Talk:Morris Seligman Dees, Jr.

Including Julian Bond as a "founder" of the Southern Poverty Law Center is inaccurate.

According to pages 132-133 of Morris Dees' autobiography, "A Season for Justice," Dees had never met Bond until after he and Levin had created the SPLC. Bond was tapped for public relations reasons and was not a key player in the founding of the Center.

On page 132, Dees explains that his choice of Bond was based solely on Bond's name recognition for the SPLC's initial mailing of fund raising letters. On page 133, Dees states that "Julian was familiar with some of our cases, and when I told him of our hopes and plans, he agreed to serve as president of the Law Center, a largely honorary position."

Dees continues, "Over Julian's signature, we sent out twenty-five thousand letters asking people to contribute..." and deemed the campaign "a great success" for garnering five hundred donors.

Bond's name is not mentioned again in the autobiography.

Also, on page 84 of the same book, when Dees discusses his representation of Claude Henley, regarding his attack on a group of Freedom Riders in 1961, Dees speaks only in the first person, ("I'll take your case for five thousand dollars"). The last paragraph of this entry implies that Millard Fuller represented Henley as well, but there is no evidence that Fuller participated directly in the case.

Cited in:

Dees, Morris (1991). A Season For Justice, (Dees' autobiography), Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 068419189X