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
well, i said, now s the chance for me to get these documents. and i took a long shot. i sent a deposition discovery document to mrs. hayes and said, bring all the documents to the federal courthouse. she appeared with all the documents, every one of them. the constitution of the united klans of america ended up to be some of the most powerful evidence that we had against the uka. and so we had to put witnesses on the stand. the perfect witness was gary thomas rowe. gary thomas rowe was an fbi informant. he was involved in some of the
in about a week or two, bennie hays was arrested and put into mobile county jail. he had burned his house down to get money to hire a lawyer to represent his son and he d been indicted for that. we were able to establish it was, in fact, arson, so our office prosecuted him under the mail fraud charge. the judge gave him five years. i said, now is the chance for me to get these documents, and i took a long shot. i sent a deposition discovery document to mrs. hays, and said, bring all the documents to the federal court house. she appeared with all the documents, every one of them. the constitution of the united klans of america ended up to be some of the most powerful evidence that we had against the uka. you re going to see the constitution of the klan. a document that talks about you and me, we re aliens.