SPLC Co-Founder Morris Dees Fired, Outside Audit Ordered
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Wednesday, the far-left smear factory Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) fired its co-founder and former chief litigator, Morris Dees.
"Effective yesterday, Morris Dees’ employment at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was terminated," SPLC president Richard Cohen told The Montgomery Advertiser in a statement on Thursday. "As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world. When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action."
Dees, 82, co-founded the SPLC in 1971. The organization gained a reputation for taking the Ku Klux Klan to court and then it started labeling and tracking "hate groups." In recent decades, it started listing conservative and Christian organizations along with the KKK, and last year it settled a defamation lawsuit for $3.375 million.
Dees's departure is not the only big news Cohen broke on Thursday, however.
"Today we announced a number of immediate, concrete next steps we’re taking, including bringing in an outside organization to conduct a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practices, to ensure that our talented staff is working in the environment that they deserve – one in which all voices are heard and all staff members are respected," Cohen said in the statement.
"The SPLC is deeply committed to having a workplace that reflects the values it espouses – truth, justice, equity and inclusion, and we believe the steps we have taken today reaffirm that commitment," he concluded.
In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser took a deep dive into the organization's activities, uncovering some evidence of discrimination against black employees.
Last December, a Baltimore lawyer filed a lawsuit taking aim at the SPLC's tax-exempt status. His suit is moving toward the discovery period, and SPLC's decision to clean house may have resulted from this litigation, first reported by PJ Media .
Last year, court documents revealed that Dees once tried to use a sex toy on his step-daughter. His firing may be related to that.
Sexual misconduct seems the likely reason for his ouster. According to Biography.com , Dees has had five wives:
During his senior year of high school, Dees married Beverly Crum. The couple had two sons together before divorcing in the late 1960s. Dees next married Maureene Buck, a former employee. Dees and Buck had one daughter together. After they divorced, Dees married his third wife, Mary Farmer, the director of an abortion clinic. Following the end of his marriage to Farmer, he wed Elizabeth Breen. Dees's fifth wife is Susan Star.
According to Big League Politics, he may have had an affair with an employee , but the rumor on that has not been confirmed.
This story is breaking and will be updated with more information.
Follow Tyler O'Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil .
The SPLC Claims the U.S. Is Three Times More Hateful Than It Actually Is
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.....Count us as hopeful this means the SPLC will return to its roots as a true force for civil rights rather than an outfit that seems to mint money in the name of fighting hate.
The Wednesday release from SPLC President Richard Cohen only hints that Dees was fired for conduct that failed to reflect “the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world.” No clue on whether that means #MeToo trouble, financial misconduct or something else.
It may even be related to the slow transformation of a group that in its early years was a clear force for good, fighting for voting rights and against the Ku Klux Klan.
In recent years, though, its listing of hate groups in particular has seemed unhinged — putting the socially conservative Family Research Council on the same level as the Klan. Last year, it agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit from Maajid Nawaz, a Muslim reformer who it had listed as an “Anti-Muslim Extremist.”
Despite this, much of the media — and tech giants like Facebook, Google and PayPal — have treated its judgments as gospel.
That reputation kept donations rolling in: Its assets now top half a billion, with more than $120 million parked outside the country, The Washington Examiner reports..... https://nypost.com/2019/03/14/a-shocking-shakeup-at-the-southern-poverty-law-center/
Morris Dees richly deserved that and hopefully he can be separated from every penny that group has taken and he can live out his retirement years in sheer and abject poverty.
He is one sick and twisted man. And he sits ( now sat) in judgement over others? https://bigleaguepolitics.com/court-docs-splc-co-founder-accused-of-trying-to-molest-step-daughter-with-sex-toy/