The Southern Poverty Law Center fired Morris Dees, the nonprofit civil rights organization's co-founder and former chief litigator.
SPLC President Richard Cohen said in a statement Dees' dismissal over his misconduct was effective on Wednesday, March 13. When pressed for details on what led to the termination, the organization declined to elaborate.
"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," Cohen said in the emailed statement. "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 Montgomery-based organization in 1971.
"It was not my decision, what they did," Dees said when reached by phone. "I wish the center the absolute best. Whatever reasons they had of theirs, I don't know."
On Thursday, he said he hadn't tried a case in at least a decade and hadn't recently been involved in the day-to-day operations of the SPLC. Dees' termination is one of several steps taken by the organization this week, Cohen said.
"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.
But the group now finds itself beset by internal conflict. Mr. Dees has been fired and other top executives have quit. The staff is demanding that leaders address a climate of intolerance inside its offices. The tumult, including pointed allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, comes as the center’s influence has surged in the Trump era.
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Mr. Dees’s firing ended a career studded with successes but shadowed by questions of sexual misconduct and racism. The center’s president, Richard Cohen, and other senior leaders recently said they would follow Mr. Dees out the door.
Although the center has refused to detail the circumstances behind Mr. Dees’s firing, it said it had dismissed its 82-year-old co-founder after he was twice investigated for “inappropriate conduct.” Both inquiries, the organization suggested, led to discipline.
Mr. Dees has denied wrongdoing, but he acknowledged that he was the subject of a 2017 complaint made by a female employee who said his actions had made her feel uncomfortable.
What is needed is a unified coalition of willing lawyers to take them all head on like the Covington Kids Lawyer. Start sueing the Dog Shit out of these organizations every time they slander white people and paint with a broad racist stroke when talking about one individual. That's called racist, and it's a federal hate crime the last I checked. Everyone is too chickenshit to call them out on it because they were the freaking SPLC. But that ship has sailed.
I may start ponying up my money to go on Lawsuit phising expeditions. Over these people damaging my soul with their awful just GOD AWFUL Vitriol Rhetoric. They've became the Monsters they claim to be protecting everyone from. And I want my fucking 250 million for it!
That Muslim Atheist did so, and he won millions. They called him an extremist, even though he heads an anti-extremist group of his own that tries to deprogram Jihadis.
They put him on a list of extremists because he criticized Islam and connected it to violent terrorism
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/03/14/southern-poverty-law-center-fires-co-founder-civil-rights-lawyer-morris-dees/3164839002/
This is what an organization does when something big is about to blow up, and they try to get ahead of it.
Only question is : $$$ or #MeToo?