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SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER "KLANWATCH PROJECT" LETTER
Some years ago, Morris Dees, an enterprising young student at the University of Alabama, came
up with a direct mail program that has been copied thousands of times by other college students
throughout the country. His idea: Write parents and offer to deliver a cake to their son or daughter
away at school on their birthday.
After graduating, Dees developed a successful publishing business, which he eventually sold to
the Times-Mirror Publishing Company.
The following mailing for the Southern Poverty Law Center was written by Dees. It has a "lift
memo" labeled "A Message from Gregory Peck." It reads:
I hope that you will give your support to the important KLANWATCH
Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
One of my earliest and most vivid memories is of a Klan incident, the
burning of a cross in front of a house rented by a black family in the
small town of La Jolla, California. It was in the early 1920's, when I
was about five years old, but I remember it well. It must have been
my first awareness that hate and violence existed in the world. The
incident shocked me, and I suppose the concept of resisting and
fighting racial injustice took root and became part of my character.
The effort being waged by KLANWATCH against the Klan deserves
our vigorous support, and I urge you to join in this cause.
In addition to the four-page letter from Dees, shown on the next page, the letter also had a sealed
brown envelope with this message on the outside:
WARNING
The enclosed photograph is very disturbing. It shows the victim of a
lynching by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama — not in the 1880s but in
the 1980s.
The purpose of the picture is to awaken you to the horrifying reality
of Klan violence in the South today. You can do something to stop
this Klan savagery. Read the letter to find out how.
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