Lynching of Michael Donald
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Michael Donald (July 24, 1961 – March 20, 1981) was a young African American man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching in the United States.[1][2]
Lynching
In 1981, a trial of Josephus Anderson, an African American charged with the murder of a white policeman, took place in Mobile. While Anderson was convicted at a subsequent trial, this one ended without the jury reaching a verdict. The mistrial upset members of the United Klans of America who believed that the reason for the lack of decision was that some members of the jury were African Americans. At a meeting held after the mistrial, Bennie Hays, the second-highest ranking official in the United Klans in Alabama, said: "If a black man can get away with killing a white man, we ought to be able to get away with killing a black man."[3]
The same night other Klan members burnt a three-foot cross on the Mobile County courthouse lawn. Bennie Hays' son, Henry Hays (age 26), and James Llewellyn "Tiger" Knowles (age 17) drove around Mobile looking for a victim.[4][5] Picked at random, they spotted Michael Donald walking home from getting his sister a pack of cigarettes. They kidnapped him, drove out to a secluded area in the woods, attacked him and beat him with a tree limb. They wrapped a rope around his neck, and pulled on it to strangle him, before slitting his throat and hanging him from a tree across the street from Hays' house.[4]
Local police initially stated that Donald had been killed as part of a drug deal gone wrong, despite his mother's insistence that he had not been involved in drugs. Beulah Mae Donald then contacted Jesse Jackson, who organized a protest march in the city and demanded police answers.[3]
The FBI became involved, partly at the urging of Michael and Thomas Figures, local activists. Two and a half years later, Henry Hays and James Knowles were arrested. Bennie Hays was also indicted in Donald's murder but died before his trial began.
Hays, convicted, was incarcerated in the Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County, Alabama, while on death row.[6] He was executed in the electric chair on June 6, 1997. The Associated Press reported that Hays was Alabama's first execution for a white-on-black crime since 1913. Hays was also the only KKK member to be executed for the murder of an African-American during the 20th century.[4]
U.S. District Court Judge W. Brevard Hand sentenced Knowles, then 21 years of age, to a life sentence.[7] He avoided the death penalty by testifying against Hays at trial.[4]
On May 18, 1989, Benjamin Franklin Cox, Jr., a truck driver from Mobile, was convicted in a federal court for being an accomplice in the Donald killing. Mobile County Circuit Court Michael Zoghby sentenced the then-28-year old Cox to life in prison for his part in the Donald murder.[8]
The elder Hays was tried some years later but the first case ended in a mistrial.[4] Zoghby said that because of the illness of the elder Hays, then 71, he had no choice to declare a mistrial, even though Hays's lawyer was willing to go forward with proceedings.[9] Hays died of a heart attack before he could be retried.[4]
The Associated Press reported that the slaying occurred "to show Klan strength in Alabama."[7]
Aftermath
Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald in federal court in the Southern District of Alabama.[10] The official court transcript shows that the original concept as charged in the complaint was considered too vague to hold up but Judge Alex T. Howard Jr. helped refine the legal theory of agency which held the Klan accountable for the acts of its members and thus kept the case from being dismissed before it could go to the jury.[11] The Klan was hit with a $7 million wrongful-death verdict in the case.[10] The settlement bankrupted the United Klans of America. The Donald family was given the deed to the UKA meeting hall in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.[10] Beulah Mae Donald used the settlement to buy her first home.[10] She died September 17, 1988. The incident served as a springboard for other legal cases against racist groups across America.
In 2006, Mobile renamed Herndon Avenue as Michael Donald Avenue. Mobile's first black mayor, Sam Jones, presided over the small gathering of Michael Donald's family and local leaders at the commemoration.
Donald's story was turned into a 2007 novel Like Trees, Walking by Ravi Howard.
His murder was explored on the National Geographic's "Inside American Terror" in 2008.[12]
References
- ^ "The 'Last Lynching': How Far Have We Come?". NPR (National Public Radio). October 13, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
- ^ Daniel M. Gold (October 12, 2008). "In the Bad Old Days, Not So Very Long Ago". The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
- ^ a b Michael Donald
- ^ a b c d e f Smith, Gita M. "Alabama case shows how father's sins were visited on son; Whites execution for killing black didn't end inherited racism". Atlanta Journal-Constitution (newspaper). p. 4A.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "Suit Filed Against KKK In Death Of Black Youth." Jet. Johnson Publishing Company, July 9, 1984. Vol. 66, No. 18. ISSN 0021-5996. 39. Retrieved from Google Books on March 3, 2011.
- ^ "Alabama pays Ohio for holding Klansman." Associated Press at The Tuscaloosa News. September 25, 1994. 8B. Retrieved from Google News (12 of 132) on March 3, 2011. "His son, Henry Hays, was sentenced to death for the Donald murder. He awaits an execution date at Holman Prison."
- ^ a b "Klansman sentenced for killing black man." Gainesville Sun. Friday April 12, 1985. 6A. Retrieved from Google News (96 of 140) on March 3, 2011.
- ^ "Ex-Klansman sentenced to life in prison for murder." Associated Press at the Observer-Reporter. Saturday June 24, 1989. B-3. Retrieved from Google News (13 of 109) on March 3, 2011.
- ^ "Mistrial for Former Klansmen." Associated Press at the Los Angeles Times. February 6, 1988. Retrieved on March 3, 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Donald v. United Klans of America". Southern Poverty Law Center. 1988. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
- ^ "Alex Howard, former federal judge, dies in Mobile at 86". Press-Register. February 10, 2011. Retrieved 2012-06-24.
- ^ "Michael Donald clip on KKK: Inside American Terror". National Geographic. 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
External links
- Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America, 2011, by B.J. Hollars, published by University of Alabama Press
- Beulah Mae Donald v. United Klans of America Southern Poverty Law Center
- Details about the murder
- Ex-Klansman executed in Alabama for 1981 slaying of black teen - former Ku Klux Klansman Henry Francis Hays