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 Editorials | Issues | March 2008 
Civil Rights Lawyer Warns Election Will Test Nation
 Derek J. Moore - The Press Democrat
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 |  | If we're going to build the bridges that separate the divide in this country, whether they be about race, gender or sexual orientation . . . it's going to be because we reached across those divides and learned to care about and love people who are different than we are.
- Morris Dees |  | | | |
Americans will have to overcome their systemic biases against gender and race if they are to take advantage of the historic possibilities in this year's presidential election, a prominent civil rights lawyer said Tuesday at Sonoma State University.
"If we're going to build the bridges that separate the divide in this country, whether they be about race, gender or sexual orientation . . . it's going to be because we reached across those divides and learned to care about and love people who are different than we are," Morris Dees said.
Dees is co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that has been in the trenches of some of the nation's major legal battles over civil rights and discrimination.
Despite making major strides on civil rights, it remains to be seen, Dees said, whether the nation will "cross the river" this year and elect an African-American or woman president.
"We're going to be tested," said Dees, whose comments were made on the same night that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled for supremacy in their bid to be the Democratic nominee.
Addressing a full house inside Sonoma State's Cooperage, Dees mixed homespun humor with reflections on the current political scene to argue a case for social and economic justice.
Saying "change causes fear," he warned of unnamed forces that will seek to undermine any efforts at overcoming bigotry.
Dees has experience fighting those battles. The grandson of a Ku Klux Klansman, he helped dismantle that organization through the courts, in addition to taking on numerous other hate groups.
In the late 1960s, Dees sold a direct marketing business that earned him a comfortable living and began taking cases aimed at ending segregation in Alabama. He co-founded the law center in 1971 along with fellow attorney Joe Levin.
The firm's early success included desegregating the Montgomery, Ala., YMCA, ending involuntary sterilization of women on welfare and integrating the Alabama state troopers.
The center scored major victories against white supremacy groups such as the Aryan Nation by suing them for monetary damages, and tracking them through the Intelligence Project, which is used by law enforcement.
More recently, the center filed a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2006 on behalf of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent whom the center claims were illegally detained, searched and harassed during federal immigration raids.
Referring to Latinos as "sharecroppers of the 21st century," Dees said hate crimes against them have increased 40 percent in the past five years.
He also criticized commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs for speaking out against Latinos "ad nauseam" and those who advocate erecting a fence on the border with Mexico.
"There's going to be a Hernandez or Gonzalez elected president of the United States," he said. "It's going to happen."
Dees' views have earned him criticism as well as specific death threats.
On Tuesday, the heightened security included campus police from as far away as San Bernardino, as well as Sonoma County sheriff's personnel and private security.
Sonoma State Police Chief Nathan Johnson said there were no threats specific to Dees' time on the Rohnert Park campus, however.
Instead, Dees was given a warm reception. He responded by telling the audience of mostly young people that they had a front-row seat on history and a chance to make a difference.
"The march of justice continues, and each of you has a chance to continue it," he said.
The speech was sponsored by the Andrea Neves and Barton Evans Social Justice Lecture Series and the Heritage Lecture Series of the Center for Culture Gender and Sexuality.
You can reach Derek J. Moore at derek.moore(at)pressdemocrat.com. |
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