George and Amal Clooney give $1 million to combat U.S. hate groups

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor George Clooney and his humanitarian lawyer wife, Amal Clooney, have donated $1 million to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a U.S. non-profit that monitors extremists and domestic hate groups, in response to protests in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.

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An Aug. 12 rally in the town organized by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists led to counter-protests and the death of a woman when a car plowed into the crowd. The street battles triggered a political crisis for President Donald Trump, who praised “very fine people” on both sides of the fight.

“What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate,” the Clooneys said in a joint statement.

The donation comes from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which the couple established in 2016 to promote justice in classrooms and courtrooms around the world.

Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen thanked the Clooneys for “standing with us at this critical moment in our country’s fight against hate.”

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Steve Orlofsky)