Four men gathered with a toilet Monday night on the corner of Greene and Assembly streets to protest Spectrum speaker Morris Dees.
The men, representatives from various local Southern heritage groups, were armed with signs that read "Dees is a Sleaze" and "Morris Dees Hates Our Southern Culture," and pamphlets that disclosed information about the civil rights lawyer's organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center. They chanted and chatted with passing lecture-goers.
As one woman passed she said, "You have the right to be here but don't bother me with your crap."
The protestors responded to her by hooting and yelling, "She's a liberal! Typical liberal!"
Chilled and thrilled, the protestors were adamant about telling lecture-goers what they called "the truth about Morris Dees."
"I want to tell people about Morris Dees' fundraising ethics," said Kyle Rogers of the Council of Conservative Citizens. "He takes in tens of millions of dollars. He's got an endowment that's up to $100 million. Dees pays himself $300,000 a year, plus bonuses. Only a tiny percentage of that goes to any civil rights project."
In response to Carolina Productions' decision to invite Dees to speak at USC, Rogers shook his head.
"Obviously, I think it's a waste," he said. "I think the students' tuition and the taxpayer's money could be going to better stuff."
Rogers said Dees spends about 15 cents on the dollar for civil rights projects and heads up one of the worst non-profit organizations in terms of fund management.
"We just want to let people know that it's all a big hustle," he said. "We want people to know there's no cause behind Morris Dees. If they give money to Morris Dees, it's not going to go to anything. It's a made-up cause."
There were several divisions of law enforcement present at the protest including Richland County Police, USC Police and the FBI. Rogers said the heightened level of law enforcement was unnecessary.
"Dees is a drama queen," Rogers said. "It is just trumped up drama."
Robert Hayes of Abbeville, the state director for The League of the South, said he is protesting Morris Dees on principle and based on past events.
"Morris Dees has attacked us on numerous occasions," he said. "He is a very vile individual."
Hayes said he is unsettled at the lawsuits Dees chooses to pursue in court.
"His organization actually called the Boy Scouts a hate group because they would not allow 'sodomites' to be Scout Masters," he said.
"His organization is the organization that brought suit against the state of Alabama to remove the Ten Commandments from the state Supreme Court building. Unfortunately ... they had a gutless individual as governor, Bob Riley, who doesn't understand the Constitution. Contrary to what you've probably been taught, there is no statement in the Constitution about the separation of church and state."
Hayes said Dees opposes everything The League of the South stands for.
"We believe in consent of the governed, which was first stated in the Declaration of Independence," Hayes said. "We believe that South Carolina is able to govern itself. We just want to govern ourselves, pure and simple. Morris Dees is the antithesis of that. He hates self-government on the local level."
Hayes said members of the League were planted in the lecture as audience members.
"We have twenty or more people inside," he said. "We have one attorney. We have a lady that's a member of Mensa. They're going to ask questions. We're known as 'The Educated Clan.'"
CP spokesperson Ben Huber, a fourth-year hotel, tourism and restaurant management student, said he isn't surprised by the protest.
"We assumed there would be protests, just based on who Morris Dees is," Huber said.
Dr. Dennis A. Pruitt, vice president for Student Affairs, passed the protestors on the street and said he thinks that there is value in bringing a controversial figure like Dees to speak.
"One of the roles of a university is to provide a setting for the marketplace of ideas," Pruitt said. "We need to expose the Carolina community to different points of view. We'd all be better served if we saw things from the viewpoints of others."
Pruitt said free speech trumps all, especially in the arena of higher education.
"This is one of the most special features of the university," he said. "Say what needs to be said. There are few other venues in the world that foster free speech like college campuses."
Overall, the protestors rallied in accord around one issue.
"Dees claims there are tens of thousands of hate groups, and only he can stop them," Rogers said. "But he's just a self-serving con artist
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