Dear Heritage Defenders:

This has been quite a week for the Southern Legal Resource Center.  We have had our nose to the grindstone putting in a lot of late hours.  I have enclosed a perfect description of what we have been facing this week in DuPont.  Please read it in its entirety as there is an important message at the end.

DuPont:  Multinational Goliath vs. David

Well we are in for it now.  We have known for some time that Corporate America and their multinational buddies are committed foes of Southern Heritage.  With our DuPont case we have unleashed the wrath of a Fortune 500 Company that have threatened legal sanctions against the SLRC’s Chief Trial Counsel for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit against them.  If successful, DuPont will undoubtedly demand that Chief Trial Counsel Lyons pay their entire legal bill for the lawsuit

On May 30, 2003 the SLRC, working with Richmond civil rights attorney, Thomas H. Roberts, filed a civil rights lawsuit against DuPont Corporation in Richmond, Virginia, for their ongoing 3-year policy of banning Confederate symbols in the workplace. The SLRC represents seven (7) DuPont employees, most of whom are SCV members.  The lawsuit alleges discrimination based on race, religion and national origin.

The lawsuit against DuPont was filed in May, but not served on the Defendants until needed affidavits and exhibits could be collected. Over the summer the needed affidavits were collected from SCV CiC Ron G. Wilson and others and the changes to the Complaint were made.

We were ready to file the Amended Complaint and serve DuPont in late September.  At this time our local counsel, chose to withdraw from the case as local counsel.  He sent a copy of the Motion to Withdraw to the SLRC and we filed a response stating that without local counsel we could not file the Amended Complaint or serve the Defendant.  Things now started to get weird.  When Lyons called the clerk after filing our response, the clerk told him that there was no Motion to Withdraw in the file. Subsequently, local counsel Roberts filed the Amended Complaint and served the lawsuit on DuPont.

On October 7, the Court granted local counsel Roberts’ Motion to Withdraw, the same Motion that the clerk told Lyons was not in the file.  The court ordered the SLRC to be expeditious in finding new local counsel.  Easier said than done.  It is absolute proof of the need for legal protection for Confederate Southern Americans that in the Capitol of the Confederacy finding any legal counsel for a Confederate case is next to impossible.  We felt very fortunate to have found Thomas Roberts.  We can only guess at what happened behind the scenes to drive him off the DuPont case.

DuPont served its inevitable Motion to Dismiss on October 16 and the next day filed papers threatening Chief Trial Counsel Lyons with sanctions (pay all their legal fees) if he does not dismiss the lawsuit against DuPont by November 6.

Our Response to the Motion to Dismiss has been prepared and is ready to file - but we cannot file it – NO local counsel.

We talked to our clients and they want us to fight on.  But without local counsel we cannot go forward.

We must fight the Motion for Sanctions, but without local counsel, we cannot file anything with the court.

The lawsuit is not frivolous and Dupont's scandalous attempt to bully Lyons and the SLRC off the case must be countered.  DuPont pays us the highest possible complement with their thuggish antics.

But if DuPont succeeds, it will begin a corporate reign of Terror against Confederate heritage.  It will be Open Season on Confederate Southern Americans!

How this saga will end has not been written yet.  We don’t know what will happen.  We are still looking for local counsel with "guts," if we find him, Lyons will still have to face the Sanctions Motion. If we can fight it we will.

Your help of our work is now more vital than ever.

From HK

Heritage groups in Virginia have been staging a weekly vigil in front of the Richmond DuPont plant for the LAST 3 YEARS!  Their next vigil will be Thursday.  I hope to attend.

Decent God-fearing people need to let DuPont, worldwide, know that the peasants are concerned regarding DuPont's banning Confederate symbols.

Listed below are the locations of DuPont plants nationwide and worldwide.  What are y'all doing next Thursday?

ALABAMA: Mobile

CALIFORNIA: Hayward, Santa Barbara, Torrance, Woodland

FLORIDA: Starke

GEORGIA: Athens

KENTUCKY: Louisville, Wurtland

LOUISIANA: Burnside, La Place, Plaquemine

MICHIGAN: Constantine, Mt. Clemens

MISSISSIPPI: DeLisle, Pascagoula

NORTH CAROLINA: Fayetteville, Kinston, Laurel Hill, Laurinburg, Whiteville

OHIO: Circleville, Cleveland, Dayton, Fort Hill, Grand Rapids

OKLAHOMA: Pryor

PENNSYLVANIA: Towanda

SOUTH CAROLINA: Camden, Charleston, Florence

TENNESSEE: Chattanooga, Memphis, New Johnsonville, Old Hickory

TEXAS: Bayport, Baytown, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Freeport, Houston, La Porte, Orange, Plainview, Victoria, Westlaco

VIRGINIA: Front Royal, Hopewell, James River, Richmond, Waynesboro

BRAZIL and GERMANY
 

HK and Kirk to Speak

Kirk and HK have been invited to speak next Wednesday at Western Carolina University in NC for their diversity week festival. This is a wonderful opportunity to spread the truth on Confederate symbols!
 

Lawrence County

Kirk and Charles Yow held a conference today with opposing counsel and have agreed upon a new scheduling order now that Ricky Nichols is now back from active duty.  Discovery is now proceeding in this most important of post-Castorina School cases.
 

Staff Changes

Dr. Neill Payne has resigned as Executive Director to devote full time to building his chiropractic practice.

Our new interim Executive Director is Rick Wilkerson who also serves as Southern Highland Brigade Commander of NC Division of the SCV.

Neill, thank you for your faithful unstinting service to the SLRC.  Welcome aboard Rick!

Please send in your pledge today.  REMEMBER YOUR PLEDGE IS TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!