The Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc. (SLRC) is a non-profit and public law corporation in South Carolina which offers legal support to defend what they see as First Amendment violations, violation of civil rights, or "discrimination against advocates of southern heritage".
History In 2004 the SLRC hired advertising executive and Southern activist Roger McCredie as its full-time executive director. Under McCredie the organization doubled the size of its board of directors, increased its advertising program and undertook an ambitious five-year growth and development plan.Interview with Roger McCredie November 8, 2009
SLRC advocacy The SLRC has supported the rights of students to use and display Confederate symbols. Its most significant victory was Castorina v. Madison County Schools, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2001 overturned a federal district court's ruling in favor of a Kentucky school board's ban on student displays of Confederate symbols, and remanded the case for further proceedings.Castorina v. Madison County Schools, (6th Cir. 2001).
Criticism The SLRC has drawn fire from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has frequently attacked the SLRC by citing Lyons' pre-SLRC defense of some controversial right-wing figures such as Aryan Nations members, White Aryan Resistance founder Tom Metzger"In the Lyons Den: Kirk Lyons, a white supremacist lawyer whose clients have been a 'Who's Who' of the radical right". Southern Poverty Law Center. Summer 2000. . Retrieved 2007-08-17. and Lyons' 1990 marriage to the sister of jailed Order defendant David Tate. The SPLC also criticized Lyons tie to Deborah Davila's FBI espionage case.
In addition the SPLC has called Southern Legal's fundraising practices "deceitful" citing, for example, "the SLRC Web site detailed two disputes under a headline that read 'Cases Pending,' implying that the SLRC represented the parties involved. In both cases, the plaintiff's families say Lyons actually did very little for them.""Cashing in on the Confederacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2003. . Retrieved 2007-08-17
"Confederate Southern Americans" The SLRC called on "Confederate Southern Americans" to identify as a separate race on the 2010 United States census form.
References
External links
"In the Lyons Den: Despite his extremism, Kirk Lyons, a white supremacist lawyer whose clients have been a 'Who's Who' of the radical right, is becoming the attorney for the neo-Confederate movement", SPLC, Summer 2000 "Cashing in on the Confederacy: A North Carolina legal group calls itself the leading advocate for 'Confederate Americans.' Its dismal record suggests otherwise" by Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok, SPLC, Spring 2003 Kentucky Division SCV webpage on Confederate Gown lawsuit (with photographs)