Thursday, October 11, 2001

Founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Morris Dees launched a series of historic lawsuits against the Ku Klux Klan, effectively bankrupting the organization. An astute observer of extremist groups, he warned former Attorney General Janet Reno that a radical militia was planning domestic terrorist strikes. Mere months later, the Oklahoma City bombing was tied to just such an organization. In his latest book, Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat , he chronicles the development of these dangerous militias and offers strategies to combat them.

When Klan members lynched an African-American man in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981, Morris Dees - and the Southern Poverty Law Center he founded - launched an historic lawsuit. They sued the Klan for inciting violence and won a $7 million precedent-setting judgment. In 1990, Dees won a $12.5 million verdict for the family of an Ethiopian murdered by Skinheads in Oregon. In 1998, he obtained a $37.8 million verdict against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for the burning of the Macedonia Baptist Church in South Carolina. The $27.8 million award was the largest civil award ever won for damages in a verdict.

Because of his efforts, Dees’ life has been repeatedly threatened, and his offices burned. He has placed himself at odds with the most notorious racists in the country. But despite the assassination attempts, Dees won’t give up.

During the civil rights movement, Dees became active in aiding minorities in court. In 1971, Dees co-founded, and funded by direct mail appeals, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that maintains a pool of lawyers who specialize in lawsuits involving civil-rights violations and racially motivated crimes. In 1980, the Center founded the “Klanwatch” in response to a resurgence in organized racist activity.

Using the law like a sword, Dees continues his battles as chief trial counsel and chair of the executive committee for the Center. He has devoted his time to developing ideas for “Teaching Tolerance,” the Center’s well-regarded education project.

To help educate young people about the civil rights movement, Dees pushed for the construction of the Civil Rights Memorial. Designed by May Lin, the monument, bearing the names of 40 men, women, and children who lost their lives during the civil rights movement, was dedicated in 1989 in Montgomery, Alabama.

A graduate of the University of Alabama Law School, Dees has received numerous accolades in conjunction with his work at the Center. His honors include being named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and receiving the National Education Association’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award.

As the 2001 Ernie and Lucha Vogel Moral Courage Speaker, Morris Dees is a singular example of moral courage. Devoted to the teaching of tolerance, the value of understanding, and the beauty in acceptance, Dees has done much to promote diversity. His efforts have resulted in many achievements including the Civil Rights Memorial, lawsuits that bankrupted the KKK, the Aryan Nation and imprisoned perpetrators of hate crimes. He is chief trial counsel for The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group he co-founded in 1971. In the fall of 2000, he hosted an HBO documentary called HATE.com, which covers hate crimes and the Internet.

Morris Dees
Transcript of talk
Text of Principia Purpose article