someone has taken a young man, hung him in a tree. who would do something this hideous? michael donald was an innocent good samaritan, not a thug. the mobile police department just didn t want to believe that mobile would still have klan in it. but they did. that s why we kept marching and protesting, letting them know we were going to take this lion down. the admitted klansmen turned to action as the words, guilty of capital murder, sank in. it was the first time since at least the early 1900s that a white had been sentenced to death for a crime committed against a black person in the state of alabama. beulah mae donald is grieving, but also seeking justice for her child. this is a black woman who s just lost her son to lynching. finds the strength to move forward in a civil suit against the klan in alabama. the stakes could not be higher. the body of a black man has been found hanging from a tree in mobile, alabama. lynching is a tool to control and oppr
and when he went in, henry hays looked at him and said, will you forgive me? and he said, i forgive you. 42-year-old henry hays died in alabama s electric chair early this morning after refusing a last meal. and i think we cried all the way back home from home and prison. we cried all the way back home because we knew that chapter was finally over. nobody wins when it s like that, because two families have been destroyed over a simple act of pure hatred. at some point, benny felt some guilt because he knew that he probably had cost that boy his life. my biggest regret is never having tried benny hays. the trial ended in a mistrial