The Southern Poverty Law Center has crippled some of the nation's largest and most violent white supremacist organizations by helping victims of racial violence sue for monetary damages. While the groups usually do not have much money, large monetary awards effectively put them out of business. We also have sued on behalf of victims of hate crimes whose attackers were not affiliated with hate groups. These courtroom victories are funded entirely by our supporters. We accept no legal fees from our clients.

Currently, we are pursuing legal action against the Imperial Klans of America — the nation's second-largest Klan organization — and five of its members for the savage, unprovoked beating of a 16-year-old boy of Latino descent at a county fair in Kentucky in July 2006.

Here is a timeline of our most notable victories:

2007 — Winning justice for Billy Ray Johnson
A jury awarded $9 million to a mentally challenged black man who suffered permanent brain damage after a racially motivated beating by four young white men in Linden, Texas.

2000 — Closing the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho
A $6.3 million jury verdict forced Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler to give up the organization's 20-acre compound.

1998 — Making the Klan pay in South Carolina
A $37.8 million verdict against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (later reduced to $21.5 million) was the largest ever against a hate group.

1994 — The Harold Mansfield case
A $1 million judgment held the Church of the Creator accountable for the murder of a black Gulf War veteran.

1990 — Taking on the White Aryan Resistance
A jury ordered the White Aryan Resistance to pay $12.5 for the brutal murder of Ethiopian student Mulugeta Seraw by Portland skinheads.

1990 — The Decatur case
A settlement resolved the SPLC's suit against members of the Invisible Empire Klan who attacked peaceful civil rights marchers with bats, ax handles and guns in Decatur, Ala., in 1979.

1988 — Shutting down the Invisible Empire
A jury assessed nearly $1 million in damages against two Klan organizations and 11 followers responsible for attacking black marchers in all-white Forsyth County, Ga. The Invisible Empire was eventually forced to disband.

1987 — The Michael Donald lynching
An historic $7 million verdict in Mobile, Ala., marked the end of the United Klans, the same group that had beaten Freedom Riders, blown up the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and murdered Viola Liuzzo.

Mid-1980s — Shutting down the White Patriot Party militia
An SPLC lawsuit forced the South's most militant Klan group, with more than 1,000 armed members, to disband. Several members were later convicted of plotting to blow up the SPLC.

1981 — Protecting Vietnamese fishermen
An SPLC lawsuit halted a campaign of terror mounted by the Knights of the KKK against Vietnamese fishermen and shut down a terror training camp.

More cases against hate groups are listed in our Legal Docket.