The Flora L. Thornton Foundation, a well known L.A.-based non-profit started by the late philanthropist Flora Laney Thornton, has been supporting some of L.A.’s most respected art and educational institutions for nearly four decades. Since the year 2000, the foundation has donated millions of dollars to The UCLA Foundation, L.A. Philharmonic, Pepperdine University, KCET, LACMA, the LA Zoo Foundation, the University of Southern California, L.A. Opera, The Autry Museum, KCRW Foundation, The L.A. Natural History Museum, The L.A. Library Foundation, and other organizations.
According to IRS tax records, since 2004, the foundation has also donated money to the Federation For Immigration Reform (FAIR), Californians For Population Stabilization, Center For Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, Population Connection, and Progressives for Immigration. Organizations that some people consider “anti-immigrant” and have been labeled “extremist hate-groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). (Clarification: CIS and FAIR were the only organizations described as "extremist hate-groups" by the SPLC)
Founded in 1971, the SPLC rose to prominence after successfully suing the Klu Klux Klan during the 1980s. For decades, the SPLC has monitored hate-groups and extremists. Organizations on the SPLC’s annual hate-group list, “Vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity,” and their leaders hold “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”
According to the SPLC, there are over 940 hate groups nationwide and over 14 hate groups are based in California. According to the most recent FBI data in 2018, California reported more hate crimes than any other state in the country.
Laney Thornton, current chairman of the Flora L. Thornton Foundation, reached out to L.A. Taco after learning that we were working on a story through Rob Cutietta, Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music.