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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
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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
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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!)
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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

4 posted on 08/27/2003 5:06:46 AM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Defund NPR, PBS and the LSC.)
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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.)
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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
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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.
7 posted on 08/27/2003 5:22:29 AM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Defund NPR, PBS and the LSC.)
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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.)
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To: AppyPappy
It's time for the IRS to investigate this guy and expose his frauds.
9 posted on 08/27/2003 5:34:50 AM PDT by UncleDudley
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To: billbears; stainlessbanner; GOPcapitalist; 4ConservativeJustices
Ping.
10 posted on 08/27/2003 5:35:14 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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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)
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
News about Southern Poverty Law Center

12 posted on 08/27/2003 7:09:45 AM PDT by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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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)
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To: AppyPappy
I guess the 'Dees watch' site has been terminated. Too bad, that had lots of good stuff about Morris. Here's a few I could find...

Pedophile

http://www.zianet.com/wblase/endtimes/dees1.htm

Charlatan empire

http://www.anu.org/archives_alabamapaperexposesdees.html

http://www.texasls.org/reading_room/hate/splc/a_complex_man.shtml

Neer-do-well

http://www.jubilee-newspaper.com/dees_86.htm

http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg31028.html">http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg31028.html

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/HardRight/HardRight080602.html

http://www.tl.infi.net/~jtuggle/ward.htm

FreeRepublic threads

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/567425/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a3e5cb925c4.htm
14 posted on 08/27/2003 9:10:34 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Defund NPR, PBS and the LSC.)
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