{"product_id":"the-lynching-the-epic-courtroom-battle-that-brought-down-the-klan-9780062458360","title":"The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eThe Kennedy Women\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found nineteen-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone. Hays and Knowles abducted him, beat him, cut his throat, and left his body hanging from a tree branch in a racially mixed residential neighborhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArrested, charged, and convicted, Hays was sentenced to death--the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of Michael's grieving mother, Morris Dees, the legendary civil rights lawyer and cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on numerous interviews and extensive archival research, \u003cem\u003eThe Lynching\u003c\/em\u003e brings to life two dramatic trials, during which the Alabama Klan's motives and philosophy were exposed for the evil they represent. In addition to telling a gripping and consequential story, Laurence Leamer chronicles the KKK and its activities in the second half the twentieth century, and illuminates its lingering effect on race relations in America today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Lynching\u003c\/em\u003e includes sixteen pages of black-and-white photographs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLeamer, Laurence:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eLaurence Leamer is the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including \u003cem\u003eThe Kennedy Women\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Price of Justice\u003c\/em\u003e. He has worked in a French factory and a West Virginia coal mine, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal. His play, Rose, was produced off Broadway last year. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and Washington, D.C., with his wife, Vesna Obradovic Leamer. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50459910406418,"sku":"9780062458360","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_87a11d55-484c-4001-9eb0-d8593cbe8dc5.jpg?v=1730014409","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-lynching-the-epic-courtroom-battle-that-brought-down-the-klan-9780062458360","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}