Civil Rights Legal Practice
In his 1991 autobiography Dees wrote that in 1962 he represented Ku Klux Klan member Claude Henley who faced Federal charges for attacking Freedom Riders in an incident documented by a Life magazine photographer. When Dees learned that another lawyer had asked for $15,000 to represent Henley, Dees offered to do the job for $5,000, roughly the median household salary in America at the time. Dees's defense helped Henley earn an acquittal. But Dees said he later experienced an "epiphany" and regretted his defense of Henley.
In 1969, Dees filed suit to integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA. Dees' new legal firm began taking part in civil rights cases that frequently put him in the spotlight. He filed suit to stop construction of a new university in an Alabama city that already had a predominantly black state college.
Read more about this topic: Morris Dees
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