The Courtroom Battle that Fought the KKK in Alabama

The Leonard Lopate Show | Jun 24, 2016

In 1981, 19-year-old African American man named Michael Donald was abducted on the street and lynched by two Klansmen in Mobile, Alabama. One of the perpetrators, Henry Hays, received a rare death penalty sentence, and a civil suit filed by Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees on behalf of Donald’s mother dealt a significant blow to the KKK. In The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan, Laurence Leamer shows how this case continues to play a role in race relations today.

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