Michael Donald
Encyclopedia
Michael Donald 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.
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."
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. 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.
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.
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
. 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.
U.S. District Court Judge W. Brevard Hand sentenced Knowles, then 21 years of age, to a life sentence. He avoided the death penalty by testifying against Hays at trial.
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.
The elder Hays was tried some years later but the first case ended in a mistrial. 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. Hays died of a heart attack before he could be retried.
The Associated Press
reported that the slaying occurred "to show Klan strength in Alabama."
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. 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. The Klan was hit with a $7 million wrongful-death verdict in the case. The settlement bankrupted the United Klans of America. The Donald family was given the deed to the UKA meeting hall in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
. Beulah Mae Donald used the settlement to buy her first home. 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.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
man who was murdered by two Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
members in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, in 1981. The murder is sometimes referred to as the last recorded lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
in the United States.
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 AmericaUnited Klans of America
United Klans of America Inc. was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside...
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."
Mobile County, Alabama
Mobile County[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2011, its population was 415,704. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...
courthouse lawn. Bennie Hays' son, Henry Hays
Henry Francis Hays
Henry Francis Hays was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 1981 lynching-style murder of 19-year old African-American Michael Donald....
(age 26), and James Llewellyn "Tiger" Knowles (age 17) drove around Mobile looking for a victim. 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.
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
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, who organized a protest march in the city and demanded police answers.
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
Holman Correctional Facility
Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in unincorporated southwestern Escambia County, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, north of Atmore....
in Escambia County, Alabama
Escambia County, Alabama
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*62.1% White*31.9% Black*4.4% Native American*0.2% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.5% Two or more races*1.9% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, while on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
. He was executed in the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
on June 6, 1997. The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that Hays was Alabama's first execution for a white-on-black crime since 1913.
U.S. District Court Judge W. Brevard Hand sentenced Knowles, then 21 years of age, to a life sentence. He avoided the death penalty by testifying against Hays at trial.
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.
The elder Hays was tried some years later but the first case ended in a mistrial. 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. Hays died of a heart attack before he could be retried.
The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that the slaying occurred "to show Klan strength in Alabama."
Aftermath
Morris Dees
Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center , and a former direct mail marketeer for book publishing. Along with his law partner, Joseph J...
, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
in Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald in federal court in the Southern District of Alabama. 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. The Klan was hit with a $7 million wrongful-death verdict in the case. The settlement bankrupted the United Klans of America. The Donald family was given the deed to the UKA meeting hall in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
Tuscaloosa County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama.It is named in honor of the pre-Choctaw chief Tuskaloosa. In 2010, the population was 194,656...
. Beulah Mae Donald used the settlement to buy her first home. 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
Sam Jones (mayor)
Samuel Leon Jones is serving his first term as mayor of his hometown, Mobile, Alabama. He is Mobile's first African American mayor. He ran on a platform of safety, efficient government, historic preservation and bringing employers to the city....
, 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.
External links
- Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America, 2011, by B.J. Hollars, published by University of Alabama PressUniversity of Alabama PressThe University of Alabama Press was founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama.An Editorial Board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within Alabama oversees the publishing program. Projects are selected that...
- 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