I read a feature article in a magazine today about a US civil rights organisation called the Southern Poverty Law Center, which fights discrimination (especially racism) with every legal tool it can get its hands on.

One of the SPLC's major successes came in 1984, when it sued the Alabama chapter of the Ku Klux Klan for damages on behalf of the mother of a young man murdered by Klansmen. The chapter was bankrupted, and had to sell off its assets and property to pay the damages.

The original SPLC building was torched by KKK arsonists in 1983. Attempts have been made against the new building with bombs and anti-tanks missiles. Many of the Center's lawyers are on hitlists.
Founder Morris Dees has been the target of over twenty would-be assassins; he has been declared "un-American" by the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Arkansas KKK members have marched through the streets bearing banners saying "MORRIS DEES - ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE".

All of which means they must be doing something right.

Paul, feeling strangely cheerful