<P> In May 1981, U.S. District Court judge Gabrielle McDonald issued a preliminary injunction against the Klan, requiring them to cease intimidating, threatening, or harassing the Vietnamese . McDonald eventually found the TER and Beam liable for tortious interference, violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and of various civil rights statutes and thus permanently enjoined them against violence, threatening behavior, and other harassment of the Vietnamese shrimpers . The SPLC also uncovered an obscure Texas law "that forbade private armies in that state ." McDonald found that Beam's organization violated it and hence ordered the TER to close its military training camp . </P> <P> In 1982, armed members of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Bobby Person, a black prison guard, and members of his family . They harassed and threatened others, including a white woman who had befriended blacks . In 1984, Person became the lead plaintiff in Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a lawsuit brought by the SPLC in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina . The harassment and threats continued during litigation and the court issued an order prohibiting any person from interfering with others inside the courthouse . In January 1985, the court issued a consent order that prohibited the group's "Grand Dragon", Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., and his followers from operating a paramilitary organization, holding parades in black neighborhoods, and from harassing, threatening or harming any black person or white persons who associated with black persons . Subsequently, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim for damages . </P> <P> Within a year, the court found Miller and his followers, now calling themselves the White Patriot Party, in criminal contempt for violating the consent order . Miller was sentenced to six months in prison followed by a three - year probationary period, during which he was banned from associating with members of any racist group such as the White Patriot Party . Miller refused to obey the terms of his probation . He made underground "declarations of war" against Jews and the federal government before being arrested again . Found guilty of weapons violations, he went to federal prison for three years . </P> <P> In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama . The SPLC used an unprecedented legal strategy of holding an organization responsible for the crimes of individual members to help produce a $7 million judgement for the victim's mother . The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy . Its national headquarters was sold for approximately $52,000 to help satisfy the judgement . In 1987, five members of a Klan offshoot, the White Patriot Party, were indicted for stealing military weaponry and plotting to kill Dees . The SPLC has since successfully used this precedent to force numerous Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups into bankruptcy . </P>

How did the southern poverty law center get its name