Dees, Morris 1936-

Morris Dees
1936-

Attorney, Civil-rights Activist

Beginnings

Born in Shorter, Alabama, the son of a farmer and cotton-gin operator, Morris Seligman Dees Jr. attended undergraduate school at the University of Alabama and then the University of Alabama School of Law. He founded a mail-order book publishing business, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, which grew to be one of the largest publishing companies in the South. In 1969 Dees sold the company to Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times. In 1967 Dees began taking controversial cases that were unpopular within his white Southern community. For instance, he filed suit to stop construction of an all-white university in Alabama. He filed suit in 1968 to integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA. As he continued to pursue equal opportunities for minorities and the poor, Dees and his law partner Joseph J. Levin Jr. recognized the need for a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeking justice. In 1971 the two lawyers and civilrights activist Julian Bond founded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Fighting Hate. Dees served as the chief trial counsel and chair of the executive committee for the SPLC during the 1990s. In this capacity he tracked and sued hate groups, as well as developed educational programs to teach tolerance to youth. In 1994, after uncovering links between white supremacist organizations and elements of the emerging antigovernment "Patriot" movement, the center established the "Militia Task Force." Six months before the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Dees warned the U.S. Attorney General that the growing hate movement in America could lead to large-scale violence. The Task Force currently monitors more than four hundred militias and other groups espousing extreme antigovernment views. Dees and the SPLC also file lawsuits against hate groups. After a rash of church-burnings in the South, Dees represented and won a conviction for the Macedonia Baptist Church in Manning, South Carolina, against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, its state leader, and four other Klansmen. "That jury's decision was a day of reckoning for the Klan," said Dees. "The verdict shows that there are still some things sacred in the country, still some lines that no one can cross."

Teaching Tolerance

In 1991 Dees and the SPLC responded to an alarming increase in hate crimes among youth by establishing the Teaching Tolerance project. The program publishes an educational magazine, Teaching Tolerance, targeted at school-age children. Distributed free of cost twice a year to more than a half-million educators across the United States, the magazine includes articles and artwork that address themes of tolerance, respect, and community building. The Center also provides teaching kits for instructors at different school levels.

Recognition

Dees has received many awards in conjunction with his work at the Center. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice named him Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1987, and he was presented the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award from the National Education Association (NEA) in 1990. The American Bar Association (ABA) gave Dees its Young Lawyers Distinguished Service Award and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) honored him with its Roger Baldwin Award. Colleges and universities have recognized his accomplishments with honorary degrees, and the University of Alabama gave Dees its Humanitarian Award in 1993.

Publications

In 1991 the autobiography A Season For Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees was published by Scribners. His second book, written with Steve Fiffer, was Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi (1993). It chronicles the trial and $12.5 million judgment against white supremacist Tom Metzger, his son John, and the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) for their responsibility in the beating death of Mulugeta Seraw, a young Ethiopian immigrant and student in Portland, Oregon. Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat (1996), coauthored with Steven Corcoran, exposes the danger posed by domestic terrorist groups.

Sources:

Morris Dees, A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees (New York: Scribners, 1991).

Southern Poverty Law Center, Internet website.