ELON COLLEGE – Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15 in McCrary Theatre in the Faith Rockefeller Model Center for the Arts.
The visit has not been announced to the general public for security reasons, although Elon faculty, staff and students have been invited.
The media is invited to meet Dees and cover his talk, but asked not to announce the visit in advance. Media can interview Dees at 5 p.m. Sept. 15 in Yeager Recital Hall in the Model Center. Media will be asked for their credentials and a photo identification.
Dees recently made headlines for representing an African-American congregation that sued the Ku Klu Klan for its role in the 1995 burning of its Clarendon County, S.C., church. In late July, a jury ordered the Klan to pay $37.8 million to the church.
He became active aiding minorities in court during the 1960s. That involvement led to the founding of the Southern Poverty Center in 1971. As the center’s chief counsel, he devotes his time to suing white supremacist groups and developing ideas for Teaching Tolerance, the center’s education project.
Dees, who was the subject of a made-for-television movie in 1991, has turned his attention in recent years to the resurgence of racist activity and the threat of violence-prone groups. His recent book, Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat, is a chilling expose of the danger posed by today’s domestic terrorist groups.
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