[Oliver]

Starting from benzene. I've been dwelling over this for a few days.

I tried sulfonating aniline but I think that gives the ortho product in a low yield. I also considered protecting aniline with acetic anhydride then sulfonating then removing the protection with acid then sulfonating again to get a o,p-disubstituted aniline then desulfonating but that would remove both the -SO3H groups, not just the para group.

[Hunter2]

Use this:

http://www.orgsyn.org/orgsyn/orgsyn/prepcontent.asp?prep=cv2p0471

[Oliver]

Interesting. Thank you.

[opsomath]

If there is an Org Syn paper for making your stuff, use it. It's the best source for synthetic procedures I've ever seen.