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Chip Roy grills SPLC over targeting TPUSA, FRC on 'hate map' despite violent attacks

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks to reporters after passage of a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, on April 30, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Department of Homeland Security has been shutdown for weeks as a funding patch is worked out between House and Senate Republicans.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks to reporters after passage of a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, on April 30, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Department of Homeland Security has been shutdown for weeks as a funding patch is worked out between House and Senate Republicans. | Graeme Sloan/Getty Images

The Southern Poverty Law Center defended its decision to keep both the Family Research Council and Turning Point USA on its hate group list during a contentious congressional hearing Tuesday, despite questions from Republican lawmakers about whether such designations can contribute to politically motivated violence.

Bryan Fair, the SPLC's interim president and CEO, faced pointed questioning from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee examining the organization's practices and influence.

Roy focused heavily on the SPLC's designation of the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based Christian public policy organization that was targeted in a 2012 shooting. The gunman later told authorities he selected FRC after finding the group on the SPLC's hate group list.

Roy asked Fair whether the SPLC had “ever acknowledged that its designation contributed to that attack.” 

Fair responded that the Family Research Council remains on the organization's list because it "meets the [SPLC's] criteria" for a hate group designation.

Asked by Roy what criteria justified the listing, Fair characterized the FRC as “anti-LGBTQ.”

Roy pressed Fair on “how many leftist, anti-Jewish groups” he had listed on the hate map, as well as “extremist Islamic groups.” When Fair declined to explicitly name any antisemitic or Islamic groups that were on the hate map, Roy detailed how his staffers had failed to find any.

The congressman further argued that the organization applies a double standard by designating some Christian groups as anti-LGBT while not similarly labeling Islamic organizations that hold comparable views on sexuality.

“We don’t target any group because of its religion,” Fair insisted. “We target groups or label groups because of what they say about others and we have a constitutional right to do that.” 

The discussion later turned to Turning Point USA, which the SPLC added to its hate group list. Roy concluded his questioning by asking Fair if the SPLC had taken a position on the politically motivated assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year.

Fair responded by saying that the SPLC “unequivocally condemned” Kirk's murder but also defended TPUSA's inclusion on the list.

"It is our position that TPUSA expresses views and vilifies other people based on immutable characteristics and exposing them to harm," Fair said.

The hearing also featured testimony from Alveda King, the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who sharply criticized the SPLC and accused the organization of unfairly targeting Americans with traditional Christian beliefs.

King highlighted the findings laid out in the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment against the SPLC earlier this year, alleging that, in her words, “SPLC is funding the far right and the far left with informants that they send in to report back.”

“The informants, to not blow their cover, are doing heinous things on the far right and the far left,” she maintained. “SPLC is using money to stir up racism, to have people fight against each other based on skin color on the far right and the far left.” 

King also revealed that she had been personally targeted by the SPLC: “I have been on the domestic terrorist list. Some informant must have told them I said something hateful. I’m not a racist.”

“I reject the notion that Americans who hold traditional Christian beliefs should be treated as threats or terrorists simply because we disagree with a … prevailing political thought!” she exclaimed. 

Channeling her uncle’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” King told lawmakers, “I still have a dream. I dream that one day we will move beyond black power and white power and embrace God's power and human dignity! I 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 the womb to the tomb and beyond,” she proclaimed.

“We are, as scripture teaches, as science testified, 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.” 

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

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