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Nurturing justice or cashing in? [Morris Dees..the Jim and Tammy Faye of the Civil Rights Movement]
Roanoke Times ^
Posted on 08/27/2003 4:49:46 AM PDT by AppyPappy
To his admirers, Morris Dees is one of the nation's top civil rights lawyers, a man who put his life on the line for racial justice by facing down Klansmen and neo-Nazis in court. NBC broadcast a made-for-TV movie about him. Life Magazine named him a hero of the year for 1998. U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, one of the heroes of the 1960s' civil rights confrontations, has called Dees "one of the most persistent seekers of truth and justice in the South."
All this positive attention helps put the chief trial counsel for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center in constant demand as a speaker across the nation - producing a busy schedule of appearances that will bring him to Roanoke College on Thursday .
To his critics, Dees is not so much a crusader for justice as a slick showman who uses fears of racial violence to enrich himself and his organization. They say SPLC is primarily a fund-raising machine that sucks donations away from other civil rights organizations. SPLC, these detractors say, does little to address difficult issues - such as voting rights and affirmative action - that are of more concern among poor and minority Americans than the acts of scattered Ku Klux Klan groups and right-wing militias.
Stephen Bright of the Southern Center of Human Rights, an Atlanta-based anti-death-penalty group, calls Dees "a fraud and a con man" who has "milked a lot of very wonderful, well-intentioned people."
A scathing article in the November 2000 Harper's Magazine quoted one critic who called Dees the "Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement." The article charged that SPLC relies on emotional pleas that suggest the organization is under terrible financial stress, skirting the fact that SPLC is the wealthiest civil rights group in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at roanoke.com ...
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: morrisdees; roanoke; splc
1
posted on
08/27/2003 4:49:47 AM PDT
by
AppyPappy
To: AppyPappy; hellinahandcart
I agree with Harpers. i saw Dees the other day on Fox objecting to Judge Moore and the 10 Commandments issue. He tried to pass himself off as a local yokel lawyer.
Almost as excreble as Dershbagowitz.
2
posted on
08/27/2003 4:52:14 AM PDT
by
sauropod
To: AppyPappy
I remember that Dees was behind the phony church burning scare in the Clinton years that amounted to nothing. I also seem to recall that he had a son on a TV show somewhere in the past.
3
posted on
08/27/2003 4:55:04 AM PDT
by
Thebaddog
(Fetch this!)
To: AppyPappy
"[The] Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement"
You can't get much clearer analysis than that. Oh yeah, don't forget ol' Morris playing hide and seek with an underage girl as his divorce precedings reveal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b81c1e9411c.htm
To: WorkingClassFilth
You can't get much clearer analysis than that. Oh yeah, don't forget ol' Morris playing hide and seek with an underage girl as his divorce precedings reveal. Splain me
5
posted on
08/27/2003 5:13:08 AM PDT
by
AppyPappy
(If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
To: WorkingClassFilth
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership is an "extreme" right wing group, as is Gun Owners of America.
The SPLC tries to smear everyone who is not a Socialist as a NAZI who is trying to commit terrorist acts.
I think it is just a propaganda organ for the extreme left, and a fundraising machine for Dees.
6
posted on
08/27/2003 5:15:32 AM PDT
by
marktwain
To: AppyPappy
Sorry, I posted the wrong link.
Somewhere, here on the great FR engine, there is a thread with the entire transcripts from Morris' divorce case. In it, his wife alleges and seems to support his, uh, relationship with an underage girl. This was a big deal back when the thread ran.
I'll try and locate the link tonight and post here as well as FReepmail you.
To: WorkingClassFilth
I googled it but I didn't find anything
8
posted on
08/27/2003 5:26:31 AM PDT
by
AppyPappy
(If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
To: AppyPappy
It's time for the IRS to investigate this guy and expose his frauds.
To: billbears; stainlessbanner; GOPcapitalist; 4ConservativeJustices
Ping.
To: Constitution Day
Dees is a race-baiting poverty pimp & two-bit hustler.
11
posted on
08/27/2003 5:53:04 AM PDT
by
4CJ
(Come along chihuahua, I want to hear you say yo quiero taco bell. - Nolu Chan, 28 Jul 2003)
To: 4ConservativeJustices
12
posted on
08/27/2003 7:09:45 AM PDT
by
Wolverine
(A Concerned Citizen)
To: Wolverine
SPLC is a hate group, they hate Christians and Southerners.
13
posted on
08/27/2003 7:39:10 AM PDT
by
4CJ
(Come along chihuahua, I want to hear you say yo quiero taco bell. - Nolu Chan, 28 Jul 2003)
To: AppyPappy
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