The man who founded the Virginia nonprofit paying for the push to make English Nashville’s official language also is behind several organizations that have been labeled hate groups.

Dr. John H. Tanton, a retired eye surgeon, started both ProEnglish and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified FAIR as a hate group last winter based on its acceptance of $1.2 million from a white supremacist organization, employees’ ties to other such groups and a history of “anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes.”