Dees’ Center Has Compiled Extensive Resume Forced Kkk To Turn Its Headquarters Over To Lynching Victim’S Mother

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Ala., by attorneys Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr.

Its self-described mission is to “win equal rights for poor people and minorities by taking high-impact, high-risk cases that few attorneys have the resources to tackle.”

In 1981, the center created Klanwatch, an organization that tracks activities of more than 400 racist and neo-Nazi groups.

The center also has filed numerous lawsuits over the past three decades, including some aimed at shutting down racist groups.

Dees handles most of the courtroom work.

Here are some of Dees’ and the center’s most significant cases:

Sued the YMCA in Montgomery, Ala., in 1969 for blocking blacks from using its swimming pools. A federal judge later ordered an end to the discriminatory practice.

Brought an affirmative action suit in 1972 that challenged the racial makeup of the Alabama State Troopers. The center won a court order, later affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, requiring the state to hire one black trooper for every white trooper until blacks made up 25 percent of the force.

Filed the first successful sex discrimination case against the federal government in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled as unconstitutional Department of Defense regulations granting certain benefits to servicemen but not their dependents.

Sued the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1979 after 100 of its members used bats, ax handles and guns in a clash with civil rights marchers in Decatur, Ala. It was the center’s first lawsuit against a white supremacy organization.

The FBI investigated the allegations, but couldn’t find enough evidence for criminal civil rights prosecutions. The lawsuit was resolved in 1990, with Klansmen ordered to pay damages, perform community service and stop their white supremacy activity. They also had to attend a class about race relations and prejudice taught by the civil rights group leaders attacked in 1979.

Brought a suit in 1981 on behalf of Vietnamese immigrant fishermen in Galveston, Texas, whose boats were burned by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. One of the defendants was Texas Klan leader Louis Beam, who later became “ambassador at large” for the Aryan Nations. A court order ended the intimidation by the Klan and shut down its paramilitary training bases.

Sued the White Patriots Party in North Carolina in 1984, alleging it illegally obtained stolen military weapons and used U.S. military personnel to train Klan recruits. A jury decided the White Patriots was an illegal paramilitary army, and ordered it disbanded. Several members later were convicted in a plot to blow up the Southern Poverty Law Center in retaliation.

Won a historic $7 million judgment against the United Klans of America in 1987. Two members earlier were convicted for the lynching of a 19-year-old black man, Michael Donald, who was hanged from a tree. As a result of the suit, the United Klans was forced to turn over its headquarters in Mobile, Ala., to Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald.

In the 1960s, the United Klans had threatened civil rights Freedom Riders, murdered civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo during the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march and blew up Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls.

Won a $1 million verdict in 1988 against two Klan organizations, including the Invisible Empire, and 11 Klansmen who attacked an interracial march in Forsyth County, Ga. In 1994, the Invisible Empire leader was forced to pay damages and disband his organization. The KKK office equipment was given to the NAACP.

Convinced a jury in Portland to award $9 million to the family of a black man, Mulugeta Seraw, who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi skinheads. The 1990 judgment was against White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and its founders, Tom Metzger and his son, John Metzger. WAR and its leaders were accused of inciting the murder. The judgment is being paid off by a court trustee who intercepts contributions made to Metzger’s WAR organization.

Brought a 1993 suit that forced the state of Alabama to remove the Confederate flag raised over the state Capitol 30 years earlier by then-Gov. George Wallace. Dees argued that the flag was a painful reminder of intolerance and bigotry.

Sued a white supremacy group known as the Church of the Creator in 1994 for its role in the murder of Harold Mansfield, a black sailor who served in the Gulf War. The center won a $1 million default judgment against the organization. Before the suit ended, the Church of the Creator transferred ownership of its headquarters to neo-Nazi leader William Pierce to keep it from falling into the hands of Mansfield’s heirs. In 1995, the center sued Pierce for his role in the scheme and won an $85,000 judgment against him.

Won a $37.8 million verdict last year against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and several of its leaders in South Carolina for the burning of a predominantly black Macedonia Baptist Church. After the verdict, center attorneys started legal procedures to attach bank accounts, property and other assets of the Christian Knights and five of its members. Dees said he hoped the verdict would put the Christian Knights out of business.