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The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan

Laurence Leamer (Goodreads Author)

4.10 · Rating details · 1,502 ratings · 205 reviews

The New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women chronicles the powerful and spellbinding true story of a brutal race-based killing in 1981 and subsequent trials that undid one of the most pernicious organizations in American history—the Ku Klux Klan.

On a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile in their car, hunting f ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published June 7th 2016 by William Morrow (first published May 31st 2016)

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Dec 21, 2016 Matt rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

America's race wars seem to be on the rise again, as the general populace is asked to reaffirm that certain lives matter. While the imagery is horrible and the bloodshed excessive, it pales in comparison to some of the clashes that became weekly occurrences in the South for decades. The Civil War sought to rectify some of these issues, but only exacerbated them, allowing the rise of white supremacy in its many forms, the most prevalent and wide-spread being the Ku Klux Klan. Leamer seeks not onl America's race wars seem to be on the rise again, as the general populace is asked to reaffirm that certain lives matter. While the imagery is horrible and the bloodshed excessive, it pales in comparison to some of the clashes that became weekly occurrences in the South for decades. The Civil War sought to rectify some of these issues, but only exacerbated them, allowing the rise of white supremacy in its many forms, the most prevalent and wide-spread being the Ku Klux Klan. Leamer seeks not only to explore Klan life in America, particularly throughout Alabama, but also a criminal case that might have snuffed out the power Klan politics had over the state and across America. In March 1981, members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America pondered how to lash out against a jury that refused to find a black bank robber guilty of shooting a white police officer. Hatred filled their speech and the only solution would be to commit an act so outrageous that everyone would take notice. Klansmen focussed on nineteen year-old Michael Donald, walking through Mobile late at night. What follows is an act so depraved and horrible that it does not bear detailing here. Needless to say, Donald was lynched and his dead body left dangling from a tree at the courthouse. After some investigating and witness statements, a member of the Klan was brought to justice and sentenced for the crime. Leamer then takes a significant amount of time in the middle of this book to explore the rise of racial hatred in Alabama, particularly under the watchful eye of George Wallace, its segregationist governor. In the 1960s. Wallace welcomed the help of the Klan in preserving order in the state and ensuring that he would not have to bend to the wave of integration, which he felt would sully his state. Civil rights leaders found much of their time spent in the state dedicated to marching and peacefully protesting, though they were met with clubs, bottles, and water cannons. Still, their resolve did not bend and Wallace's invectives were soon diluted, at times with the help of the Oval Office. Out of the fray came one black lawyer, Morris Dees, who worked with the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) and could not, in good conscience, let Alabama fall into such an abyss. His smooth writing style and ability to cut to the chase had him a sought after commodity by politicians throughout the South. However, Leamer depicts him as the man who would stop at nothing to bring down the Klan, after seeing all its actions throughout the 1960s and 70s. Returning th narrative to the mid-80s, Leamer discusses that Dees took the opportunity to approach Michael Donald's mother and agreed to take her case to civil court for wrongful death. This was Dees' opportunity to pull all the key figures in the Klan onto the carpet, in an Alabama courtroom, from the lowly men who committed the lynching to the Imperial Wizard of the Klan, Robert Shelton, and the entire United Klans of America. Fighting and taking no prisoners, Dees sought justice for a people as well as a nation, hoping to put the heinous past of segregation, black suppression, and white supremacist violence by the wayside. It was an epic fight, the true David versus Goliath, though its end result was anything but certain. Leamer does a fascinating job at pulling the heartstrings of the reader, even those who did not suffer through the era. His powerful story will resonate in the minds and hearts of anyone courageous enough to take the time and learn how Michael Donald became a lasting symbol of the fight for equality in Alabama.

Leamer does a masterful job of depicting the Klan, the state of racial unrest in Alabama, and the overall sentiment of the movement in a short time. While I have always been looking for an overarching book to explore the roots and depths of the Klan in America, Leamer has surely whet my appetite to learn a little more. I tend to turn towards things about which I know little, in hopes of learning more and being able to adequately represent myself in discussions. The two outer parts of the book flow so well that one might sometimes wonder if these are pieces of historical fiction. It is listed under non-fiction, which supports that the horrors and battles found therein are at least mostly true. The power of his writing and the depths of despair that the reader can find themselves, should they be open to learning, is amazing. The middle section, a true history of hate and the rise of George Wallace, proves even more telling, as Leamer sets the basis of Alabama as a cesspool of hatred, though surely the rhetoric of the times did not help. Does Leamer go too far? I would venture to say no, in that he is trying to illustrate just how poorly things got and how horrible the nightly walks could have been for blacks or those who sympathised with their cause. I was enthralled with the story, the narrative, and the overall rawness of what Leamer had to tell. One can only hope many others will take the time to learn about this before dismissing if any set of lives matter more than others.

Kudos, Mr. Leamer for pulling me in so effectively. I will be sure to find some more of your work in the near future.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/ ...more

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Jun 19, 2018 Kristy K rated it liked it

Shelves: history, 2018

3.5 Stars

Using the lynching of Michael Donald in 1981, The Lynching provides an overview of racism in Alabama in the second half of the 20th century. It’s enraging, appalling, and sadly still relevant to how some issues are being handled today.

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Apr 11, 2018 Kimba Tichenor rated it liked it

Shelves: american-history

3.5 This book tells the true story of the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama and the subsequent pursuit of justice in the criminal and civil court system. The crime committed by two young UKA (United Klans of America) members was conceived by the Mobile Klavern as a response to the failure of a largely black jury to reach a verdict in the murder of a white man by a black man. The night of the verdict the two young men hunted down a random young black man, whose only offense was b ...more

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Feb 29, 2016 Beverly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, united-states, history, audio, newtome2016

A Must read!

Engrossing, spellbinding, heartfelt are the words that came to mind when I finished this grippingly readable true crime narrative. This book is narrative non-fiction at its best in the same vein as Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. This time the spotlight is shining on Alabama, specifically Mobile as it looks at two different trials; one trial of a revenge-based killing that lead to a crusade to legally challenge the UKA (United ...more

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Nov 06, 2016 Tom Mathews rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-crime-thriller, southern-lit, non-fiction, read-in-2016

As the title claims, Laurence Leamer’s latest book is a worthwhile recounting of a landmark legal case against the United Klans of America (UKA). But Leamer casts an even wider net. In addition to recounting the events surrounding the murder of nineteen-year-old Michael Donald and the lawsuit that resulted from it, ‘The Lynching’ retells events from the darkest days of the Civil Rights Era. Previous accounts, such as Taylor Branch's magnificent Parting the Waters trilogy may do a better job of r ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Carlos rated it really liked it

What a great book, if you want to understand a little bit more about the Civil Rights movement and the impact it had...you should read this book, in 1981 a young black man was lynched , an occurrence that had not happened in a long time and that many people had tough would not happen again, but under the influence of the Klan and its leader 2 young member had done the deed, this book is about the legal case that saw them all the way to federal court and the quest of a young tourney to use the ca ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 YupIReadIt rated it it was amazing

Needs to be required reading in school! You can also check out my review of this book here ...more

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Apr 17, 2020 Nandakishore Varma rated it liked it

Lynching is, without doubt, a hate crime - always. The fury of the mob is brought to bear down on an individual: but at some point of time, he ceases to be a human being, but just a symbol for all that the lynchers hate. Which is why it is almost always the crime of choice for religious and racist bigots.

I decided to read this book for two reasons. One: I am interested in the white supremacist philosophy which seems to be on the rise again in the West, especially in the USA. Two: Lynchings have ...more

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Jun 07, 2016 Jean rated it it was amazing

The Lynching was not what I expected, which was a longer and possibly sensational court trial. Instead, it is a very readable history of the civil rights movement in Alabama. Yes, it reports the murder of an African-American teen in Mobile in the 1980's and how justice was finally accomplished and how that led to the demise of the Klan. It does so much more than that because it recounts the fear the white supremacists caused and the struggles of the movement in the 1960's, thus putting the murde ...more

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Jun 01, 2016 Christopher Lawson rated it it was amazing

Clever Legal Strategy - but Will it Work?

THE LYNCHING is a fascinating story of a determined lawyer bankrupting the Klan. This book is not actually about the criminal trial; rather, it's how attorney Morris Dees used a novel legal approach in a CIVIL trial to completely destroy the organization: "Dees hoped the amount would be so large that it would dramatically announce that the Klan could no longer commit violent acts against black people." As a side benefit of the civil trial, further crimina Clever Legal Strategy - but Will it Work?

THE LYNCHING is a fascinating story of a determined lawyer bankrupting the Klan. This book is not actually about the criminal trial; rather, it's how attorney Morris Dees used a novel legal approach in a CIVIL trial to completely destroy the organization: "Dees hoped the amount would be so large that it would dramatically announce that the Klan could no longer commit violent acts against black people." As a side benefit of the civil trial, further criminal charges were later filed.

The terrible story begins in 1981, with the beating/strangulation, then lynching of an innocent young black man, Michael Donald. Klan members Henry Hays and James Knowles were looking for someone black--almost anyone--to use as an example. After the two young ne'er do wells committed the dead, they publicly displayed the body as a horrific example: They "knew the body had to hang high up so everyone could see it."

The two men were convicted, but Dees wanted to go beyond just convicting these two--he wanted to topple the entire Clan organization that had encouraged the violence: "Dees was convinced that the UKA could be sued directly for its role in the murder." In this case, the Klan was officially the "United Klans of America."

The ensuing civil trial, which set a powerful legal precedent, is officially known as, "Beulah Mae Donald, as Executor of the Estate of Michael Donald, Deceased v. United Klans of America." The trial tested an important concept: Can an organization be held accountable for criminal acts of its members? To succeed at court, Dees would have to cross several legal hurdles. For one thing, "Dees would have to show a pattern of violence involving the United Klans of America. In other words, he had to show a PATTERN of violence "instigated by prominent officials in the hierarchy."

So that's what Dees argued in the trial. He persuaded the jury that the Clan didn't merely dislike black people--it was a lot more than that: “We have a piece of evidence, I think, that’s going to convince you that this national organization did more than just espouse a racial philosophy; they actually encouraged their members to kill and lynch black people.”

Dees' opponents in the trial argued persuasively that one couldn't hold an organization responsible for just THINKING certain things. That's not the way the system is supposed to work, they told the jury: "In this country we don’t punish organizations. We don’t punish thought. It would be bad if we did.” With these two different theories of the law, it was not obvious how the trail would end.

In an astonishing turn, one of the defendants--one of the original two murderers--appealed to the jury during final arguments. A repentant Knowles pleaded for the jury to find against himself! And also make the Klan responsible: "Whatever judgment you decide, I do hope you decide a judgment against me and everyone else involved. Because you people need to understand this can’t happen. I do hope that you find a judgment against me and everyone involved. Because we are guilty.”

Knowles also publicly apologized to the mother of the slain man: "If could trade places with him, I would." Amazingly, Mrs. Donald graciously accepted Knowles plea: “I forgive you. From the day I found out who you all was, I asked God to take care of y’all, and He has.”

The trial came to a close on Thursday, February 12, 1987. The jury awarded plaintiff’s damages of seven million dollars. Of course, this award financially wiped out the organization--the Klan had nowhere near that sum. More than that, however, this trial set a precedent for legal strategy against other hate groups. This same strategy was "used by SPLC lawyers to cripple and destroy a dozen racist organizations, from the White Aryan Resistance in 1990 to the Imperial Klans of America in 2008."

All in all, I found THE LYNCHING to be an insightful look back into a dark era in American history. The events described here are a sad, but important part of our history. The outcome of this trial figured prominently in future cases against hate groups. I was not aware of the legal strategy used against the Klan by Mr. Dees.

Advance Review Copy courtesy of Edelweiss Book Distributors
...more

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Jul 09, 2017 Caitlin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I have shamed myself into actually coming back and cleaning this up but also, it's been more than a year so take this with that knowledge.

Here is what I remember about this book:

1) It is mis-titled and misleadingly marketed and it does nothing for the book. I came in expecting a book about "The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan" but what I got was a book about a lawyer who, admittedly did work on this case and found the Southern Poverty Law Center, but whose life and work was the I have shamed myself into actually coming back and cleaning this up but also, it's been more than a year so take this with that knowledge.

Here is what I remember about this book:

1) It is mis-titled and misleadingly marketed and it does nothing for the book. I came in expecting a book about "The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan" but what I got was a book about a lawyer who, admittedly did work on this case and found the Southern Poverty Law Center, but whose life and work was the real focus of the book.

ALSO, if the case brought down anything it was simply a sad administrative cover, while the hatred and dehumanizing forces of the Klan morphed, mutated, and spread in other directions and other ways. This trial did nothing to defeat the forces that fostered, sheltered, and made possible the presence of the Klan for so long. The scope of the book was too narrow and congratulatory for the realities of our era.

2) It is very unfortunately timed and my reading of it even more so. This book is congratulatory over the "defeat" of racism by modern sensibilities even as racism and nationalism appear to be on the rise in America. Nothing could illustrate this more than the "Where are they now" portion of the book that notes Jeff Sessions was a congressman who seemed to have suffered no long term ill effects form his involvement in the case juxtaposed by his now being elevated to Attorney General of the United States. I'm sure if I had read it this summer when news of the effect of Sessions' policies to separate parents and children seeking asylum it would have smarted even more.

3) It was only o.k. in how it was written. This is really a symptom of the sheer amount of high quality non-fiction I read, but in this golden era of true crime and courtroom dramas (whether they be a podcast, longform journalism, or book) this was passable, but not extraordinary.

I would recommend skipping this book. Listen to In The Dark season 2 instead, the podcast is more interesting, better constructed, and more accurate in its evaluation of the state of our court system anyway.

*Original review preserved below*

I WILL COME BACK AND CLEAN THIS UP

This is where my reading a lot of non-fiction makes me picky. This title and the focus of the book are off. The book wants you to think it's focused on this trial, but it's really more about the lawyer who went after the Klan in a civil case and the founding of the SPLC.

Anyway, more thoughts later. ...more

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Aug 31, 2016 Andie rated it really liked it

This is a powerful book about a lynching in Mobile, Alabama that took place in 1981 and the trial that linked this crime to the United Klans of America. It is also the story of Morris Dees who evolved from being a supporter of George Wallace to founding the Southern Poverty Law Center and who successfully prosecuted the case as a civil suit.

The beginning of the book that covers the actual crime is especially powerful. On the one hand, the Klan, the peope who are members and it's "secret rituals" ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Lois rated it it was ok

Such an awful crime and the fact that it happened so 'relatively recently' was very hard for me when I first learned about it while living in Mobile, AL. A faculty member at my prior institution is quoted and had worked on the Nightline discussion of the case and some of the commemorative activities depicted in 2006 photographs were things I followed. That didn't save the fact that this book is just terribly written and edited: clearly the author wasn't sure whose story he really wanted to tell, ...more

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Jul 17, 2016 gnarlyhiker rated it did not like it

The Lynching is a prime example of how not to write a book. Leamer tells you everything, but fails to show you anything: Show me, don’t tell me!

good luck

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Oct 08, 2017 Kusaimamekirai rated it really liked it

On March 21, 1981 two members of the KKK took to the streets of Mobile, Alabama in search of a Black man to kill in retaliation for an all black jury acquiting a black man accused of killing a white police officer. They found 19 year old Michael Donald who had briefly left the home of his sister to get her a pack of cigarettes. After abducting him at gunpoint, he was taking to the woods, murdered, and crudely attached to a tree in the centre of town in what would be the last documented lynching On March 21, 1981 two members of the KKK took to the streets of Mobile, Alabama in search of a Black man to kill in retaliation for an all black jury acquiting a black man accused of killing a white police officer. They found 19 year old Michael Donald who had briefly left the home of his sister to get her a pack of cigarettes. After abducting him at gunpoint, he was taking to the woods, murdered, and crudely attached to a tree in the centre of town in what would be the last documented lynching in the United States.
That is the backdrop for Laurence Leamer’s “The Lynching” but this horrible event is really just the backdrop for the subsequent trial in which the KKK and decades of racial violence is on trial. Leamer provides an excellent look back at the civil rights movement in Alabama, George Wallace, and the systemic and organised brutality of the KKK under its leader Robert Shelton. The book also goes in to detail about the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Morris Dees. Dees was and remains a flamboyant and controversial figure to many but there is little doubt that he showed incredible intellect and skill, as well as courage in going after the KKK and substantially weakening it. There is even a brief cameo by Jeff Sessions as the US assistant general for Southern Alabama in which he calls one of his African American attorneys “boy”. Seeing Sessions appear suddenly like that I have to admit really surprised me even though I had known he was an attorney in Alabama.
It made me think that just as a lynching in 1981 seemed inconceivable to people then, and racial violence seems shocking to us today in 2017, the past is never really ever the past. Often the people who perpetrated the deeds from the past or their direct descendants continue breathe the same air as us. More importantly, as this book illustrates, their ideas live on, making vigilance on the side of tolerance and justice critical. Without vigilance we are forever just lamenting tragedies like the murder of James Donald without ever addressing the root causes of what makes them possible. ...more

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Apr 14, 2017 Ashley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Incredibly detailed and meticulously researched book that contextualized the "last lynching" of Michael Donald in 1981 In Mobile, Alabama. This book was thoughtful and engaging all the way through. ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Angelique Simonsen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

WOW! This book blew me away! I was constantly wanting to go back to the great writing and the absolute rightness that this story be told!

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Mar 14, 2017 Lea Ann rated it really liked it

I went to law school so the words "Epic Courtroom Battle" were sure to catch my eye. And since I went to law school I am aware that there is such a thing as the Southern Poverty Law Center. And I live in America and am aware that lynching was a terrible crime against people of color, mostly in the American South, during the civil rights movement and before. So the most shocking thing in reading this book, was the fact that the lynching in question, the lynching that launched the epic courtroom b I went to law school so the words "Epic Courtroom Battle" were sure to catch my eye. And since I went to law school I am aware that there is such a thing as the Southern Poverty Law Center. And I live in America and am aware that lynching was a terrible crime against people of color, mostly in the American South, during the civil rights movement and before. So the most shocking thing in reading this book, was the fact that the lynching in question, the lynching that launched the epic courtroom battle mentioned, happened in Mobile, Alabama in 1981.

Yep, 1981. I was actually alive that year and while I don't remember it at all, it's shocking and heartbreaking and maddening that a lynching happened in America in my lifetime. Michael Donald was 19 years old when he had the misfortune of walking down the street in Alabama by himself at night, where he was approached by Tiger Knowles and Henry Hayes. He was beaten, choked, and had his throat slashed before he was thrown in the trunk of a car, driven to Mobile, and hung from a tree.

That Knowles and Hayes were KKK members shouldn't be surprising. And that Mobile authorities did little to investigate and solve the crime shouldn't be surprising either. Leamer's tale takes us up through the end of Knowles and Hayes' criminal trials. Trials which would not have happened without Michael Figures and other members of the federal Department of Justice. Then Morris Dees, chief trial attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center, gets wind of the case and knows he is going to use the lynching to bring down the United Klans of America (UKA) and its leader Robert Shelton.

Dees, it seems, knows racists from experience. Growing up in Alabama, Dees attended U of A and worked on George Wallace's gubernatorial campaign in college. Although Dees would graduate from law school, he focused his work on a mail order publishing business he started with a partner in college. After both finding they were unfulfilled with the business world, Dees and Fuller sell off their company and go their separate ways. Dees goes on to found the SPLC and Fuller begins Habitat for Humanity.

Dees evolution into a crusader against the UKA was a gradual process and by the time the civil trial starts, he's been trying and winning civil rights cases for some time. He definitely marches to his own drummer and does things his own way, but Dees had a singular purpose in this case, and that was to bring down the UKA in such a way that could be used in the future against other violent hate groups.

The best parts of the book, to me, were the background information regarding the civil rights movement and the campaigns of George Wallace. The courtroom battle fell a little short of "epic" to me, but Leamer is not an attorney himself and since most of the defendants were representing themselves, I doubt they produced many quotable arguments.

I picked up this book as my non-fiction selection for Black History Month. I may not have finished it in February, but I'm glad I read it. ...more

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Sep 27, 2016 Denise Fisher rated it it was amazing

I love this book. I learned so very much!

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Sep 03, 2017 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, 2017, audio-books

The Lynching:The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down The Klan by Laurence Leamer jumped out at me when I picked out audio book. Why didn't I remember this event? I thought back I was working plenty of overtime during the trial. Being so tired, I did not listen to the news, I just went right to bed. This subject is topical because of the resurgence of the Neo-Nazis and the Klan.

Michael Donald, a nineteen year old black man was killed by two Klansman in Mobile, Alabama. He was unarmed, had not ...more

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Sep 16, 2016 Leslie rated it liked it

Shelves: civil-rights, crime, segregation, race-class-in-america

The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer. Right there in the title-Epic. It's not. I was looking forward to a tight, crisp, and suspense filled story. It was not told that way by Leamer. He's written a lot of books so, I'd need to see if he's just getting sloppy. The story of the murder, the investigation, and subsequent trials, just didn't pull me in. He doesn't do the story justice, IMO. I was interested, and kept reading nonetheless. Morris Dees, t ...more

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Sep 30, 2017 Asha K. rated it it was ok

In this easy read, Leamer draws some pretty unsettling connections between 1960s-80s actors and some of today's most infamous figures. For the most part, it's compelling. His Governor Wallace in particular seems to embody a certain too-familiar modern day demagogue. Morris Dees is a charming maverick from humble beginnings who gives up a lucrative business career to pursue justice for the disenfranchised.

The characterization of Dees left me feeling a bit icky. I know this book is supposed to be ...more

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Aug 15, 2016 Rob rated it really liked it

A chilling look at racial segregation in the early 1980s, beginning with the Klan’s lynching of nineteen-year-old Michael Dodds in Mobile, Alabama. Not for the feint of heart, whether for the cruel, horrific violence or the disgusted, repulsive feeling of reading about the actions of Governor George Wallace, the Klu Klux Klan, the complicity of state and local police, and the apathy of white citizens and how they handled federally-mandated integration. It’s a well-written story about Lawyer Morr ...more

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Jul 13, 2020 Ruth Woodman York rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-popsugar-challenge, 2020-around-the-year-in-52-books

It took me awhile to read this. Not for any fault of the book. Simply because I wanted to be able to give it the attention I felt it deserved. I wanted to give it 5 stars. However, the extensive background history of the lawyer, Morris Dees, as well as that of Robert Shelton, took a bit away from what was the main story: The horrible lynching of Michael Donald. Instead of half the book being devoted to the aforementioned history, I would have liked more to be focused on the crime and the trials ...more

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Jan 27, 2016 Ian Williams rated it it was amazing

Good solid historical nonfiction, covers not only the lynching of Michel Donald, and the ensuing tribals, but also the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and the close, often personal relationships between Robert Shelton, and United Klans of America, George Wallace, and Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Jan 17, 2020 Jennifer W rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

So sad and disturbing that something like this could happen in my lifetime. Yet more heroes of the civil rights movement I didn't previously know about, but continue to amaze and inspire me. Also the backstory of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which I had never heard before. Also, the politics and rise of George Wallace sounds all too familiar and relevant right about now.... ...more

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Jul 19, 2016 Karen rated it it was amazing

This is a very readable book, it's not only about a 1981 lynching in Alabama, but also covers much about the Civil Rights era, George Wallace, Morris Dee and the Southern Poverty Law Center and the KKK. ...more

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Nov 10, 2015 Nicole rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites

An absolutely amazing book. An absolute must-read for anyone!

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Aug 22, 2017 David Quijano rated it it was amazing

I found The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer while browsing the NYT website for good books to read. The book covers the criminal and civil trials that took place in the wake of the lynching of Michael Donald, an African-American whose only transgression was walking home from a convenience store while black.

The Lynching is split into three separate parts. The first part is about the lynching and subsequent criminal trial. The second part is about I found The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer while browsing the NYT website for good books to read. The book covers the criminal and civil trials that took place in the wake of the lynching of Michael Donald, an African-American whose only transgression was walking home from a convenience store while black.

The Lynching is split into three separate parts. The first part is about the lynching and subsequent criminal trial. The second part is about the history behind many of the main characters in the book, including Morris Dees (co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center), Alabama governor George Wallace, and Robert Shelton (leader of the United Klans of America). The final part of the book covers the civil trial that eventually bankrupted the UKA.

The author does a great job at displaying the moral complexities of the various characters involved in the book. It would be easy to portray Morris Dees as a saint, for instance, but the author doesn’t shy away from the fact that he started out as a segregationist who worked on George Wallace’s first (and failed) campaign for Alabama governor and cheated on multiple wives. Although the author didn’t take sides on the issue, he also tells the readers of the criticisms of how Dees ran the SPLC, specifically when it came to finances.

Leamer also humanizes the various Klan members and segregationists in the book. It would be easy to just label Henry Hays and James Knowles (the two men responsible for the lynching of Michael Donald) as hate-filled sociopaths. Leamer effectively shows that wasn’t the case. Henry Hays joined the Klan in an attempt to please his father, not out of a strong sense of hate for black people. To me, the most touching part of the book is how Hays befriended multiple black men while on death row.

Even George Wallace, who infamously ran for president four times as a staunch segregationist and served four terms as Alabama governor, gets a fair shake. Wallace first ran for governor of Alabama in 1958 as somewhat of a racial moderate, even speaking out against the Klan while campaigning. When he lost to Democratic primary to John Patterson who had the support of the KKK, it changed Wallace. Once he realized he had lost the primary (which was the real election since Republicans had no real presence in Alabama at the time), he was quoted as saying, “no other son-of-a-bitch will ever out-nigger me again.” This event helped trigger Wallace’s segregationist platform over the next several decades, though he would eventually become a born-again Christian, renounced his former beliefs, and receive 35% of the black vote in the 1982 election which gave him his fourth and final term as Alabama governor.

Perhaps the most compelling part of The Lynching is during the civil trial. The author speculates what Robert Shelton, head of the UKA, must have been thinking as he was drawn into a seemingly frivolous lawsuit. In a short 25 years, Shelton went from being an open Klansman at the right hand of governor George Wallace to a guy with no power or meaningful political connections of any kind. It was so bad, that his grandchildren were made fun of at school for being related to him. The speed in which Alabama (and America as a whole) changed from being unabashedly racist - a place where a boy (Emmett Till) could be murdered with no consequence - to a place where a white man could get the death penalty for lynching a young black man is pretty amazing. Regardless of what we constantly hear in the news, the US has made significant progress in terms of race and justice.

The Lynching is a very good book, and even uplifting, despite many tragic events that take place in its pages. I give it 4.5 stars. Everyone should read this, especially people under 40. ...more

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Jul 31, 2017 Mike marked it as to-read

Shelves: nonfiction

Every once in a while - especially in times like these - you just need a feel-good story where horrible people are brought to justice and legitimate societal progress is made. I don't normally read nonfiction books about single events (I tend to prefer broader historical concepts), but this one is going to be an exception. ...more

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About Laurence Leamer

Laurence Leamer

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Laurence Leamer is an award winning journalist and historian who has written fifteen books including five New York Times bestsellers. He has worked in a factory in France, a coal mine in West Virginia and as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote village in Nepal two days from a road. He has written one novel and an off Broadway play but is primarily known for his nonfiction. His new book, The Lynchi ...more

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“There had not been a lynching in America in a quarter century, and no one standing looking at the body had ever seen such a crime, but they had heard about it from family members and read about it in social science books in school. And they believed they knew what had occurred. White men had lynched a black man, and they had done it to send a message of intimidation and terror. This was something they thought would never happy again, and many of the black onlookers wept, others fell to the ground beating their fists against the earth.” — 2 likes

“If jurors were looking for a way to come back finding for the UKA, Mays had given it to them. Senator Michael Figures made the plaintiff’s final arguments. He had been there on Herndon Street the morning of the lynching, and he had seen Donald’s body hanging from a tree. He had been” — 2 likes

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