SPLC launches Klan litigation strategy and begins a covert informant program

The Southern Poverty Law Center began a litigation strategy in 1980 of filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of victims of Ku Klux Klan violence, holding white supremacist leaders financially liable for their followers' actions. According to a subsequent federal indictment, the SPLC also began operating a covert network in the 1980s of individuals who were either associated with violent extremist groups or had infiltrated them at the SPLC's direction. These individuals, known internally as field sources or "the Fs," provided intelligence on extremist activity and plans.