The Lynching Quotes

“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.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan

“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”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“I am a follower of Christ. The structure of the United Klans of America is patterned very much after the structure built by Christ to carry His message to the world. The Son of God had twelve disciples. The UKA has twelve imperial officers.” A”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“She told Figures that yes, the civil lawsuit against the Klan could be filed in her name. But she was still suspicious. She had learned long ago that the bigger a promise the less likely it would ever happen, and in her expertise that was doubly true when white men made the promise.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan

“As the two young men prowled through the black neighborhood, they were not looking for any black man in particular. Their victim could be young, old, fat, skinny, weak, strong. They didn't care. They weren't afraid. They had a gun. All that mattered was that he was the right color.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan

“There was no fatal illness, only the exhaustion of endless grieving.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“Driving home later that night, Dees lamented that young black people born after the end of the civil rights era knew almost nothing about those who had died so they could live freer lives. And those of the white race knew even less about one of the most important social and political movements in American history.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“Driving home later that night, Dees lamented that young black people born after the end of the civil rights era knew almost nothing about those who had died so they could live freer lives. And those of the white race knew even less about one of the most important social”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“They were a motley, dispirited underclass that wanted black people held down in part because they needed someone to look down upon, as most of the white world looked down on them.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“While Dees was growing up, he had seen that black lives didn’t matter, and until they did, there could be no true justice.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“He wasn’t happy unless he was going so fast that one misstep would send him riding shotgun in heaven.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“Two white teenagers, one of them an Eagle Scout, had been looking forward to being part of the motorcade. Upset at the cancellation, they drove into black neighborhoods on a motorcycle carrying a Confederate flag. When they came upon two black boys on bicycles, one of the white youths fired his pistol at thirteen-year-old Virgil Ware and killed him.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“They will have to arrest me before they integrate the University of Alabama,” the governor told columnist Drew Pearson.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“The Klansmen and their frenzied followers ran through the silent, deserted streets, carrying clubs and chains. Favorite weapons were “head-knockers,” hollowed-out baseball bats that had been filled with molten lead and then sealed back up so they looked like normal athletic equipment.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“Wallace seemed to be speaking of Shelton’s clear objective when the candidate said, “The Klan wants to grow until it makes every office seeker in Alabama doubt that he can be elected without the Klan’s seal of approval.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations

“Shelton was violent in his proclamations and in his philosophy, and likely violent in his home life. “Somebody told me, ‘Well, why don’t you get a divorce?’ Mrs. Shelton reflected in 2014. “You didn’t get divorced back then. No matter what went on. Women got beat up all the time. Like it was their fault.”
― Laurence Leamer, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan – American History and the Civil Rights Case That Transformed Race Relations