According to sociologists Stewart Emory Tolnay and EM Beck, who wrote A Festival of Violence , Michael Donald was different from some lynching victims. According to them, he was not accused of committing a crime or thought to have breached racial etiquette. Instead, he was killed because the Klan members were furious that the second trial of Josephus Anderson, a Black man accused of murdering a white policeman, had been declared a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict.
Enraged with the verdict, Klan members, Hays and Knowles, chose Donald at random, tracked him down, beat him brutally, then strangled him to death. They showed him off at a house party of Klan elder Bennie Hays’ that night before hanging his body from a tree on the residential Herndon Avenue. Donald was stopped by two White men in a vehicle asking for directions. It was a ruse, once Donald paused to help, one of the men produced a gun and forced Donald into their car. The two men then took him to a seclu
Inside the case that bankrupted the Klan kesq.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kesq.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.