Morris Dees facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Morris Dees
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Dees in 2015
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| Born |
Morris Seligman Dees Jr.
December 16, 1936 |
| Alma mater | University of Alabama (LLB) |
| Occupation | Civil and political rights, social justice activist |
| Known for | Founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center |
Morris Seligman Dees Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is an American lawyer. He is best known for helping to start the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This organization is based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Morris Dees and his law partner, Joseph J. Levin Jr., started the SPLC in 1971. Dees and his team at the SPLC found new ways to stop hate groups. They did this by using lawsuits to make these groups pay for the harm they caused.
On March 14, 2019, the SPLC announced that Dees had left the organization.
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Early life
Morris Dees was born in 1936 in Shorter, Alabama. His parents, Annie Ruth and Morris Seligman Dees Sr., were cotton farmers. His family followed the Baptist faith.
After finishing law school at the University of Alabama School of Law in 1960, Dees went back to Montgomery, Alabama. There, he opened his own law office.
Marketing career
Before becoming a full-time civil rights lawyer, Dees ran a successful business. It was a direct mail and marketing company called Fuller & Dees Marketing Group. He worked with Millard Fuller.
In 1964, Dees bought out Fuller's share of the company. He sold the entire company in 1969. Dees used the money from this sale to start his legal work. He wanted to fight for civil rights and justice. This led to him founding the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971.
Political involvement
Morris Dees was involved in several political campaigns. He helped manage the money for George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972. He also worked as the national finance director for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1976. Later, he was finance chairman for Edward Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1980.
Fighting for civil rights
In his autobiography, Dees wrote about a case from 1962. As a young lawyer, he defended a Ku Klux Klan member named Claude Henley. Henley was accused of attacking Freedom Riders. Dees later said he regretted defending Henley. He realized he wanted to fight for justice for all people.
In 1969, Dees took on a case against the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama. An African-American activist, Mary Louise Smith, said her son and nephew were not allowed into a YMCA summer camp. The YMCA claimed it was a private group, so it didn't have to follow rules against racial discrimination.
But Dees found out that the city of Montgomery had a secret deal with the YMCA. The city was using the YMCA to run its public recreation places. This way, the city could avoid letting Black people use them. Dees showed this in court. The court agreed that the YMCA was acting like a public service. This meant it had to follow the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This ruling forced the YMCA to allow everyone, regardless of race. This important victory encouraged Dees to start the SPLC in 1971.
Using lawsuits to stop hate groups
Morris Dees helped create a new way to fight hate groups. This strategy used civil lawsuits to get money from these groups. If a court ordered a group to pay a lot of money, their property could be taken to pay the debt. Dees said the goal was to "clean their clock," meaning to financially ruin them.
In 1981, the SPLC and Dees sued the United Klans of America (UKA). They won a $7 million judgment for Beulah Mae Donald. Her son, Michael Donald, an African American, had been killed by UKA members in Alabama. This judgment caused the UKA to go bankrupt. Their main building was sold to pay the debt.
Later, in 1991, Dees won a $12 million judgment against Tom and John Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance. In 2001, he also helped win a $6.5 million judgment against the Aryan Nations. These large court orders have caused several well-known neo-Nazi groups to go out of business.
Targeted by hate groups
Because of his work, Morris Dees became a target for hate groups. He received many threats. In 2007, Dees said that over 30 people had been jailed for planning to harm him or blow up the SPLC building.
During a trial against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in 2008, a former member said the Klan leader told him to kill Dees. Dees continued his work despite these dangers.
Awards and recognition
Morris Dees has received many awards for his work.
- In 1993, he received the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.
- In 1990, he was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Whittier College.
- In 2006, the Morris Dees Justice Award was created in his honor. This award is given each year to a lawyer who works for public interest and justice.
- The American Bar Association gave Dees its highest honor, the ABA Medal, in 2012.
- On March 4, 2016, Dees received the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize. This award recognized his efforts in fighting racism and his dedication to nonviolence.
Dees has also given many talks at universities about civil rights and justice. In 2009, he was the main speaker at the graduation ceremony for San Francisco State University. He is recognized as a Freedom Hero by The My Hero Project.
In other media
A TV movie called Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story was made in 1991. It showed his fight against white supremacist hate groups.
Dees's work was also shown on the National Geographic show Inside American Terror in 2008.
