When Morris Dees was 16 he witnessed how racial intolerance had blighted the face of American justice when one of his father’s farm hands was subjected to racist police tactics near his Alabama home.

Civil rights activist Morris Dees spoke to a capacity crowd of 300 Tuesday in the Lesar Law Building Auditorium about the irreversible results of hatred and America’s legal future.

Surrounded by personal body guards, Dees was greeted with a standing ovation when he walked into in the auditorium.

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Dees, who grew up on an Alabama farm, recalled a time in 1952 when one of his father’s African-American field hands was taken in by the local deputy sheriff for alleged drunken driving.

The field hand, Clarence Williams, informed Dees he was not drunk, but simply lost control of his car the night before while driving home.

Nevertheless, the local judge found Williams guilty of drunken driving before listening to his story of how he lost control of the car. Williams was fined $75 and ordered to pay $8 for court costs.

“They told me to tell my father to send two dollars a month to the judge for Clarence,” Dees recalled. “Clarence said he didn’t do it. After he wrecked his car the officer said to him, ‘nigger, why are you driving drunk?’ “

The incident caused Dees to entertain thoughts of becoming a lawyer because he sensed something was not right with the legal system in the South.

In 1971, Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. The center is known for its legal victories against white supremacist groups and monitoring hate groups and hate crimes across the country.

Dees took justice to unparalleled heights after he managed to bankrupt Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance for Metzger’s incidental involvement in the beating death of an Ethiopian man in Portland, Ore.

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Dees prosecuted Metzger in a civil trial for his affiliation with the White Aryan Resistance members who committed the murder. Metzger was found guilty to the tune of $12.5 million dollars.

Metzger still sends a check each month to the victim’s children, Dees said.

Dees has been involved in other monumental cases around the nation where hate groups are prosecuted in civil trials for the actions of their members. Often groups like the United Klans of America, whom Dees successfully prosecuted for $7 million for a lynching, do not have enough money to cover jury-awarded damages.

In a press conference, Dees explained how his firm collects money from hate groups.

We have a pretty scorched-earth policy on collections, Dees said. We don’t just play around with them. We garnish their wages, we take their property.

Some white supremacy groups, like the World Church of the Creator located in Peoria, Ill., claim Dees’ courtroom victories infringe on First Amendment rights. The World Church of the Creator is one of seven Illinois supremacy groups monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Matt Hale, third-year law student from Peoria and founder of the World Church of the Creator, appeared unmoved as Dees addressed members of the church who sat in the front row of the auditorium.

“In your America,” Dees said to the group, “You probably wouldn’t allow people like me to exist.”

Hale said the Metzger civil trial is an example of how Dees uses the court system to eliminate people’s First Amendment rights.

“We submit that a person has a right to put cartoons in newspapers, or print material of a hateful nature,” Hale said. “The line is drawn when people are ordered to commit crimes by their superiors. That didn’t happen in the Metzger case.”

In the press conference, Dees said that the line is drawn when people urge others to commit acts of violence, and that he has tremendous regard for the First Amendment.

“We’re not prosecuting speech,” Dees said. “We’re prosecuting those who cross the line.”

Audience members like Erica Williams generally agreed with Dees’ comments about racial injustices.

“The justice system has failed the black people,” Williams said. “It’s good to know that there are non-black lawyers out there working with us for civil rights.”

The crowd was largely Caucasian, but some African-Americans like Patrick Gant, a senior in education from Chicago, attended to hear Dees’ inspiring words of equality.

In a world of color barriers, Gant thinks fairness and compassion are significant issues. He said, however, that people of color will continue to be discriminated against.

Dees urged audience members to remember that lawyers hold the key to the gates of justice, and that good lawyers have a passion for justice.

“It’s about the clients,” Dees said. “Everyone has a story. But your clients have stories too, and you have to tell their stories.

“In order to win cases you have to have a love for people.”