THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701160431
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 138 lines
If they gave awards for valor in the war against hate, Morris Dees would wear the Congressional Medal of Honor. An Alabama native and son of a cotton farmer, Dees is a lawyer-activist who made a fortune in business early in life and put it to work against bigotry, violence and oppression.
Dees is a co-founder and driving engine of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which for 25 years has dogged the footsteps of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, skinheads and, now, the militia movement. Dees and his staff of lawyers break the backs of hate-mongers the old-fashioned way: They drag them into court and cripple them with multimillion-dollar legal judgments.
In 1987, they won a $7-million jury award for the mother of an Alabama man who was lynched by the Klan. In 1990, Dees won a $12.5-million verdict in Oregon for the family of a man murdered by skinheads.
Among many honors, Dees received the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award from the National Education Association in 1991.
Thursday, Dees will speak on ``Teaching Tolerance'' at Old Dominion University, as part of the President's Lecture Series (Details, J3). Following are highlights of a conversation between Dees and Commentary editor Dave Addis:
Q. You're coming here to speak on ``teaching tolerance.'' What, exactly, is the lesson that you want your audience to learn?
A. ``Well, I guess, that we must solve this really deep divide in our country, which is along racial lines, especially. There are other concerns, too, but race is the dominant one. Look, for example, at O.J. Simpson. Seventy percent of black people see him as innocent, but 70 percent of whites think he's guilty, even though they're all looking at the same evidence.
``My major thrust is, how do we bridge that gap between the races in America?''
Q. As you said, the nationwide debate on race seems to be framed lately through the lens how one views O.J. Simpson, or the Texaco debacle, or the debate over recognizing Ebonics (``black English'') as a distinct language. Are these lightning-rod issues eroding our ability to tolerate differing viewpoints?
A. ``There's no question about it. But there's no real debate over Ebonics. Not a single white or black school in America, with the exception of a few people in Oakland, even thinks that's a good idea. It's a non-issue, and the Oakland school board quickly withdrew from the issue. No school board in America is even dealing with it.
``But what remains is the ability to polarize people. Some people have gone to great lengths, editorializing, going on talk shows, it's like here's a great whipping boy for those who want to slam blacks in some way, even though there's not a single black leader speaking in favor of it.
``It's nothing but a great red-herring issue.''
Q. You started out by taking on the Ku Klux Klan, then the skinheads. Your latest book is The Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat. How serious a threat is the militia movement? How, for example, would you compare it to the threat posed by the Klan in the 1950s and '60s?
A. ``Well, I'd say the militia movement and the Klan threats are pretty similar. Neither had the potential for stopping progress. The Klan could not stop the civil rights movement, and the militias today cannot stop the U.S. government.
``The Klan had the potential, and did cause serious harm - lynching people, killing people, they blew up churches. The militia movement is doing the same thing, causing harm to a lot of people.
``Tim McVeigh and his bunch, assuming they're guilty (of blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City), they're part of a whole patriot movement that's very anti-government. But they're not so organized as to be able to overthrown the nation. I don't see that potential.''
Q. You were the target, I believe, of fire-bombings and other attacks while you were fighting the Klan. The militia types have launched a pretty nasty campaign against you, particularly over the Internet. Given their leaning toward militaristic activity, do you feel personally threatened by them?
A. In 1983, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan bombed our building and burned it to the ground - the inside, at least. They were caught and imprisoned for that. There've been other incidents of violence against us over the years, we've been the target of various plots to harm us, kill us, one thing and another. But we have some pretty intense security now, and have for many years.
``The militias, they're one more aspect of the anti-Semitic and racist movement. But they're a different kind of threat. The Klan, in the South, they were the good ol' boys. Once they lost their private drinking fountains and commodes, life didn't change for them, everything was still the same.
``They looked at Willie, the black guy sitting there, and said `Well, y'know, I kinda liked you all along,' but they can go public now about liking one another, and that's what's happened. Blacks and whites in the South have always had a strong affection, but they've not been able to publicly express it in a lot of places.
``But these militia people have a little different view. Whereas the Klan was fighting for traditions, for their sacred way of life, the militia people are fighting for what they feel is the soul of the country. They see themselves as Tom Paine made over, as modern-day patriots. And the see people like me as traitors to democracy, as tyrants.''
Q. Where do you see the bright spots on tolerance in America? And where do you see dark clouds?
A. ``I see a kind of tension in some areas, when you have political leaders from both sides of the racial divide attributing racism to everything. People like Louis Farrakhan, or that guy in New York, Al Sharpton, people like that seem johnny-on-the-spot to attribute a racist motivation to everything. Like the church burnings (of 1995-96), which turned out to be not nearly the racial issue people thought.
``People on the other side, too, are quick to play the race card. Like in South Carolina, where the Confederate flag is still waving over the statehouse. The governor, and Strom Thurmond, and the business leaders all say `Hey that flag was not always up there, not until the civil rights movement, so let's take it down, it's divisive.' But political leaders see it as a way to build their political nests. That's bad.
``I think there are some other things on the horizon that are not good. As we become more a technological nation and rely more and more on high-tech industries, large groups of blacks and Hispanics are falling behind the curve in terms of education and preparation to do jobs. That's a real problem, it deals with people's ability to make a living, and it destroys hope. We're building bigger ghettos with no way out.
``Meanwhile, the public and the politicians are clamoring to cut back public assistance. The people are then caught in a vice and it makes for a very explosive situation. It's gotten so bad . . . look, if a black is shot by a white cop, regardless of the facts, its generally seen as a racist act. Unfortunately, in many cases it may be racist, but it may also be self defense, or whatever else might have gone wrong. But when people have no hope, that's seen as one more slap in the face by the system.
``As for bright spots, well, I think that the election of Clinton showed that the public is willing to pull back from the extremist views of Newt Gingrich and others. The last election demonstrated that even in the state of Georgia. There were two blacks there who formerly were elected from black districts. When the districts were reapportioned, those two ran in majority-white districts, and they won. I think that's a giant step forward, to see something like that happen, especially in the Deep South. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
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WANT TO GO?
Morris Dees' talk is free and open to the public, Thursday at 8
p.m. at the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium at Old Dominion
University. Seating is first-come, first-served. Free parking is
available at the parking garage at 43rd Street and Elkhorn, west of
Hampton Boulevard.