The Southern Poverty Law Center, which fired its co-founder Morris Dees last week, was a toxic environment where employees long complained about sexual harassment and gender discrimination, writes The New Yorker's Bob Moser.
The non-profit organization known for specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation raked in $132 million in donations in 2017 – including $1 million from Apple – following protests at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But Dees was not exactly a great role model, writes Moser. And the work environment certainly was not reflective of the SPLC's values.
"Nothing was more uncomfortable than the racial dynamic that quickly became apparent: a fair number of what was then about a hundred employees were African-American, but almost all of them were administrative and support staff— 'the help,' one of my black colleagues said pointedly," said Moser, who worked for the SPLC from 2001-2004.
"The 'professional staff' — the lawyers, researchers, educators, public-relations officers, and fundraisers — were almost exclusively white. Just two staffers, including me, were openly gay," he added.
Dees was fired for "inappropriate conduct," last Thursday, and President Richard Cohen announced his own departure after The New York Times report said 20 current and former employees signed their names to a letter to the organization's executives, writing that "allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism threaten the moral authority of this organization and our integrity along with it."
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