J. Richard Cohen is president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Cohen came to the SPLC in 1986 as its legal director. Under his guidance, the SPLC won a series of landmark lawsuits against some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist organizations. He also successfully litigated a wide variety of important civil rights actions – defending the rights of prisoners to be treated humanely, working for equal educational opportunities for all children, and bringing down the Confederate battle flag from the top of the Alabama State Capitol.

In 1997, The American Lawyer selected Cohen as one of 45 public sector lawyers “whose vision and commitment are changing lives.” In 1999, he was a finalist for the national Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for his work on Macedonia Baptist Church v. Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a lawsuit that ended with a record $37.8 million judgment against a Klan group for its role in the burning of a South Carolina church.

Cohen also has been a creative force behind some of the SPLC's most successful education projects. He has served as executive producer for six documentary films created for the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance program. Four of those films were nominated for Academy Awards, and two - "Mighty Times: The Children's March" in 2005 and "A Time for Justice" in 1994 - won Oscars for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Blog Entries by J. Richard Cohen

To Bill O'Reilly: You Lose Dobbs Bet

2 Comments | Posted November 18, 2009 | 12:39 PM (EST)


To: Bill O'Reilly
The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News Network

Dear Bill,

You lost the bet. Time to pay up!

When I appeared on your show in July, you were so certain that the Southern Poverty Law Center's call for CNN to fire Lou Dobbs was a waste...

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Why I Urged CNN to Take Dobbs Off the Air

77 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 05:50 PM (EST)


On Monday, I went on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss our call for CNN to take Lou Dobbs off the air for Dobbs' latest conspiracy-mongering. Bill O'Reilly said we shouldn't take Dobbs too seriously. After all, Bill said, it's all just for ratings. But in our view, the matter...

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Probing the Pentagon: Are Gays Really More Dangerous than Neo-Nazis?

3 Comments | Posted July 15, 2009 | 01:50 PM (EST)


Here's a question to ponder: Who poses more of a threat to the good order of the military, not to mention our national security?

A) Gay soldiers.

B) Racist, neo-Nazi soldiers who profess hatred for their commander-in-chief.

The vast majority of Americans, I suspect, would pick B. Not the...

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Privatized Hell

Posted April 22, 2009 | 04:41 PM (EST)


"D.W." had been confined to the juvenile detention center for only a week when he tried to hang himself with a bed sheet.

His mental health had deteriorated rapidly during his confinement at the Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Miss. But rather than provide him with counseling, guards...

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Mass Incarceration of Children Must End

Posted July 3, 2008 | 03:35 PM (EST)


Save the children.

We've heard it so often and seen the pictures on television. We think we understand.

But we tend to forget that it's not just children in the Third World who need our help. Children right in our own communities are suffering, too. And although we might...

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Meet "Juan Crow"

Posted June 14, 2008 | 01:12 PM (EST)


The final days of Boubacar Bah's life read like an account of a political prisoner in a gulag.

Bah, 52, was shackled to the floor of the prison's medical unit where he was left to moan and vomit until prison officials moved him to a "disciplinary cell."

He would stay...

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Workers at Bottom of Food Chain Illustrate Growing Economic Disparity

Posted May 5, 2008 | 01:48 PM (EST)


The recent story in the New York Times about the loot taken home last year by hedge fund managers provides us with the starkest - and most obscene - evidence yet about the growing disparity between the rich and the poor in our country.

Topping the list was John...

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