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Morris Dees

Agricultural and business background

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.

Civil rights legal practice

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 whites|white university in an Alabama city that already had a predominantly African American|black state college. Then in 1969, he filed suit to Racial integration|integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA. In an address on March 1, 2007, at the University of Texas School of Law, Judge Keith Ellison described Morris Dees as “his generation's most valiant and effective soldier in the fight for civil rights and civil liberties.”Judge Keith Ellison. http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/publicinterest/docs/JudgeEllisonAddressJudgeJusticeReception.pdf

Innovative legal strategy

Dees was one of the principal architects of an innovative strategy of using civil lawsuits to secure a court judgment for money damages against an organization for a wrongful act and then use the courts to seize its assets (money, land, buildings, other property) to pay the judgment. SPLC lawyers used this legal strategy to hold the Klan accountable for the acts of its members. In 1981, Dees successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan and won a seven million dollar judgment for the mother of Michael Donald, a black lynching victim in Alabama.Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," ''USA Today,'' 3 August 1996, A-7 Payment of the judgment bankrupted the United Klans of America and resulted in its national headquarters being sold to help satisfy the judgment. All funds secured in this manner were paid to the family of the deceased. A decade later, in 1991, Dees obtained a judgment of million against Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance. He was also instrumental in securing a .5 million judgment against Aryan Nations in 2001. 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. Dees' 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."Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. 2 others will plead guilty Thursday." ''St Louis Post-Dispatch'' (MO) (May 13, 1998): pB1. Over 30 people have been jailed in connection with plots to kill Dees or blow up the center. Most recently a July 29, 2007, 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 . During the IKA trial a former member of the IKA said that the Klan head told him to kill Dees. Dees' work was featured on the National Geographic's "Inside American Terror" in 2008. The story of Dees' campaigns against white supremacist hate groups was fictionalized in a 1991 TV movie entitled ''Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story.'' Over the last several years, Dees has presented numerous lectures on civil rights and justice at universities. In 2009, he was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony for San Francisco State University.

Morris Dees Justice Award

In 2006, the law firm of Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom partnered with the University of Alabama School of Law to create the Morris Dees Justice Award in honor of Dees, an Alabama graduate, for his lifelong dedication to public service. The award is given annually to a lawyer who has "devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought positive change in the community, state or nation," Morris Dees Justice Award. http://www.morrisdeesaward.com 1/13/09 as illustrated by the lives of the following recipients. The first recipient of the award was U. S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas, who received it November 16, 2006 at a ceremony in Skadden offices in New York City.“Civil Rights Legend Morris Dees to Discuss Litigating Against Hate Groups, March 1.” University of Texas at Austin School of Law News & Events. Press release, February 12, 2007. http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2007/021207_dees.html 1/13/09 Judge Justice was recognized for his lifelong efforts to protect civil rights and safeguard constitutional rights during more than 30 years as a federal district judge, hearing notable cases dealing with integration, prisoners' rights (Ruiz v. Estelle, 1972), procedural due process, equal access to education (United States v. Texas, 1970), free public education for children of illegal immigrants (Plyer v. Doe, 1982), dilution of voting rights, and care for the mentally challenged.“Texas Federal Judge Wins Morris Dees Justice Award.” Southern Poverty Law Center. Press release, October 2, 2006. http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=216 1/13/09 In 2007, the award was presented to Arthur N. Read, general counsel for Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., a legal services provider in Philadelphia, for dedicating his career and life to providing a voice for the disadvantaged and advocating on behalf of the underprivileged.“UA School of Law and Skadden Law Firm Honor Farmworker Activist with 2007 Morris Dees Justice Award.” University of Alabama News. Press release, October 8, 2007. http://uanews.ua.edu/anews2007/oct07/law100807.htm 1/13/09 In Vlasic Farms, Inc. v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (2001), he won for workers in Pennsylvania's mushroom industry the right to organize, and in El Concilia v. DER (1984), Read won a class-action lawsuit arguing that Pennsylvania had failed to inspect migrant camp housing for workers, bringing such housing largely into compliance with state and federal law. In 2008, the award went to immigrant rights advocate Cheryl Little, Executive Director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a non-profit legal assistance organization in Miami, for her dedication to protecting the rights of immigrants, especially Haitian refugees, throughout her professional career.”Immigrant Rights Advocate Wins 2008 Morris Dees Justice Award.” Morris Dees Justice Award. Press release, September 25, 2008. http://www.law.ua.edu/deesaward/2008PressRelease.pdf 1/13/09 Little is considered one of the country’s leading experts on immigration law.“Cheryl Little Wins 2008 Morris Dees Justice Award.” Immigration Prof Blog. Press release, October 3, 2008. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2008/10/cheryl-little-w.html 1/13/09

Political activity

He served as President Jimmy Carter's national finance director in 1976, and as national finance chairman for Senator Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic primary election|primary presidential campaign against Carter. Dees ran for the board of the Sierra Club as a protest candidate in 2004, qualifying by petition. His campaign was not designed to win election, but to publicize the views of some board members and candidates running for election in a bid to return population control to the organization's agenda. Dees received 7554 votes, coming in 16th out of 17 candidates in the election. The Dees 1991 autobiography ''A Season for Justice'' was updated in 2003 with new material about his case against the Aryan Nations in Idaho and reissued as ''A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story'' in a biographical series published by the American Bar Association.

Controversy

In February 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."Dan Morse. "A complex man: Opportunist or crusader?", ''Montgomery Advertiser'', February 14 1994 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." Morse cited Dees's former business partner from the 1960s who said Dees was a very driven person. Others noted that "a continuous stream of positive media accounts had added to the Dees legend." 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."Dan Morse and Greg Jaffe. "Critics question million reserve, tactics of wealthiest civil rights group", ''Montgomery Advertiser'', February 13 1994, page 15A. The charity evaluation organization Charity Navigator gave SPLC a rating of three out of four stars in fiscal year 2007.Charity Navigator Rating - Southern Poverty Law Center According to Charity Navigator: program expenses are 68.2%, administrative expenses are 14.2%, and fundraising is 17.4%. The Center states that "During its last fiscal year, the Center spent approximately 65% of its total expenses on program services. The Center also placed a portion of its income into a special, board-designated endowment fund to support the Center's future work." At the end of the fiscal year, the endowment stood at 1.7 million."SPLC Financial Information SPLC sets aside money for its Financial endowment|endowment "to carry on the struggle for tolerance and justice — for as long as it is needed."

Books by Dees

- Dees, Morris and Steve Fiffer (2003). ''A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story''. Chicago: American Bar Association. ISBN 1570739943.
- Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. (1993) ''Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi''. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 067940614X.
- Dees, Morris (1997). ''Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat''. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060927895.

Footnotes

References

- Dees, Morris, and Steve Fiffer. 1991. ''A Season For Justice,'' (Dees' autobiography) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 068419189X
- Hall, Dave, Tym Burkey and Katherine M. Ramsland. 2008. ''Into the Devil’s Den''. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 9780345496942

External links

Official
- Southern Poverty Law Center – Official website
- Morris Dees: Center founder and chief trial counsel – Official website
- Morris Dees Award – Official website
Other
- Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (a television movie)
- A 2004 video of Morris delivering the keynote address at the Minnesota Human Rights Day celebration
- The My Hero Project: Morris Seligman Dees Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American activists Category:American lawyers Category:American Unitarians Category:American campaign managers Category:Anti-racism activists Category:People from Alabama Category:University of Alabama alumni Category:American civil rights lawyers

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