SCLC Hasn't Filed Tax Report In Three Years

Atlanta, GA

The Associated Press reports that the Atlanta based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group founded by communist agitators following the civil rights protests in the 1960s, has failed to file required financial reports with the Internal Revenue Service since 2005.

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The Southern Christian Leadership Conference said it will catch up on submitting financial reports to the Internal Revenue Service.

The agency said the civil rights group hasn't filed a report for nearly three years.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the lag in Monday's edition, the day before what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 79th birthday. King co-founded the SCLC in 1957.

The IRS nonprofit hot line said the SCLC has not filed a financial report with the IRS since February 2005. Nonprofit organizations such as the SCLC are required to file such reports annually to account for donations.

The SCLC has raised more than $6 million since President Charles Steele took office three years ago.

Steele said Monday that the SCLC would file the late documents within 45 days and make those reports available to the public.

The group had unpaid employee taxes totaling tens of thousands of dollars in 2004, an issue Steele said has been resolved. Steele said the organization currently has an annual operating budget of between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, and that he hopes to raise the budget to $5 million.