Even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, lynchings persisted in the Deep South, the most significant of which was the illegal execution of nineteen year old Michael Donald.
In 1981, a black man who was charged with the murder of a white policeman, stood trial in Mobile, Alabama. When his trial took place, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Upset Ku Klux Klan members believed that some black members of the jury had affected this outcome and at a meeting after the trial, Bennie Hays, the second-highest ranking official in the Alabama Klan said: "If a black man can get away with killing a white man, we ought to be able to get away with killing a black man."
On Saturday March, 21, 1981, Bennie Hays' son, Henry Hays, and James Knowles, decided they would get revenge for the failure of the courts to convict the African American for killing a policeman.
Michael Donald was lynched in Mobile, Alabama on March 21, 1981.
Traveling around Mobile in their car, they soon found Michael Donald walking home. Donald had nothing to do with the murder of the police officer and was in no way involved in the trial. He was just a an innocent man that the KKK chose randomly to exact revenge for the acquittal of the other man during the trial. When the pair spotted Michael Donald, they forced him into their car, drove to the next county and lynched him.
An investigation resulted in the local police finding that Donald had been murdered over a drug deal gone bad. However, Beulah Mae Donald knew her son was not involved in drugs and resolved to obtain justice. Soon, Jessie Jackson and the FBI were involved and it did not take long before FBI agent, James Bodman was able to obtain a confession from James Knowles.
In June 1983, Knowles was found guilty of violating Donald's civil rights and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Six months later, when Henry Hays was tried for murder, Knowles appeared as chief prosecution witness. Hays was found guilty and sentenced to death.
But Beaulah Mae Donald was not yet done with her determination to obtain justice. She soon filed a civil suit against the United Klans of America. In February, 1987, an all-white jury found the Klan responsible for the lynching of Michael Donald and ordered it to pay 7 million dollars. This resulted in the Klan having to hand over all its assets including its national headquarters in Tuscaloosa.
After a long-drawn out legal struggle, Henry Hayes was executed on June 6, 1997. It was the first time a white man had been executed for a crime against an African American since 1913.