Michael Donald
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Michael Donald (July 24, 1962 – March 20, 1981) was picked at random as the victim of a lynching by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama in 1981.
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[edit] Lynching
According to a contemporary source, "In 1981, the trial of Josephus Andersonan, an African American charged with the murder of a white policeman, took place in Mobile. At the end of the case the jury was unable to reach a verdict. This upset members of the Ku Klux Klan 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 trial, Bennie Hays, the second-highest ranking official in the Klan 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."[1]
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 Knowles (age 17) drove around Mobile looking for a victim. They spotted Michael Donald walking home from getting his sister a pack of cigarettes. They attacked him and beat him with a tree limb before slitting his throat and hanging him from a tree across the street from his house. [2]
Local police first 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.[1]
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.
Henry Hays was convicted and 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. James Knowles is serving a life sentence. He avoided the death penalty by testifying against Hays at trial. The elder Hays was tried some years later but the first case ended in a mistrial. Hays died of a heart attack before he could be retried.[2]
Hays maintained his innocence right up until a few days before he died. However, he confessed to Rev. Bob Smith, who was the president of Mobile's NAACP.
The Associated Press reported that the slaying was ordered by Klan leaders, including Hays' father, "to show Klan strength in Alabama."
[edit] Aftermath
Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald.[3] The Klan was hit with a $7 million wrongful-death verdict in the case.[3] The settlement bankrupted the United Klans of America. The Donald family was given the deed to the UKA meeting hall in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.[3] Beulah Mae Donald used the settlement to buy her first home.[3] She died in 1987.
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.
Michael Donald’s story was turned into a novel by Ravi Howard called Like Trees Walking in 2007. The true story of Michael Donald is told with fictional characters and fictional dialogue. Ravi Howard tells the story through two young boys named Roy and Paul Deacon that live with their family in Mobile, Al. The young boy’s family owns a funeral home that has been in their family for six generations. Roy feels the pressure to take over the family funeral business because his older brother Paul decides to pursue a different career. In the novel the town is hit hard by the hanging and the brutal beating of Michael Donald. Mr. Deacon and Roy were asked by the Donald family in the novel to prepare the body for the open casket funeral. Because of the nature of the funeral business and the death of Michael, it pushed Roy to constantly ponder the idea of afterlife and what faith means to him. The novel depicts the aftermath pain and struggle of the small town Mobile. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Michael Donald
- ^ a b Smith. "Alabama case shows how father's sins were visited on son; Whites execution for killing black didn't end inherited racism", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, p. 4A. Retrieved on 2007-06-09. (english)
- ^ a b c d "Donald v. United Klans of America", Southern Poverty Law Center, 1988. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
- ^ Howard, Ravi (2007). Like Trees Walking. HarperCollins Publishers.
