Margaret Huang facts for kids

Margaret L. Huang is an American leader who works to protect human rights and make sure everyone is treated fairly, no matter their race. She is the president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that helps people with their civil rights. She started working at SPLC in April 2020.

Margaret Huang's Life Story

Margaret Huang grew up in East Tennessee. She went to Georgetown University and studied foreign service, which is about how countries work together. After college, she taught for a group called the Close Up Foundation. Then, she went to Columbia University for her master's degree.

Early Career and Helping Others

After finishing her studies, Margaret worked for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This committee helps decide how the U.S. interacts with other countries. She worked on issues related to Asia and Africa. She even traveled to several countries in Africa to learn more about their needs.

Later, Margaret worked for different groups that help people around the world:

• She managed a program for women's rights at The Asia Foundation.
• She helped human rights defenders from Asia and the Middle East at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.
• She led a program at Global Rights that focused on racial justice in the U.S.
• She also led the Rights Working Group, a large group of organizations working to protect people's freedoms after the events of September 11. This group worked to stop racial profiling, which is when police unfairly target people because of their race. She even talked about this issue on a radio show in 2012.

Leading Amnesty International USA

From 2015 to 2020, Margaret Huang was the leader of Amnesty International USA. This organization works to protect human rights all over the world. While she was there, she:

• Traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to see how government policies were affecting refugees.
• Visited Syria to see the damage from U.S. bombings and asked the U.S. government to help the victims.
• Spoke to Congress in 2019 about making sure unaccompanied children in government care were safe.

Leading the Southern Poverty Law Center

In April 2020, Margaret Huang became the president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is a group that fights for racial justice, especially in the Southern United States.

A New Mission for Justice

When Margaret joined the SPLC, she helped them create a new mission statement. It says: The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. This means the SPLC wants to help communities fight against unfair systems, support movements that include all kinds of people, and make sure everyone has their human rights protected.

Margaret has set big goals for the SPLC for the next ten years, including:

• Helping two million people in the Deep South get out of poverty.
• Reducing the number of people who believe in white nationalism, which is a harmful idea that some races are better than others.
• Lowering the number of people in jails or detention centers in Southern states by 35%.
• Encouraging more voters of color to participate in elections and other community activities.

In September 2020, Margaret received the Civil Rights Award from the March on Washington Film Festival for her important work. She has also spoken to the media and testified in front of Congress about the dangers of extremism and violence against minority groups.