Confrontation and Promises
By now, 1960, the Civil Rights Movement was kicking in full gear. Martin
Luther's King Jr's center of operations was actually located in the
Montgomery. Morris didn't pay attention. When, on May 4, 1961 the 'freedom
riders' tested the supreme court's decision on outlawing segregation
on buses, Morris didn't notice. Morris heard about it but didn't hear
about nor realize the violence occurring. The Freedom Riders were beaten
by mobs of more than a thousand angry whites. The police were there
but paid no attention. During this time, a man named Claude Henley was
charged with assaulting a television reporter during the riot. It was
a criminal case, but Morris took the case anyway. He was just interested
in making money to get Dees and Fuller into heavy business. There was
a federal suit against Henley which also named Bobby Shelton as a defendant
in the case. Bobby Shelton was the leader of the United Klans of America.
Dees took the case for five thousand dollars. Morris Dees sat at the
defense table with the leader of the Klan. When the case was over, two
black freedom riders approached Morris Dees. They said: "How can you
represent people like that? Don't you think black people have rights?"
(84-85) Morris Dees replied: "Yes, I do. I agree with you a hundred
percent."
Morris had never been challenged or approached by a black person like
that before. Thoughts raced through his mind as he sorted out what had
just happened.
"To make some money, I was taking a case that just happened to be
tied up with the Freedom Riders. My God, it wasn't that I was interested
in the Klan! I was interested in making five thousand dollars representing
a neighbor and keeping him out of trouble.
But looking in the face of my accuser, I felt the anger of a black
person for the first time. He saw me as an enemy representing the Klan,
just as years later Louis Beam and his compatriots would see me as an
enemy opposing the Klan. Here I was feeling that I was friends with
blacks, remembering that I had spoken up for Emmett Till and Autherine
Lucy, and all of a sudden this young man was doubting me. I vowed them
and there that nobody would never again doubt where I stood. It took
me a couple of years to make good on that promise." (85)
