southern poverty law center founder
Definition
Morris Seligman Dees Jr., the American civil rights lawyer widely recognized as the primary founder and co-founder (with Joseph J. Levin Jr.) of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit legal advocacy organization established in 1971 to combat white supremacist groups and other hate organizations through civil litigation.
The figure behind the SPLC's innovative use of direct-mail fundraising and high-profile lawsuits that bankrupted entities like the United Klans of America and the White Aryan Resistance.
Examples
The southern poverty law center founder turned direct-mail savvy into a weapon against the Klan, proving spam can save the world.
Debates rage on whether the southern poverty law center founder's real superpower was courtroom drama or that massive endowment he built.
Back in the '80s, the southern poverty law center founder bankrupted neo-Nazis faster than a bad casino night.
Even post-firing, the southern poverty law center founder looms large in civil rights lore, like a ghost haunting hate-group fundraisers.