Dr. Kings assassination, they came here and looked for details. History touran focuses on native americans. Also, a tour of the new mexican pueblo. And a Spanish Mission in florida. We close out the tour on civil rights with donald vs united clans of america. Last known lynching of the u. S. The victims mother sued the hate group. We spoke to the curator about the case. So we are standing on ways to be called herndon avenue. It is a cross street between two busy thoroughfares in downtown mobile, and on the night of march 21, 1991, the street became a crime scene. Michael donnelly grew up in mobile. He was the youngest of several children of Beulah Mae Donald. They grew up in a project. He was a graduate of murphy high school. He was about to enroll in college to train to be a brick mason. He worked in the mailroom the press registry. He likes to play basketball with his friends, and in fact the morning that he died, he played basketball at the local rec center with some of his friends, and his life ended tragically and without any real provocation. He was a real victim of circumstance. He was chosen completely at random by two klansmen who went looking for an africanamerican to beat and murder in response to a court case. This is a case of a man named josephus anderson, who was an africanamerican man who was accused of murdering a Birmingham Police officer, and so this case is sent to mobile and ends in a hung jury. They cannot come to a decision. And as the news of that comes out over the airwaves, bennie jack hays, the local leader of the united klans of america, says in conversation with his son, henry, and some of henrys friends that if a black man can get away with killing a white man in mobile, it should be the other way around, so henry hayes, who is really a teenager, internalizes this, and a few days later, he and another klansmen who is 17 years old named James Knowles they go out and they make good on this and they drive down to the black section of town and they find Michael Donald, and Michael Donald gets caught up in all of this through really no fault of his own, and donald, being born in 1961, he really rose up in a city that is on the absolute verge of social revolution. Some of his older siblings probably participated in some of the Movement Activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it is michael, the 19yearold youngest son of the donald family, that regrettably gets caught up in all of this in march of 1981. The klan did not have a large presence in mobile, but it had a consistent presence in mobile, much like in other southern communities. There had been cross burnings and other incidents. Based out of tuscaloosa, this is robert sheltons klan group, this is the group that was response over the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in birmingham, whose members are responsible for the murder of viola liuzzo during the selma to montgomery march. It was a small group down here, but they were very active, we know from the testimonies that they had regular and well attended meetings. They likely solve the josephus anderson case as another crack in that picture window that was there perfect society. And in march of 1981, they respond to these changes by really resurrecting an ancient form of racial terrorism, lynching. The local police force was very reticent to call this a racerelated incident. They in fact arrested three red beaded drug dealers who live a bit further down here on herndon avenue and charged them with the crime and they tried to link donald with them in some way, but all of this really falls through. About six months after Michael Donald is killed, mobile gets a new u. S. District attorney, a local africanamerican lawyer named thomas figures. Figures brother, michael the two of them really urged the fbi to get involved. There is a large Fbi Field Office here in mobile. So for about 18 months, the fbi conducts its own investigation, and in the spring of 1983, about two years after donald is killed, they make their arrest. They arrest henry hays and they arrested James Knowles. Knowles actually signed a plea deal. He agrees to be charged for a lesser crime of violating donalds civil rights, which of course comes with a mandatory 25year sentence. So he testifies on behalf of the prosecution. Henry hays is convicted of firstdegree murder and sentenced to death, and he is executed in 1996. He is the first white person in alabama executed for murdering an African American in almost six decades, so it is a significant case. During the trial of henry hays, morris dees and some associates come to mobile and they observe the proceedings and they talk to Beulah Mae Donald and they talk to her attorney, who is michael figures, and they convince her to file a wrongful death suit, on behalf of her son, michael, suing the collective organization for the actions of its members. This is something that is new in prosecuting what we today call hate crimes. As a something you typically see in corporate law. But dees had this idea that he could prove agency, that he could prove that these two klansmen had acted on orders or had acted because of the climate that the Broader Organization in tuscaloosa had created, and so they filed this lawsuit, Beulah Mae Donald versus the united klans of america about three years after the murder. In 1987, they finally get their day in court. It is an incredibly dramatic scene, and it is one that i think is the most compelling court cases that comes from modern mobile. Dees able to tie directly using James Knowles as a witness and using some of the other klansmen, tie directly the attitude that manifested themselves on the street in march of 1981 with the literature, with the written document, and with the language that has coming from the united klans headquarters in tuscaloosa. So he can vary dramatically emphasize this by a caricature that is printed in the magazines of the united klans of america, and it basically says it is a shame how blacks are being treated today. We saw we ought to make sure that they get what they deserve, and then as you turn the page, there is a caricature of a lynching victim. And what he was able to do was to show that cartoon next to the coroners photograph of donald. It was incredibly effective and helps to prove the point that all of this existed in some agency, but there was another element to that trial, which i think with even more remarkable, and it gets back to Beulah Mae Donald herself. She apparently did not go to the first trial, the trial of henry hays, but she went to the civil trial. And near the end of James Knowles testimony on the stand, he turns to Beulah Mae Donald, and he begins to cry, and he tells her how sorry he is, how sorry that all of this happened, that her family was inexplicably caught up in this terrible, terrible tragedy, and Beulah Mae Donald actually says to him ive already forgiven you, which i just think is incredible. The jury within 30 minutes comes back and award the Beulah Mae Donald family 7 million in judgment. Of course the united klans of america does not have 7 million. What they do have is a building in tuscaloosa, their headquarters, so Beulah Mae Donald gets the keys to the headquarters of the klan whose members were responsible for bombing the 16th Street Baptist Church, whose members were responsible for the murder of viola liuzzo. She fell that, by sturdy force how she had ever had, which is a short time, she died about 18 months later, a fascinating end to the suit itself. The New York Times hailed her as the woman who beat the klan, and she must have been a fascinating and very strong woman. It is a sad story in mobiles long history, and it is a good question. Why would we focus on Something Like this . But i think the answer really comes from something more elemental, and it is the fact that we learn the lessons of history. Maya angelou said this. Historys often wrenching, painful saga cannot be undone, it cannot be unlived, but if we can learn the lesson, then it may not be repeated, and i think that is a good story of what happened to Michael Donald. Of the look