DOCSLIB.ORG

Activist Cites New Racial Intolerance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Activist Cites New Racial Intolerance UB Law Forum Volume 6 Number 2 Spring/Summer 1992 Article 26 4-1-1992 The High Price of Hate Crimes: Activist Cites New Racial Intolerance UB Law Forum Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/ub_law_forum Recommended Citation UB Law Forum (1992) "The High Price of Hate Crimes: Activist Cites New Racial Intolerance," UB Law Forum: Vol. 6 : No. 2 , Article 26. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/ub_law_forum/vol6/iss2/26 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Alumni Publications at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in UB Law Forum by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The High Price of Hate Crimes Activist cites new racial intolerance suit against the Kl an for the death of arrested. Dees' southern accent thick- ' 'I' m far from being free of prejudice," civil Michael McDonald, a black man mur­ ened as he related the story to law stu- • rights activist and attor­ dered by the Klan in Mobile, Ala­ dents. ney Morris Dees told a bama. Dees won a $7 million verdict "My father told me to get Clar­ group of students at UB against the United Klans of America, ence out of jail," he recalled. The February 20. "I grew up in this coun­ bankrupting the organization. The hired man, Clarence Williams, was try." verdict against the Metzgers was for charged with assaulting a police offi­ The subject was race relations, $ 12.5 million. The message, Dees cer who arrested him for drunk driv- the occasion the sixteenth annual said, is that these groups will "have to in g. Ma11in Luther King Commemoration. pay out of their pocketbooks." Dees described his trip to another Dees, founder of the Southern Pover­ Fighting for the underdog was county, where the judge, who also ran UB LAW not how Morris Dees began his ca­ the general store, was holding court ty Law Center and its outgrowth, FOR UM Klanwatch, was the keynote speaker reer. He grew up the son of a tenant behind the store counter, carving of the event, which drew a full house fa rmer in Alabama, and received his cheese during the proceedings. The Spring/ to Slee Hall on the Amherst campus. first lesson in justice as a teenager, sheriff told how Clarence was driving, Summer 1992 Earlier in the day, he met with a when the family's "hired man" was ran off the road, staggered and then mixed crowd of about 50 law stu­ dents, faculty and undergraduates. Along with his audiences, Dees is concerned about the increase in in­ tolerance in the United States, as ex­ emplified by the David Duke phe­ nomenon in Louisiana. His remark about prej udice came in response to an Asian-American student who spoke of hi s fears in the wake of in­ creased "Japan bashing". Organized hate groups li ke the Klu Klu x Klan, Dees explained, are not the source of most bias or hate crimes in the coun ­ try. "There is a ri sing tide of racial vi­ olence. But hate groups don' t commit these crimes. They are commjtted by our next-door neighbors." Dees has been most successfu l in prosecuting hate groups, however. He and the Southern Poverty Law Center prosecuted the Metzgers of California for the White Aryan Resistance mur­ der of an Ethiopian man in Oregon last year. Dees also brought the 1988 Civil rights attvmey Morris Dees addresses studem fontm. 49 swung at him. Dees had spoken to Levin Jr. inl97 1, founded.the South­ committed by white supremists." Clarence before, and was told Clar­ ern Poverty Law Center. Klanwatch Dees had a comment on the mar­ ence had run off the road when the tie was formed from the Center in 1980, ketplace for a law student who asked rod on the car broke, and bumped hi s in response to the resurgence in orga­ why he suggested j oining a firm in­ head. When he told the Sheriff, the nized racism. stead of starting a public interest prac­ Sheri ff stated,"Nigger, I'm taking you A book read in an airport in 1967 tice. to jail." was the real inspiration, Dees said, for "There are so few jobs in the pub­ "I said, ' Clarence, tell the story to hi s work. "I had done some ACLU lic interest sector," he stated. "If you the judge,"' Dees said. "He did. The stuff, had hauled marchers in Selma, can start your own, you should. But judge slammed down the cheese but in 1967, I read The Story of My just because you can' t get a job in pub­ kn ife. He said 'Guilty. $ 100 fine. Life, by Clarence Darrow. Darrow lic interest doesn' t mean you can' tjoin Bubba, tell your daddy to send up $2 was an attorney for the railroads dur­ a firm and do good work." a week."' · ing labor union strikes early in the Second-year law student Erika Later, Dees said, he found out the century and observed the railroad Raymond asked whether Dees felt civil judge received payment only on hired stri kebreakers brutalizing the ri ghts li tigation was still a viable strat­ guilty findings, and thus had some in­ workers. Darrow represented the egy, given the ultra-conservati ve centi ve for hi s verd ict. Dees later sued strikers, but the railroads kept him on makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court. the state and had the system abol­ doing corporate law because of hi s " Bush and Reagan have appointed ished. ski lls. 70 percent of the sitting federal judg­ But that was not the end of the "I went home and set out to do es," Dees agreed. "You've seen cut­ UB LAW matter. Dees went back to his father what I said I would," Dees sajd, backs in criminal law, parti cul arl y and related the story. "If you so mad, which meant doing what the SPLC search and seizure, fueled by the drug FOR UM why don' t you go to law school," sug­ speciali zes in: voting rights, hate war. Yes, it's a Jot tougher to bring but Sprinfil gested hi s father. crimes and women's rights cases. there's lots of laws on the books and if Summer " He didn' t want me to grow cot­ "I try to represent the powerl ess you find a violation, you should win on /992 ton," Dees confessed. "He said he'd against the powerful ," he said. " l them." He conceded the Center was never seen a boll weevil in a law haven' t got anything against the pow­ moving its focus from the courtroom to book." erful. l tell people to go to big firms the classroom, but deni ed it was be­ and do pro cause of conservative judicial leanings. bono. If " In our kind of work, even Reagan and you work Bush appointees don' t di sagree with for those us," he said. "We use state courts. "We must understand that places, Whether you can bring up new issues, you can I don't know. I don't think there will we are all victims. " have a be new Brown v. Board of Educa­ positi ve tions." influence. Dees does see a correlation be­ Dees did go to law school, but The bottom line doesn' t have to be tween economic hard times and ri sing not before he establ ished a successful reached at the mi sery of consumers." racism, pointing out that when the direct-mail publishing business. He SPLC relies on volunteer attor­ economy goes, histori cally blame is graduated from theUn iversity of Ala­ ·neys, three in the case of the Metzger placed on immigrants and minorities. bama School of Law in 1960, and prosecution. "We do a few cases, we The solution, he feels, is in education. opened an office in Montgomery. He try to do them well and try to set pre­ He told his audience how the mother was indirectly involved in the civil cedents." In addition, the Center does of Mi chael McDonald. the lynched Al­ rights movement during the late educational outreach, inc luding a pro­ abama man, had forgi ven her son's 1960s, and in 196 7 sued the state to gram called "TeachingTolerance," for killers. stop construction of a white uni versity use by teachers in schools. ··we must understand that we are in a city which already had a predom­ .. We're a mul ti-cultural society all victims. We talk about the trivial inantl y black state college. He sold growing much more so. and we have differences. poli tical correctness. We the publishing husiness in 1969, and. growing problems with intolerance:· must think about the lesson of love.'' 50 along with Julian Bond and Joseph J. Dees said . .. Most hate crimes are not he concluded.• .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 2016 Annual Report a Message from Morris Dees and Richard Cohen
    2016 ANNUAL REPORT A MESSAGE FROM MORRIS DEES AND RICHARD COHEN WE REDOUBLED OUR WORK TO FIGHT HATE Anti-Muslim hate groups almost tripled in and seek justice in 2016, a year in which the pres- number – an increase fueled by Trump’s incen- idential campaign of Donald Trump energized a diary rhetoric, including his campaign pledge to growing white nationalist movement and engulfed bar Muslims from entering the United States. the country in a wave of xenophobia that threat- • Our Teaching Tolerance project reported a ened to reverse years of progress. In the face of ris- sharp uptick in the bullying and intimidation of ing far-right extremism, we fought for our coun- children whose races, nationalities or religions try’s highest ideals – exposing those who brought were targeted during the campaign. The Trump hate into the mainstream, helping teachers push Effect, based on our survey of 2,000 educators, back against bias in the classroom, and standing garnered national headlines and alerted the up in the courts for the exploited and the abused. country to the alarming trend. A second, post- Prior to the election, we documented the wide- election survey of more than 10,000 educators spread harassment and bullying of minority chil- reinforced the findings. We responded by pro- dren caused by a campaign that vilified their fami- viding teachers with strategies and resources lies on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion. And to help children see through stereotypes and after it, we alerted the country to an outbreak of reject bigotry. violence and intimidation faced by members of • After the election, we documented a spike in minority groups and the LGBT community.
    [Show full text]
  • A True Deliverance: the Joan Little Case
    Michigan Law Review Volume 79 Issue 4 1981 A True Deliverance: The Joan Little Case Michigan Law Review Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Law and Gender Commons, and the Law and Race Commons Recommended Citation Michigan Law Review, A True Deliverance: The Joan Little Case, 79 MICH. L. REV. 861 (1981). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol79/iss4/34 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. March 1981] Equality and Women~ Rights 861 A TRUE DELIVERANCE: THE JOAN LITTLE CASE. By Fred Har­ well. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1980. Pp. x, 298. $10.95. During the early morning hours of August 27, 1974, Joan Little, a black prisoner at the Beaufort County Jail in North Carolina, stabbed to death a white male jailer and fled the prison. Little claimed that she had acted in self-defense when the jailer sexually assaulted her. The prosecutor claims that the prisoner had lured the jailer into the cell as part of an escape plot. Little's defense became a cause celebre, attracting support from advocates of women's rights, civil rights, and prison reform. Ultimately, the jury acquitted Little of murder. However, it is this book's thesis that because the defense "failed in court to prove that Joan Little was not guilty, just as [the 862 Michigan Law Review [Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • January 17, 1979
    THE OAlL’f DIARY OF PRESlbENT JIMMY CARTER LOCATlOH THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D.C. TIME From 1 TO 6:00 ’ The President received a wake up call from the White House signal board operator. 1 - 6:28 I The President went to the Oval Office. I 8:14 i 8:19 The President talked with Secretary of Energy James R. I Schlesinger, Jr, I 8:15 1 8:29 The President met with his Assistant for National Security . Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. 9:lO 1 9:25 The President met with his Assistant for Domestic Affairs and Policy, Stuart E. Eizenstat. I 9:47 : 9:43 The President talked with his Assistant, Hamilton Jordan. I 10:30 10:30 The President met to discuss SALT with: Senator John C. Stennis (D-Mississippi) Frank B. Moore, Aassistant for Congressional Liaison Mr. Brzezinski / li:l5 1 lli30 The President met to discuss the relation between transpor- tation deregulation and the upcoming Teamsters contract with: Representative James J. Howard (D-New Jersey) Brock Adams, Secretary of Transportation James C. Free, Special Assistant for iongressional Liaison 11:45 i 11:50 The president met with: I Morris Dees, Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center, I I Montgomery, Alabama Mr. Jordan The President talked with the First Lady. The President went to the Roosevelt Room. The President participated in a luncheon meeting with members of the Domestic Policy Staff. Fcr a list of attendees, see APPENDIX "A." The President returned to the Ovai Office. The President returned to the second floor Residence. THE DAlLYf DIARY OF PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER DATE ttm.
    [Show full text]
  • S:\08-10-Bak\Media\Copy of Pr Deesaward.Html
    Skadden and The University of Alabama Announce the Winner of the Morris Dees Justice Award Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates and The University of Alabama School of Law announced today that United States District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas, has been awarded the 2006 Morris Dees Justice Award. The award will be presented in New York on November 16, 2006. Today Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates and The University of Alabama School of Law announced that United States District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas, has been selected as the winner of the 2006 Morris Dees Justice Award. Morris Dees will present the award during a reception at Skadden’s offices in New York on November 16, 2006. The Morris Dees Justice Award was created in 2006 by Skadden and The University of Alabama School of Law to honor Dees, an Alabama graduate, for his life-long devotion to public service. The award will be given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state or nation. The Selection Committee recognized Judge Justice for his life-long efforts to protect civil rights and safeguard constitution rights, including more than 30 years of service as a federal district court judge. His notable cases dealt with integration, prisoners’ rights, procedural due process, equal access to education, treatment of immigrants, dilution of voting rights and care for the mentally challenged.
    [Show full text]
  • 2007 Winner Arthur N. Read
    Farmworker Activist Wins 2007 Morris Dees Justice Award Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates and The University of Alabama School of Law announced today that Arthur N. Read, Esq., of Philadelphia, has been awarded the 2007 Morris Dees Justice Award. The award will be presented in New York on November 15, 2007. New York, NY (PRWEB) October 1, 2007 -- Arthur N. Read, General Counsel for Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., a legal services provider in Philadelphia, has been awarded the 2007 Morris Dees Justice Award. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates and The University of Alabama School of Law announced Mr. Read's honor today. Morris Dees will present the award during a reception at Skadden’s offices in New York on November 15, 2007. The Morris Dees Justice Award was created in 2006 by Skadden and The University of Alabama School of Law to honor Dees, an Alabama graduate, for his life-long devotion to public service. The award is given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state or nation. Last year’s winner was U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas. The selection committee recognized Read for nearly 30 years of tireless, courageous, and effective representation of farmworkers and immigrants. Read was nominated by more than 20 organizations and individuals. As Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés noted in his supporting letter, “It is fitting that he be considered in the company of Morris Dees .
    [Show full text]
  • Morris Dees: More Than a Great Lawyer Published: 1:00 Am Mon, March 29, 2010 by DOUGLAS K
    Morris Dees: more than a great lawyer Published: 1:00 am Mon, March 29, 2010 By DOUGLAS K. SHEFF I recently had the privilege of introducing keynote speaker Morris Dees at the Massachusetts Bar Association's annual gala dinner. He reminded us all not only what can be accomplished through the law, but how the best of us within the profession are willing to sacrifice for the good of others. Dees, 74, made me proud to be a lawyer. Consider the following. In the 1950s, the South was not a terribly friendly place for minorities. Dees' father, however, provided him with a rare and commendable example to the contrary. He was a tenant farmer and worked alongside black workers daily. He would invite them into his home to sit at his table, unheard of in the South at the time. The elder Dees not only planted seeds in the earth but in his son as well. Dees received his law degree in 1960 from the University of Alabama but didn't focus much on the law just yet. Instead, he developed a direct-mail business that reached $15 million in sales – and that was in the '60s! Most would have continued along in life wealthy, happy and content. But not Dees. His past resurfaced with the rise of the civil rights movement. Federal legislation was passed but largely ignored in the South. Intolerance led to countless injustices and acts of violence. Dees was deeply affected when a bomb went off in a Birmingham Baptist church, killing four little girls. His requests for help were ignored, and he was, himself, ostracized from his community.
    [Show full text]
  • |||GET||| the Lynching the Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan 1St Edition
    THE LYNCHING THE EPIC COURTROOM BATTLE THAT BROUGHT DOWN THE KLAN 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE Laurence Leamer | 9780062458360 | | | | | The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan (Paperback) Aug 15, Rob rated it really liked it. Friend Reviews. Advanced Search. In Marchmembers of Klavern of the United Klans of America pondered how to lash out against a jury that refused to find a black bank robber guilty of shooting a white police officer. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in for it. And also make the Klan responsible: "Whatever judgment you decide, I do hope you decide a judgment against me and everyone else involved. Good solid historical nonfiction, covers not only the lynching of Michel Donald, and the ensuing tribals, but also the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and the close, often personal relationships between Robert Shelton, and United Klans of America, George Wallace, and Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Morris Dees, the attorney in the civil suit against the Klan is a colorful character, almost fearless, The Lynching The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought down the Klan 1st edition, he started up The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has done much to fight for rights of poor and victims of discrimination. There are lots of details about George Wallace that I was not aware of. Want to Read saving…. In addition to telling a gripping and consequential story, Laurence Leamer chronicles the KKK and its activities in the second half the twentieth century, and illuminates its lingering effect on race relations in America today.
    [Show full text]
  • Sponsorship Options
    March 30, 2017 7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Sheraton Seattle Hotel KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Sponsorship2017 SPONSORSHIP OPTIONS 2/5 DIAMOND $10,000 • Display of Sponsor banner above the main stage at the Breakfast, plus special spotlight logo display and voice recognition from podium. • Sponsor’s promotional/marketing materials displayed in lobby. • Two full tables (20 seats) at the Breakfast for you and your guests. • Eight invitations to the exclusive VIP Reception with Keynote Speaker, Morris Dees, the evening before the Breakfast. • Featured on website, Bar Bulletin ad and other media. PLATINUM $5,000 • Special spotlight logo display, logo recognition in Breakfast program and on big screens and voice recognition from podium. • One and a half tables (15 seats) at the Breakfast for you and your guests. • Six invitations to the exclusive VIP Reception with Keynote Speaker, Morris Dees, the evening before the Breakfast. • Featured on website, Bar Bulletin ad and other media. GOLD PLUS $3,000 SILVER PLUS $1,500 BRONZE PLUS $1,000 • Gold recognition PLUS: • Silver recognition PLUS: • Bronze recognition PLUS: • One full table (10 seats) at the • One full table (10 seats) at the • One full table (10 seats) at the Breakfast for you and your guests. Breakfast for you and your guests. Breakfast for you and your guests. GOLD $2,500 SILVER $1,000 BRONZE $500 • Logo recognition in Breakfast • Name recognition in Breakfast • Name recognition in Breakfast program and on big screens and program and on big screens. program and on big screens. voice recognition from podium. • Two invitations to the exclusive VIP • One invitation to the exclusive VIP • Four invitations to the exclusive VIP Reception with Keynote Speaker, Reception with Keynote Speaker, Reception with Keynote Speaker, Morris Dees, the evening before Morris Dees, the evening before Morris Dees, the evening before the Breakfast.
    [Show full text]
  • Table Captain Packets
    March 30, 2017 7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Sheraton Seattle Hotel KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Table Captain 2017 2/6 March 30, 2017 7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Sheraton Seattle Hotel 1400 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101 KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Morris Dees Dear Fantastic Table Captain, Thank you for agreeing to host a table for ten at the King County Bar Foundation’s Breakfast With Champions. We appreciate your commitment to the minority law student scholarships and the pro bono legal safety net we provide. By hosting a table at our annual breakfast, you are helping to ensure that thousands of people will continue to receive legal advice, consultation and direct representation when they need it and before they find themselves immersed in more devastating consequences. You are also helping us in our efforts to increase the ethnic diversity of the courtrooms and law offices of King County. Todd R. Bowers Breakfast With Champions Committee Chair KEYNOTE SPEAKER 2017 MORRIS DEES INTERNATIONALLY-RENOWNED CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder and chief trial attorney Morris Dees was born in 1936 at Shorter, Alabama, the son of cotton farmers. As a young boy he worked those fields, witnessing social and economic deprivation first-hand, and Jim Crow treatment at its worst. Dees first launched a private law practice in 1960, and would win a series of groundbreaking civil rights cases that helped integrate government and public institutions. Dees would go on to found the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama in 1971, along with his law partner, Joseph J. Levin, Jr. and the late civil rights leader, Julian Bond.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hate Connection: a Book Review Essay
    North Dakota Law Review Volume 69 Number 2 Article 4 1993 The Hate Connection: A Book Review Essay Stephen E. Rendahl Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Rendahl, Stephen E. (1993) "The Hate Connection: A Book Review Essay," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 69 : No. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol69/iss2/4 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE HATE CONNECTION: A BOOK REVIEW ESSAY* DR. STEPHEN E. RENDAHL** The increasing interdependence of citizens in post-modern society requires greater tolerance of diversity than at any time in the history of civilization. No longer can ethnic groups, either by choice or by chance, remain isolated. Increased mobility, omni- present communication systems, affirmative action, civil rights leg- islation and other factors allow, and even compel, citizens to interact with others outside their social group. The post-modern world requires a tolerance for diversity and dictates behaviors that effectively deal with interdependence. Yet, there are forces that resist these changes. Ethnic vio- lence occurs in the former Yugoslavia, neo-Nazi groups expand in Germany, anti-Semitism resurges in the former Soviet Union, and hate crimes become more prevalent in the United States. These problems have a long history throughout the civilized world, but they have become more conspicuous since the post-modern world demands increased intolerance of intolerance.
    [Show full text]
  • Statement of Commissioner Gail Heriot
    COMMISSIONERS’ STATEMENTS 259 Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Gail Heriot I voted against publishing this report in its present form. It needs work. Perhaps its most troubling aspect is its failure to acknowledge—much less address— many of the most serious issues relating to the enforcement of hate crimes laws. Among those issues are the large numbers of hoaxes and false alarms as well as the overbroad statutory definitions of “hate crime,” all of which may inflate the statistics. These things need to be discussed. I worry that these statistics may have given many Americans a false sense of how common hate crimes are.1 Also among the serious issues that need to be discussed is the potential for double jeopardy abuse. Not all hate crimes laws have this potential. It’s the federal statute—the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009—that does.2 Like all federal criminal statutes that duplicate what state criminal statutes already cover, that law makes it possible to re- prosecute defendants who have been acquitted in state court. But since hate crimes tend to cause emotions to run high, the danger of abuse is particularly acute.3 In the unusually limited time allotted to me to write this statement, I can discuss these issues only very briefly.4 They deserved much more extended treatment in this report. * * * * * Dr. Wilfred Reilly, a professor of political science at Kentucky State University, a historically black university, has studied the hate crimes phenomenon extensively.5 In his 2019 book, Hate Crime Hoax, he came to conclusions that will likely be unpopular in some quarters.
    [Show full text]
  • The SPLC's Teaching Tolerance
    The SPLC’s TEACHING TOLERANCE What Parents, Teachers, and Administrators Need to Know Navigating our educational “Teaching Tolerance” is a special project run by the system is one of the biggest chal- SPLC and is designed to infiltrate schools through lenges facing families all across radically progressive education resources. The SPLC’s America. We worry about where stated goal of Teaching Tolerance (TT) is to “eradi- our children go to school and cate intolerance.”1 We know that for the SPLC, the the quality of education they target is not “the intolerant” per se but those who do will receive. We wonder if they will be able to find a job or at- tend college upon graduation. Will our children be safe and respected at school? Will our values be reinforced, or at BC19J01 least tolerated, or will they be undermined? These wor- ries are compounded by the sense that America’s chil- dren are being educated The SPLC brands Christian beliefs about sexuality as “hate.” away from values held dear by previous generations: an appreciation for hard work, self-con- not share their liberal worldview. According to an trol, civic duty, and love of country and neighbor. executive at the SPLC, “[w]e are focused, whether people like it or not, on the radical right.”2 A former Parents are wise to be on guard and active in their Senior Fellow at the SPLC describes the purpose of children’s school, in contact with their teachers and the Center as not just a “hate monitoring” organi- administrators, and dedicated monitors of curricula zation, but in reality, “[o]ur aim in life is to destroy and textbooks.
    [Show full text]