Moms for Liberty is designated as extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is for the first time designating the conservative organization Moms for Liberty as an extremist group. The update came Tuesday in a report. The SPLC says the group is at the forefront of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks on schools. 

Local chapters of Moms for Liberty in Tennessee have been behind several book-ban attempts and attempts to remove lessons about African American history and the LGBTQ+ community. They frequent school board meetings and most recently called a Chattanooga librarian a groomer for wanting to read a book on Mother’s Day that highlighted that not all students had mothers. The book they had a problem with was Stella Brings the Family, a story about a girl with two dads.

The SPLC says it documented 523 hate and 702 antigovernment extremist groups last year, totaling 1,225 active groups.

“In 2022, the hard-right movement succeeded in burrowing deeper into people’s lives in visible and material ways, even if it did not have widespread electoral success,” the SPLC says. “Its fingerprints are everywhere: people’s homes, schools, doctors’ offices, libraries, bars, restaurants, churches and other community spaces.”