Morris Dees

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Morris Dees

Born Morris Seligman Dees, Jr.
December 16, 1936 (1936-12-16) (age 71)
Montgomery, Alabama
Residence Montgomery, Alabama
Occupation civil rights and social justice activist

Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is the founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and former direct mail marketeer for book publishing.[1] Along with his law partner, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and civil rights leader Julian Bond, Dees founded the Center in 1971, the start of a legal career dedicated to suing hate groups and other controversial discrimination cases.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Dees was born to a farming family in Alabama in 1936.[1] After graduation from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1960, he returned to Montgomery, Alabama and opened a law office. He ran a book publishing business, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, which grew to become a successful company in its own right. After what Dees described in his autobiography as "a night of soul searching at a snowed-in Cincinnati airport" in 1967, he sold the company in 1969 to Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times. He used the revenue generated by the sale to found the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971.[2]

Dees' new legal firm began taking part in civil rights cases that frequently put him in the spotlight. He filed suit to stop construction of a white university in an Alabama city that already had a predominantly black state college.[citation needed] Then in 1969, he filed suit to integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA.[3]

Dees' most famous cases have involved landmark damage awards that have driven several prominent neo-Nazi groups into bankruptcy, effectively causing them to disband and re-organize under different names and different leaders. In 1981, Dees successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan and won a seven million dollar settlement.[4] In a 1987 case against the United Klans of America, he won a $ 7 million judgment for the mother of Michael Donald, a black lynching victim in Alabama.[4] This was topped a decade later, when in 1991 he won a judgment of $12 million against Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance.[4] He was also instrumental in the rewarding of a $6.5 million judgment against Aryan Nations in 2001, which splintered that group as well.

He also served as President Jimmy Carter's national finance director in 1976, and as national finance chairman for Senator Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic primary presidential campaign against Carter.[5]

The story of Dees' crusade against white supremacist hate groups was fictionalized in a 1991 TV movie entitled Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story.

Dees ran for the board of the Sierra Club as a protest candidate in 2004, qualifying by petition.[6] His sole purpose in running was to use his ballot statement to encourage club members not to vote for three of the candidates, including Richard Lamm, because of their views on immigration. Dees received 7554 votes, coming in 16th out of 17 candidates in the election despite requesting no votes and carrying out no campaign.

Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill Dees or blow up the center.[7] Most recently a July 29 letter allegedly came from Hal Turner, a white supremacist talk show host, came after the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Meade County .[7]

In 2006 the University of Alabama School of Law established the "Morris Dees Award" in "honor of University of Alabama alumnus and civil rights attorney Morris Dees."[8]

Over the last several years Morris travels to universities presenting lectures on civil rights and justice.[9][10][11]

[edit] Criticism

Dees' tactics and legal actions against racial nationalist groups have made him a target of criticism from many of these organizations. He has received numerous death threats from these groups, and a number of their web sites make strong accusations against him and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[12]

On February 12 through 14 1994 Dan Morse in the Montgomery Advertiser published multiple articles alleging financial mismanagement, poor management practices, and misleading fundraising. The newspaper summarized its investigation as producing evidence of "a complex portrait of a wealthy civil rights organization essentially controlled by one man: Morris Dees."[13] Morse referred to Dees as "a giant success story--a self-made millionaire by the age of 29, a chief fundraiser for four presidential candidates, a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer."[13] Morse cited Dees former business partner from the 1960s who said Dees was a very driven person whereas others noted that "a continuous stream of positive media accounts had added to the Dees legend."[13]

In response to the criticism, Joe Levin of the SPLC told the paper: "The Advertiser's lack of interest in the center's programs and its obsessive interest in the center's financial affairs and Mr. Dees' personal life makes it obvious to me that the Advertiser simply wants to smear the center and Mr. Dees."[14]

[edit] Published books

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups", CNN, September 8, 2000. Retrieved on 2007-08-17. 
  2. ^ "Poverty Law Center Scores in South", Los Angeles Times, Dec 14, 1975. Retrieved on 2007-05-17. 
  3. ^ "Smith v. Young Men's Christian Association", Southern Poverty Law Center, June 11, 1969. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  4. ^ a b c Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," USA Today, 3 August 1996, A-7
  5. ^ "Kennedy to Tell Candidacy Prior to Thanksgiving", Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1979;. Retrieved on 2007-07-17. 
  6. ^ "Morris Dees' Sierra Club candidate statement seeks tolerance", Southern Poverty Law Center, Jan. 22, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-05-17. 
  7. ^ a b Klass, Kym. "Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security", Montgomery Advertiser, August 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  8. ^ "Morris Dees Award", University of Alabama School of Law, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  9. ^ "Morris Dees Speaking", Emporia State University, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  10. ^ "Civil Rights Legend Morris Dees to Discuss Litigating Against Hate Groups", University of Texas at Austin, March 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  11. ^ "Morris Dees to speak on "The Current Status of Hate Groups in the United States"", University of Michigan, March 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. 
  12. ^ "Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. 2 others will plead guilty Thursday." St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (May 13, 1998): pB1.
  13. ^ a b c Dan Morse. "A complex man: Opportunist or crusader?", Montgomery Advertiser, February 14 1994
  14. ^ Dan Morse and Greg Jaffe. "Critics question $52 million reserve, tactics of wealthiest civil rights group", Montgomery Advertiser, February 13 1994, page 15A

[edit] External links

[edit] Official

[edit] Other

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