Legendary civil rights advocate Morris Dees addresses how our commitment to justice for all will determine our nation’s success in the next century as America becomes more diverse and economic disparity widens. Drawing upon past and current cases, he will also examine the issue of hate crimes and the need to teach tolerance, love and respect for one another.

 

Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971 to handle lawsuits involving civil rights violations, domestic terrorism, and hate-motivated crimes. Since then the Center has successfully battled and dismantled a series of hate groups, including the Aryan Nation and Ku Klux Klan, and has secured huge criminal, civil, and financial judgments against them.

 

Dees is the author of A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees (1991), Hate on Trial: The Case Against America’s Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi (1993), and Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat (1997). Named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal, he is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees including the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award from the National Education Association.