Sara Bullard

Sara Bullard is an American writer and sociological researcher focused on hate crimes, racism, and the civil rights movement. She is the founding director of Teaching Tolerance, a national project of the Southern Poverty Law Center to promote racial and cultural understanding among students. Bullard was the editor of the program's semiannual magazine. She authored the books Free at Last and Teaching Tolerance (1996).

Early life Sara Bullard was raised in North Carolina. Until 1968, her father Jack Bullard had a Raleigh-area Southern Baptist pulpit. He left his position to focus his career on improving race relations and moved the family to Charlotte. Bullard was part of the first group of students to attend desegregated Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, studying at Randolph Middle School.

Career Bullard worked as a journalist before joining the North Carolina Humanities Council. She joined the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in 1987 where she published the KlanWatch report and researched extremism. Bullard and SPLC director Morris Dees found that half of the hate crimes in the U.S. involved perpetrators under the age of 21.

Bullard authored Free at Last (1993), a juvenile nonfiction book about the civil rights movement. It includes a chronology of prominent and unsung martyrs who died in their efforts.