Washington Lawyer - September 2016 - 36
WORTH
READING
Laurence
Leamer
In fighting domestic terrorism,
Laurence Leamer's hero makes
the Klan pay - literally
By Ronald Goldfarb
There were 3,959 racial terror lynchings in 12 southern
states from 1877 to 1950, but none for more than a
quarter century thereafter. Then, on March 21, 1981,
in Mobile, Alabama, a 19-year-old black man was found
tortured and dead, hanging from a tree. How and
why this act of terror was committed by a group of
violent racists in response to the acquittal of a black man
by a mostly (11-1) black jury for the murder of a white
police sergeant is the incident Laurence Leamer uses
to introduce the life story of Morris Dees, the white
lawyer who pursued the murderers and bankrupted
the Klan, leading to the evolution of the now renowned
Southern Poverty Law Center.
Young readers will learn about some of the notable
events of those times - the rise and fall of Alabama
36 WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 *
Governor George Wallace and the extraordinary
leadership of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Dees' story
is less familiar. He was a local boy who seemed unlikely
to grow into a heroic figure. He came from a rural
background, lived easily among the denizens of his local
culture, and focused on making money and cruising
on his motorcycles. He went to law school and gradually
revolted from the segregationist society around him.
Dees wanted a way to close down the KKK rather than
merely cope with its individual violent acts of terrorism
through individual criminal trials. To do so, he would
have to prove a pattern of violence by the United Klans
of America, whose "customs, practices and policy was
to advance the goal of white supremacy through
violence," Leamer writes, and that the murder at the
center of the book the natural consequence of the
Klan's practices. In doing so, Dees bankrupted the Klan
in a civil trial - something the prosecutions of
individuals in criminal trials could never have
accomplished.
It was an innovative strategy that even Dees' team of
lawyers thought unlikely to succeed. But Dees believed
in the power of the law. Surrounded by security to guard
him and his family, Dees proved himself to be a brilliant
legal tactician. The trial gives tremendous insight into our
judicial system - both past and present - as it provides
a vivid history of racial conflict in America.
Ronaldgoldfarb.com
Photo: courtesy of William Morrow
http://www.lawrocks.org
http://www.Ronaldgoldfarb.com
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