You have suggested that I am a bastard to the King family legacy … but I love God, and I love you.”
Rep. Crockett’s disdain for Dr. King is likely due in large part to Dr. King’s steadfast defense of the dignity of the unborn. At every opportunity throughout the hearing, Dr. King spoke up for the unborn and against Planned Parenthood.
In his line of questioning to Mr. Fair, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas 26th) noted that the SPLC considers “attacks on reproductive rights” (abortion) to be a “tool” of “white supremacy” … but that 40% of abortions in the United States kill black babies despite black Americans making up 13% of the population. Mr. Fair did not respond, but when she was asked the same question, Dr. King answered, “Pro-lifers cannot be white supremacists. Pro-lifers fight for every baby in the womb regardless of skin color. We have been aborted as blacks in America disproportionately. The White Supremacists are Planned Parenthood.”
The truth is that from the beginning the abortion industry has disproportionately impacted black Americans by design. In 1926, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger attended and keynoted a Women’s Klu Klux Klan rally. Additionally, Sanger’s American Birth Control League kicked off its “Negro Project” in 1939. Sanger wrote on the project, “The mass of Negroes, particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit, and at least able to rear children properly.” Sanger’s birth control crusade was not meant to serve America’s black population, but to eradicate blacks.
Planned Parenthood’s root and branch racism has outlived Sanger: Eighty-six percent of all zip codes within five miles of a Planned Parenthood are black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and 40 percent of abortions occur among black women of childbearing age, who make up just 5% percent of the United States population. Dr. Alveda King is right—abortion is harming black Americans, and it is false to claim that pro-lifers are “white supremacists.”
The SPLC has manufactured the hate it claims to fight for far too long while putting targets on the backs of conservatives and people of faith. The House Judiciary Committee’s investigations have revealed that not only is the SPLC complicit, but its own leaders can’t even admit wrongdoing. All in all, SPLC CEO Bryan Fair’s testimonies fell short while Dr. Alveda King’s bold, truthful, and graceful testimony shed light on both the deceit of the SPLC and the tragic racism of the abortion industry.
