Students help fight hate, promote acceptance with SPLC on Campus

Dwyer Freeman remembers reading about the civil rights movement in high school textbooks.

“I had always sensed a sort of finality, as if the [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] and [the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] had accomplished their goals, and there was no more work to be done,” the University of Alabama student said. “‘Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and all the problems were solved.’”

Freeman has since realized there is more work to be done to ensure equal justice and opportunity for all. That’s why she is starting a Southern Poverty Law Center club at the University of Alabama. It’s part of a new initiative – SPLC on Campus – an effort to help college students raise awareness about social justice issues with their peers and become agents of change within their community.

“We’re not as far removed from [former Alabama Governor George] Wallace’s ‘stand in the schoolhouse door’ as we would like to think,” Freeman said. “There is a need for awareness and open discussion, patience and personal connections to fight bigotry and bias present on campus and throughout the state of Alabama. SPLC on Campus will be a very effective way to facilitate this change.”

The SPLC is working with early adopters of the program at several campuses to fine-tune this new initiative to empower college students. The SPLC recently held a webinar to help students learn about its work, and more are planned for the future. Live, in-person events also are being planned.

At Eastern Kentucky University, organizers saw an SPLC club as a way to coordinate activities among groups focused on racial, immigration and LGBT issues. “We decided to start a SPLC on Campus group as soon as we learned of the program,” said Gary Potter, the club’s faculty adviser.

The club seeks to promote the idea that individuals have the power to transform their community.

“We started the SPLC chapter at Eastern Kentucky University with a vision to create not only social change but also to empower individuals to become independent actors of social change,” said club president Adrienne McCarthy. “Like the great civil and human rights activist Ella Baker once said, ‘Strong people don’t need strong leaders.’”

The club has already had several successes, including organizing a well-attended symposium on human trafficking and raising LGBT issues with the administration. During the spring, the chapter will partner with students at other colleges and universities to address issues such as immigrant rights, over-policing of minority communities and the drug war.

At North Country Community College in Saranac Lake, New York, sophomore Alex Nelson hopes to generate interest in civil rights issues by starting an SPLC club.

“I want to help students get more involved, because our college is very small and there’s not much exposure in this area to civil rights,” Nelson said. “I want people to be more aware of it and perhaps eventually go into careers regarding civil rights.”

Once the club is up and running, possible events include screening Teaching Tolerance films at a local movie theater, hosting speakers or even helping a local high school organize a Mix It Up at Lunch Day. These events could help SPLC club members step out of their own cliques as well.

“I want this club to foster inclusion,” Nelson said.