SPLC Founder Morris Dees to Speak on Domestic Terrorism

WASHINGTON, July 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Morris Dees, founder of the
civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), will address a luncheon
newsmaker this Friday at the National Press Club. Dees will analyze the
upsurge in domestic terrorism since the election of President Obama and
discuss SPLC's release that day of new evidence confirming the presence of
white supremacists in the military.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080917/NPCLOGO)

Dees pioneered the strategy of holding hate groups responsible for violent
acts by their members, filing civil suits that bankrupted almost a dozen major
white supremacist organizations. A leader in the fields of civil rights and
civil liberties litigation for more than 40 years, he most recently was chief
trial counsel in an SPLC case that won a $2.5 million from a Kentucky Klan
group whose members severely beat a 16-year-old Latino youth. His
award-winning work has earned him numerous plaudits, but also resulted in a
series of attempts on his life and those of his colleagues.

Since election of the U.S.' first African-American president, the nation has
experienced a rash of violence from the racist right, including the neo-Nazi
attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the murder of six law
enforcement officers. Authorities have interrupted several assassination plots
and seized components of a "dirty bomb" being built by a man reportedly upset
about Obama's election.

The luncheon begins at 12:30 p.m. Reserve at (202) 662-7501 or
reservations@press.org . Cost of luncheon is $17 for National Press Club
members, $28 for their guests and $35 for the general public. Full tables,
seating 8 to 10 people each, are also available for reservation.

SOURCE National Press Club

Melinda Cooke of the National Press Club, +1-202-662-7516