Morris Dees

Dees was born in 1936 in Shorter, Alabama, the son of Annie Ruth (Frazer) and Morris Seligman Dees Sr., tenant cotton farmers.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Monroe |first=Carla R. |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1311357/Morris-Dees |title=Morris Dees | biography – American civil rights lawyer |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=April 24, 2017}} His family was Baptist.{{cite web|url=http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2001/sites/dees/biography/childhood01.php |url-status=dead |title=Morris Dees: Biography: Family History and Childhood |publisher=Learntoquestion.com |access-date=August 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040822202738/https://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2001/sites/dees/biography/childhood01.php |archive-date=August 22, 2004}} His grandfather named his son "Morris Seligman" after a Jewish friend.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwd4Ez3g_vgC&q=%22His+mother,+Annie+Ruth+Frazer,%22&pg=PA469 |title=People's Lawyers: Crusaders for Justice in American History |access-date=August 1, 2015|isbn=978-0765606730 |last1=Klebanow |first1=Diana |last2=Jonas |first2=Franklin L. |year=2003 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe }} After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1960,[https://www.ua.edu/legends/list Legends] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805074001/https://www.ua.edu/legends/list |date=August 5, 2019 }}. University of Alabama. Accessed April 24, 2017 Dees returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where he opened a law office.

Dees ran a direct mail and direct marketing business, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, with Millard Fuller. He bought Fuller out in 1964 for $1 million, much of which Fuller donated to charity.{{Cite book|author=Paul Finkelman|title=The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties: A–F, Index|date=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-94342-0|pages=1502–04}} 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. While major civil rights legislation had been passed, Dees knew there were many injustices and organizations that continued to oppose minority rights. He used the revenue from the sale to found a legal firm (that eventually became the Southern Poverty Law Center) in 1971.{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/609530622.html?dids=609530622:609530622&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+14%2C+1975&author=FRANCIS+B+KENT&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(1886-Current+File)&edition=&startpage=G1&desc=Poverty+Law+Center+Scores+in+South | title=Poverty Law Center Scores in South | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=December 14, 1975 | first=Francis B | last=Kent | access-date=May 17, 2007 | archive-date=October 1, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004801/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/609530622.html?dids=609530622:609530622&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+14,+1975&author=FRANCIS+B+KENT&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(1886-Current+File)&edition=&startpage=G1&desc=Poverty+Law+Center+Scores+in+South | url-status=dead }}

Dees's former marketing firm partner Millard Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity International in 1976 and served there in executive roles until 2005.

Dees was active as {{vague|reason="the financial director" or "a financial director"?|date=November 2020}} financial director of George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972. He was national finance director for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1976, and he was finance chairman for Edward Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1980.

{{Progressivism sidebar|expanded=activists}}In his 1991 autobiography{{cite book |first=Morris |last=Dees |title=A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees |author2=Steve Fiffer |year=1991 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-19189-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/seasonforjustice00dees_0 }}{{rp|84–85}} Dees wrote that in 1962, as a young lawyer, he had represented Ku Klux Klan member Claude Henley, who faced federal charges for attacking Freedom Riders in an incident documented by a Life magazine photographer. When Dees learned that another lawyer had asked for $15,000 to represent Henley, Dees offered to do the job for $5,000, which was roughly the median household annual salary in America at the time. Dees's defense helped Henley gain an acquittal. Dees later said he had an "epiphany" and regretted defending Henley.

In 1969, Dees sued the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama, at the request of African-American civil rights activist Mary Louise Smith. She said that her son Vincent and nephew Edward{{rp|108}} had been refused admission to attend a YMCA summer camp.{{cite book|author=Robert Heinrich|title=Montgomery: The Civil Rights Movement and Its Legacies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPPVMt9ravIC&pg=PA260|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140705125154/http://books.google.com/books?id=oPPVMt9ravIC&pg=PA260|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 5, 2014|series=Ph.D. dissertation|year=2008|publisher=Brandeis University|isbn=978-0-549-69927-9|page=260}} The YMCA was a private organization and therefore not bound by the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[https://web.archive.org/web/20101220174805/http://louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory=3100 YMCA desegregation ruling turns 40], The Louisiana Weekly, July 26, 2010. Retrieved December 9, 2010; URL replaced with version archived December 20, 2010. which prohibited racial discrimination in public facilities.{{cite book|author=Timothy Minchin|title=After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BF1wR0fj3f0C&pg=PA68|year=2011|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-2988-4|page=68}}

But Dees discovered that, in order to avoid desegregating its recreational facilities, the city of Montgomery had signed a secret agreement with the YMCA to operate them as private facilities and on the city's behalf. He introduced evidence of this agreement in court and challenged the constitutionality of the YMCA's position. The trial court ruled that the YMCA effectively had a "municipal charter" by this agreement with the city, and was therefore bound by the Fourteenth Amendment (and the Civil Rights Act) to desegregate its facilities.{{cite book|author=Paul Finkelman|title=Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UVgKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT4836|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-94704-0|page=4836|access-date=May 6, 2015}} The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit{{ref|Alpha|(α)}} partly affirmed the trial judge's finding, reversing his order that the YMCA use affirmative action to racially integrate its board of directors.{{rp|125}} According to historian Timothy Minchin, Dees was "emboldened by this victory" when he founded the SPLC in 1971.

Dees was one of the principal architects of a strategy that used civil lawsuits to secure a court judgment for monetary damages against an organization for a wrongful act. The courts could potentially seize organization assets in order to gain payment of the judgment. Dees said that the aim was to gain large judgements which would "clean their clock".{{Cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/26/news/sending-a-12.5-million-message-to-a-hate-group.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022122753/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/26/news/sending-a-12.5-million-message-to-a-hate-group.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-10-22|title=Sending a $12.5 Million Message to a Hate Group |website= The New York Times|date=2012-10-22|access-date=2019-11-05}}

In 1981, the SPLC and Dees sued the United Klans of America (UKA) along with Michael Figures as co-counsel and won a $7 million judgment for Beulah Mae Donald, the mother of Michael Donald, an African American who had been lynched by UKA members in Alabama.Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," USA Today, August 3, 1996, A-7.{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/58240562.html?dids=58240562:58240562&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+13%2C+1987&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=2&desc=The+Nation+Klan+Must+Pay+%247+Million | title=The Nation Klan Must Pay $7 Million | work=Los Angeles Times | date=February 13, 1987 | access-date=September 18, 2007 | archive-date=October 1, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001064509/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/58240562.html?dids=58240562:58240562&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+13,+1987&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=2&desc=The+Nation+Klan+Must+Pay+$7+Million | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | url=https://capitalbnews.org/shomari-figures-voices-of-change/ | title=His Father Bankrupted the Klan. He Wants to Keep Fighting for Racial Justice in Congress | date=January 22, 2024 }} The judgment bankrupted UKA and its national headquarters building was sold for $51,875.{{Cite book|author=Anthony Joseph Stanonis|title=Dixie Emporium: Tourism, Foodways, and Consumer Culture in the American South|publisher=University of Georgia Press|date=2008|isbn=978-0-8203-3169-0|pages=181–82}}

A decade later, in 1991, Dees obtained a judgment of $12 million against Tom and John Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance. He also helped secure a $6.5 million judgment in 2001 against the Aryan Nations. Dees's most famous cases have involved landmark damage awards that have driven several{{Vague|date=September 2019}} prominent neo-Nazi groups into bankruptcy, effectively causing them to disband.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}

Dees's critics have included the Montgomery Advertiser, which has portrayed his work with the SPLC as self-promotional, contending that Dees exaggerates the threat of hate groups. In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser ran a series alleging that Dees discriminated against the SPLC's black employees, some of whom "felt threatened and banded together".{{Cite web|url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/03/14/southern-poverty-law-center-fires-co-founder-civil-rights-lawyer-morris-dees/3164839002/|title=Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees|website=The Montgomery Advertiser|language=en|access-date=2019-03-15}}

A 2000 article by Ken Silverstein in Harper's Magazine alleged that Dees kept the SPLC focused on fighting anti-minority groups such as the KKK, instead of focusing on issues like homelessness, mostly because of the greater fundraising potential of the former. The article also claimed that the SPLC "spends twice as much on fund-raising – $5.76 million last year – as it does on legal services for victims of civil rights abuses".{{cite magazine|first=Ken|last=Silverstein|url=http://www.harpers.org/archive/2000/11/0068709|title=The church of Morris Dees: How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance|magazine=Harper's Magazine|date=November 2000}} Stephen Bright, an Atlanta-based civil rights attorney and former president of the Southern Center for Human Rights, wrote in 2007 that Dees was "a con man and fraud", who "has taken advantage of naive, well-meaning people – some of moderate or low incomes – who believe his pitches and give to his $175-million operation".

These comments were made after a controversy pitting Dees against much of the civil rights community in his support of the nomination of Edward E. Carnes to be a federal appeals court judge. Carnes was a well-known proponent of the death penalty, which has been shown to be disproportionately applied as a sentence against African-American men.{{cite news|last1=Smothers|first1=Ronald|title=Judicial Nomination Sunders Old Allies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/09/us/judicial-nomination-sunders-old-allies.html|access-date=December 27, 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 9, 1992|ref=U.S. Section}}

In 2019, the SPLC fired Dees for undisclosed reasons, and said the firm would hire an "outside organization" to investigate its workplace practices. Before the firing, two dozen employees had complained to management about concerns of "mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism" which threatened SPLC's moral authority and integrity.{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Southern-Poverty-Law-Center-fires-co-founder-amid-misconduct-concerns/1531552661041/|title=Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder amid misconduct concerns|website=UPI|language=en|access-date=2019-03-19}} A former employee said that Dees had a "reputation for hitting on young women" and that his ouster came "amid a staff revolt over the mistreatment of non-white and female employees" by Dees and SPLC leadership.{{Cite magazine|first=Bob|last=Moser|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-reckoning-of-morris-dees-and-the-southern-poverty-law-center/|title=The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en|date=March 21, 2019|access-date=March 22, 2019}}

Dees's legal actions against racial nationalist organizations have motivated many of them to target him for assassination. As a result, he has received numerous death threats from some of these groups.{{cite news|title=Group is accused of plotting assassinations, bombings. 2 others will plead guilty Thursday|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|publisher=Lee Enterprises|location=St. Louis, Missouri|date=May 13, 1998|page=B1}} In 2007, Dees said that more than 30 people had been jailed in connection with plots to either kill him or blow up the center,{{cite news |url=http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070814/NEWS/708140328/1001 |title=Southern Poverty Law Center beefs up security |newspaper=Montgomery Advertiser |date=August 17, 2007 |first=Kym |last=Klass |access-date=September 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927192930/http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070814%2FNEWS%2F708140328%2F1001 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=dead }} although a Montgomery police spokesman said he was not aware that the SPLC had informed the police of threats. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that a letter which described such a plot was sent by Hal Turner, a radio talk show host, a paid FBI informant and a white supremacist, on July 29, 2007, after the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) in Meade County, Kentucky. During the IKA trial, a former member of the IKA said that the Klan head told him to kill Dees.{{cite news | url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jlythDb85xRJcZoWIjQxZqNYH-MgD94E75MO0 | title=Former member: Ky. Klan plotted to kill attorney | agency=Associated Press |date= November 13, 2008 | access-date = September 18, 2007}}{{dead link|date=November 2012|bot=Legobot}} Dees and William F. McMurry represented the plaintiff in the trial against the IKA in November 2008.{{cite web|title=Jordan Gruver v. Imperial Klans of America|url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/case-docket/jordan-gruver-v-imperial-klans-of-america|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=September 18, 2012}}

In 1958, Dees started his political career by working for the Southern politician George Wallace, later the governor of Alabama.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SvhPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6686,3628876|newspaper=The Spokesman-Review|date=January 26, 1999|author=Bill Morlin|page=A4|title= Targeted by hate groups, Dees also has their number}} Indicating his change of direction, in 1972 he served as Senator George McGovern's national finance director,{{cite news

| title=Morris Dees: At center of the racial storm

| newspaper=USA Today

| date= August 3, 1996

| first=Andrea

| last=Stone

}} in 1976 as President Jimmy Carter's national finance director, and in 1980 as national finance chairman for Senator Ted Kennedy's Democratic primary presidential campaign against Carter.{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/683596802.html?dids=683596802:683596802&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+28%2C+1979&author=ROBERT+SHOGAN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(1886-Current+File)&edition=&startpage=A14&desc=Kennedy+to+Tell+Candidacy+Prior+to+Thanksgiving | title=Kennedy to Tell Candidacy Prior to Thanksgiving | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=October 28, 1979 | first=Robert | last=Shogan | access-date=July 17, 2007 | archive-date=October 1, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001001647/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/683596802.html?dids=683596802:683596802&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+28,+1979&author=ROBERT+SHOGAN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(1886-Current+File)&edition=&startpage=A14&desc=Kennedy+to+Tell+Candidacy+Prior+to+Thanksgiving | url-status=dead }}

In 2004 Dees ran for the board of the Sierra Club as a protest candidate, qualifying by petition.{{cite news | url=http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=47 | title=Morris Dees' Sierra Club candidate statement seeks tolerance | publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center | date=January 22, 2004 | access-date=May 17, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070520165242/http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=47 | archive-date=May 20, 2007 | url-status=dead }}

• In 1993 he received the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.{{Cite web | url=http://salemaward.org/salem-award/award-winners/1993-morris-dees/ |title = Home » Voices Against Injustice}}{{failed verification|date=November 2020}}
• In 1990, Dees was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/alumni/poetnation/honorary|title=Honorary Degrees {{!}} Whittier College|website=www.whittier.edu|access-date=2020-02-20}}
• In 2006, the law firm of Skadden Arps partnered with the University of Alabama School of Law to create the Morris Dees Justice Award in honor of Dees, an Alabama graduate. 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".{{cite web |url=http://www.morrisdeesaward.com/ |title=About the Award |access-date=August 19, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810225815/http://www.morrisdeesaward.com/ |archive-date=August 10, 2007 |website=Morris Dees Justice Award |publisher= University of Alabama School of Law}}
• The American Bar Association awarded Dees the ABA Medal, the association's highest honor, by the ABA House of Delegates in 2012.{{cite web | url = http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/morris_dees_receives_aba_medal/ | title = Civil Rights Activist Morris Dees Receives ABA Medal | last = Weiss | first = Debra Cassens | date = August 7, 2012 | work = ABA Journal Law News Now | publisher =American Bar Association | access-date = August 14, 2012}}
• In addition, on March 4, 2016, Dees received the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, the highest award given by the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The award recognizes Dees' achievements in fighting racism and his commitment to nonviolence.{{cite web|title=The King Center|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/event/king-center-awards-martin-luther-king-jr-nonviolent-peace-prize-48th-anniversary-his|website=The Nonviolent Peace Prize Award|publisher=The King Center|access-date=December 23, 2016|archive-date=December 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223133258/http://www.thekingcenter.org/event/king-center-awards-martin-luther-king-jr-nonviolent-peace-prize-48th-anniversary-his|url-status=dead}}

In the early 21st century, Dees has presented numerous lectures on civil rights and justice at universities.{{cite news|url=http://www.emporia.edu/bonner/dees.htm |title=Morris Dees Speaking |publisher=Emporia State University |year=2006 |access-date=September 18, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193111/http://www.emporia.edu/bonner/dees.htm |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}{{cite news| url=http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2007/021207_dees.html| title=Civil Rights Legend Morris Dees to Discuss Litigating Against Hate Groups| publisher=University of Texas at Austin| date=March 2007| access-date=January 13, 2009| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516081941/http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2007/021207_dees.html| archive-date=May 16, 2008}}{{cite news | url=http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3169 | title=Morris Dees to speak on "The Current Status of Hate Groups in the United States" | publisher=University of Michigan |date= March 2007 | access-date = September 18, 2007}} In 2009, he was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony for San Francisco State University.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/23/BA1N17Q7RT.DTL|title=Civil rights icons lead S.F. State graduation|last=Zinko|first=Carolyne|date=May 23, 2009|work=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=May 25, 2009}} He was identified as a Freedom Hero by The My Hero Project.{{ cite web|url=http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=morrisdees |website=The My Hero Project | title=Morris Seligman Dees | access-date=December 5, 2016 }}

The TV movie titled Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (1991) dramatized his campaigns against white supremacist hate groups.{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102311/ | title=Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story | website=IMDb | year=1991 | access-date = October 12, 2016}}

Dees's work was featured on the National Geographic's Inside American Terror in 2008.{{cite news |url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/inside/3954/Overview#tab-Videos/05946_00 |title=Micheal McDonald clip on KKK: Inside American Terror |publisher=National Geographic |year=2008 |access-date=November 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030032619/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/inside/3954/Overview#tab-Videos/05946_00 |archive-date=October 30, 2008 }}

• Dees, Morris & Steve Fiffer (2003). A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story. Chicago: American Bar Association. {{ISBN|1-57073-994-3}}.
• Dees, Morris (1997). Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat. Harper Perennial. {{ISBN|0-06-092789-5}}.
• Dees, Morris & Steve Fiffer (1993). Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. New York: Villard Books. {{ISBN|0-679-40614-X}}.
• {{cite book |first=Morris |last=Dees |title=A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees |author2=Steve Fiffer |year=1991 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-19189-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/seasonforjustice00dees_0 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Egerton|first1=John|author-link=John Egerton (journalist)| title=Poverty Palace: How the Southern Poverty Law Center got rich fighting the Klan|journal=The Progressive|date=July 14, 1988|pages=14–17|location=Madison, WI|issn=0033-0736|oclc=757703819}}
• Also published as {{cite journal|last1=Egerton|first1=John|author-link= John Egerton (journalist)| title=The klan basher|journal=Foundation News|publisher=Foundation Center|date=May–June 1988|pages=38–43|url=http://catalog.foundationcenter.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-ISBDdetail.pl?biblionumber=4349#}} (Archived at [https://web.archive.org/web/20160502165035/http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/findingaids/egertonj_addition.pdf Special Collections and University Archives] Jean and Alexander Heard Library Vanderbilt University)
• Hall, Dave, Tym Burkey and Katherine M. Ramsland (2008). Into the Devil's Den. New York: Ballantine. {{ISBN|978-0-345-49694-2}}
• O'Neil, Tyler (2020). Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bombardier Books. {{ISBN|978-1642934397}}

{{Wikiquote}}

Official

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190713171814/https://www.splcenter.org/ Southern Poverty Law Center] – Official website
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160309191051/https://www.splcenter.org/about/staff/morris-dees Morris Dees: Center founder and chief trial counsel] – Official website

Other

• {{C-SPAN|39502}}
• {{IMDb name | id= nm1009028 | name=Morris Dees }}
• {{IMDb title| id=tt0102311 |title= Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story}}
• {{Tcmdb title | id= 465967 | title= Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dees, Morris}}

Category:1936 births

Category:People from Macon County, Alabama

Category:Living people

Category:Activists for African-American civil rights

Category:American anti-fascists

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Category:American civil rights lawyers

Category:American Unitarians

Category:American anti-racism activists

Category:American LGBTQ rights activists

Category:Politicians from Montgomery, Alabama

Category:Southern Poverty Law Center

Category:Sidney Lanier High School alumni

Category:University of Alabama School of Law alumni

Category:Lawyers from Montgomery, Alabama

Category:American founders