1936-
Attorney, Civil-Rights Activist

Beginnings.

Born in Shorter, Alabama, the son of a farmer and cotton-gin operator, Morris Seligman Dees Jr. attended undergraduate school at the University of Alabama and then the University of Alabama School of Law. He founded a mail-order book publishing business, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, which grew to be one of the largest publishing companies in the South. In 1969 Dees sold the company to Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times. In 1967 Dees began taking controversial cases that were unpopular within his white Southern community. For instance, he filed suit to stop construction of an all-white university in Alabama. He filed suit in 1968 to integrate the all-white Montgomery YMCA. As he continued to pursue equal opportunities for minorities and the poor, Dees and his law partner Joseph J. Levin Jr. recognized the need for a nonprofit organization dedicated to...