About Morris Dees
Morris Seligman Dees Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is an American attorney, businessman, and civil rights activist who in 1971 co-founded, alongside Joseph J. Levin Jr., and served as its chief trial counsel, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Dees and his colleagues at the SPLC have been "credited with devising innovative ways to cripple hate groups" such as the Ku Klux Klan, particularly by using "damage litigation". On March 14, 2019, the SPLC announced that Dees had been fired from the organization and that the SPLC would hire an "outside organization" to assess the SPLC's workplace climate. Former employees alleged that Dees was "complicit" in harassment and racial discrimination, and said that at least one female employee had accused him of sexual harassment. == Early life and education == Dees was born in 1936 in Shorter, Alabama, the son of Annie Ruth (Frazer) and Morris Seligman Dees Sr., tenant cotton farmers. His family was Baptist. His grandfather named his son "Morris Seligman" after a Jewish friend. After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1960, Dees returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where he opened a law office. == Marketing career == Dees ran a direct mail and direct marketing business, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, with Millard Fuller.
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