Southern Poverty Law Center President Ryan Haygood told Mississippi Today on Monday that his organization is prepared to fight the Trump Justice Department’s indictments in a trial set for April.
Haygood was in Jackson for the start of the organization’s “Truth, Poverty and Democracy Tour” across Mississippi, which will combine community listening sessions to spotlight socioeconomic problems faced by residents. While the Center continues a shift toward anti-poverty advocacy as a central pillar of its work, fighting the lawsuit is of existential importance for civil rights advocacy more broadly, as the lawsuit against SLPC could be a “test case” used against other organizations, Haygood said.
“It’s a vicious irony that the DOJ has been weaponized against the organization that toppled the Klu Klux Klan, even as hateful organizations remain free to operate across the country,” Haygood said. “So it’s a case we intend to win.”
Without detailing the organization’s legal strategy, Haygood said the trial will shed light on why the SPLC was created and all the ways it serves communities across the South.
The Justice Department’s probe against against the Alabama-based group has thus far ensnared one of its former political extremism experts, who left the center about six year ago. That former employee, Heidi Beirich, has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
Her legal team has said she is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated.
The SPLC is a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased. Critics argue the organization has used its “Hate Map” to lump ordinary conservative political groups in with militant extremist groups.
In the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, anger from Trump and his supporters toward groups such as SPLC intensified.
In the fall of 2025, Trump directed federal law enforcement agencies to investigate what he claimed were wealthy donors and organizations funding left-wing political violence. A week later, Mississippi Today spoke to former SPLC President Bryan Fair, who warned the memo could be used as a pretext to target civil rights organizations perceived to be enemies of the administration and Republican causes in states such as Mississippi.
In April of 2026, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced an 11-count federal indictment against the SPLC in the Middle District of Alabama on charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
Haygood took over as SPLC’s president in August, at a moment when “civil society organizations face mounting attacks” the Center said.
As the SPLC prepares for a trial this April, Haygood said his organization remains undeterred
“It stands to reason that the kind of work SPLC does, the kind of work to connect people to prosperity and to create a fair criminal legal system, to create a multiracial democracy, and also to identify hateful actors and to topple their organizations,” Haygood said. “It stands the reason that an organization like ours given the work we are doing would be challenged in this moment by this kind of government.”
Haygood, who met earlier on Monday with Democratic state lawmakers, said the center plans to play an active role in pushing for Mississippi to raise its minimum wage, which remains set at the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. Proposals to do so have repeatedly died in the Legislature.
At the Mississippi Museum of Art, the SPLC convened panels on gaps in the social safety net that impact Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the country. Federal cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, housing, education and childcare have rattled communities across the the state, the center has said.
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