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Short Stuff: Beulah Mae Donald · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this is short stuff. So here we go. Yeah,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: short stuff, terrible, awful, sad story with a bit of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a silver lining on it. Have you have you heard
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of Bula May Donald? I had not. I had neither.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Actually I found this article on how stuff works by
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: John Donovan, uh, and it was very eye opening. Um
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Beulah May Donald was a woman who lived in Alabama
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: who is well known for having taken on the clan
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in one she basically sued the clan and ended up
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: disassembling at least a significant portion of the clan operating
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in the South at the time. Right, And this was
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: not in the nineteen fifties or sixties. This on theies.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And it's a very shocking story, so you know, trigger
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: warnings about But she got the news when her son,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Michael did not come home. He was I believe, the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: youngest of seven kids. And the next morning got a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: call that said, hey, they found her son's wallet, and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: she thought that might be good news, that may he
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: may be out there somewhere, but they said no, Um,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: he was killed and he was murdered at the age
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: of nineteen, beaten with a tree limb, his throat cut
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and had a noose tied around his neck, and after
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: he died, his body was pulled up into a tree
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and hanged there just a few blocks from his house. Um,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the first lynching in the United States, I believe for
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: about twenty years. Yeah, I mean that qualifies as the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: lynching and this one right, so America's moved on from
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: lynch ings, and this just shocked the conscience of the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of the entire country, like it made national news. It
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was a really big deal. Um, and a Bulah May
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: followed in the footsteps of Mami Till and had the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: casket kept open for the world to see. Really drive
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: home like this. This just happened like this really happened
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: it and UM, very quickly the police zeroed in on
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the Ku Klux Klan, and the clan at the time
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was um nothing like they were, you know, twenty years before,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: but they were still active and in Alabama, there was
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a particularly violent chapter of the clan, the United Clans
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of America. And it just so happened that across the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: street from where Michael Donald's body was hanging. Uh, members
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of the United Clans of America were watching the police
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: take the body down, and then later on that night
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a cross was burned into the courthouse lawn in Mobile County.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: This is all this all happened in Mobile, Alabama, so
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  Speaker 1: they knew it was the clan, and yet the police
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: were not exactly um, super efficient in bringing the clan
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: to justice in Alabama at this time. Yeah, I think
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that's probably the kindest way you can say that to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: two years to get any kind of chrome old justice. Um.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I believe that if it had not been for Beula
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: May Donald causing such a ruckus, it probably would have
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: been swept under the rug and gone away without any
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: kind of convictions. But she Um kept stirring the pot
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and kept advocating for more police work. Um the police.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: At one point, had Um suggested that her son's death
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was the result of a drug deal gone bad, because
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that's what yeah, exactly right. So that of course further
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and since her and that and since you know, more
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: people in the country to get on board, and once
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you've got Jesse Jackson and the Bullhorn uh squad going,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: then you better take some action because it's just not
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: gonna go away like you wanted to know. And it
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: was the police mirroring her son's name. That that was,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: she said, what drove her this whole time, absolutely, even
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: even beyond the murder, it was it was that they
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they characterized her on as a drug dealer, drug user.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Even she she invited the police to come searches room.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: They searches room, they found nothing, and that just set
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: her off on this path. She also had a friend
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and a newly appointed or elected I can't remember, district
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: attorney who got the FBI involved, And once the FBI
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: finally got involved in the local police were kind of
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: pushed to the background. Uh. Two men were arrested UM
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a guy named Henry Hayes and another guy named James
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Tiger Knowles twenty six and seventeen, respectively, and they were convicted.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: They were tried and convicted of killing Michael Donald um
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  Speaker 1: And and the whole thing, it turned out was was
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: created were spurred on by the clan's anger at a
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: local jury um to have failed to convict a black
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  Speaker 1: man for the murder of a white policeman, so they
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: decided to even things by finding a random, hapless, nineteen
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: year old man who happened to be walking down the
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  Speaker 1: street um at the wrong time. Well, it was strictly
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a case of the wrong place at the wrong time,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and that's what led to the murder of Michael Donald. Uh,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: that's right. He believe Hayes will sentenced to death. No,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: also sentenced to life in prison. And we're going to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: take a break because that is not the end of
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: this story. UM. It gets better from here, all right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: So we promised a silver lining and uh, you know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: of course, when something like this happens, it's a tragedy
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: that can't be undone. But Bulamay was not finished with
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the clan and decided, you know what I'm gonna do.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna sue him. I'm gonna take them to civil trial.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think this had ever been and done. This
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: was in UM other planeiffs jumped on board and they
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: sought compensation for UM. What they said was basically a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: right to live free and free from being intimidated and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: harassed and physically harmed and killed because the clan is
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: still in operation, because we're black citizens of the United States.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure at first they probably thought like this
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: lawsuits going nowhere, but that was not the case. Knowing
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the lawsuit was helped out by a number of people,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: including the Southern Poverty Law Centers founder Morris D's and UM.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: In that that civil suit, like you were saying, they
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: basically alleged that the clan as an organization was trying
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to to deprive black citizens throughout Alabama from some of
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: their basic constitutional rights by intimidating them, by murdering black
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: people to to use as an intimidation tactic, UM and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in doing that, by depriving them of their rights. They
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: had like actually a really strong lawsuit. The thing that
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: made it unusual, well, one they were suing the clan,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: but two they were coming at the clan as an organization.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: So in the same way that like if you work
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: at McDonald's and you don't like the looks of one
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of your customers and you throw hot fried grease in
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: their face, it's not just on you. McDonald's is culpable too.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: They hired you. You're a representative of their corporation, Like
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: they're on the hook too. That's how they were trying
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to sue the clan. These weren't just clan members. They
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: were definitely clan members that did this, but the clan
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: as a whole was being sued because the organization encouraged
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: this kind of behavior, if not that particular act specifically. Yeah,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and so Hayes and and Knowles were obviously convicted for
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the crime named in the suit, but more people were
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: dragged into this. UM. Hayes's father, Benny Jack Hayes, he
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: was an official, pretty high ranking one in the clan.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: A man by the name of Frank Cox, and another
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: clan member who uh supposedly supplies supplied the rope used
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for the hanging. That was Frank Cox. Yeah, ok oh,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that was Cox. Okay um so inn. In February of
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: that year, a jury in all white jury, mind you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: h in the U. S. District Court the Southern District
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: of Alabama, UM awarded Beulah Maydonald and the other plaintiff
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: seven million bucks, which is about fifteen to seventeen million
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: dollars today. And that was a real settlement, Like she
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: basically uh was handed the keys to their headquarters and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: she sold it for money. Yeah, the clan did not
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: have sixteen million in today's dollars to hand us anybody. Again,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: they were on the wayne. So this bankrupted the clan. UM.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Beulah Maydonald's lawsuit bankrupted the the United Clans. Um again
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: this really violent group and this this was this group
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: in particular, was they responsible for the Sixteenth Street Baptist
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Church bombing. They murdered Viola Louso, the civil rights activist
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: at Selma. They beat freedom writers in Birmingham. This group
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: really excelled at being pieces of human garbage. And she
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: disassembled their group. She she bankrupted them. But even better, chuck,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: even better than that. Because of evidence that was presented
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: at the civil trial, Jack Hayes and Frank Cox were
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: also indicted as well, along with Knowls and the younger
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Henry Hayes, who had already been convicted. That's right, Uh,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and it doed. It did not end well for any
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of them. Uh. Henry Hayes, who actually committed the murder,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Um died by way of electric chair. Even though Beula May,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: who was a devout I believe Baptist, was against the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: death penalty and was not in favor of the man
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: who killed her son dying in the electric chair. Uh.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: He was forty two years old. I think it was
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the very first execution of a white person for crimes
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: against a black person in more than eighty years in
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the State of Alabama. Benny Jack Hayes, the father Um,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: he was indicted to but he died before his trial
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was completed. He was never sentenced. But Frank Cox, the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: guy who supplied the rope, he was found guilty and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: sentenced to ninety nine years in prison. So all these
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: guys who basically decided to do this like got like
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: real justice in Alabama. Again, like it's nine eighty one,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: but it's still eighty one in Alabama. And the an
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: all white jury jury favor found in favor of Beulah
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: may and her Um her lawsuit. And then when after
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: these other guys too, it was about as beautiful an
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: outcome as you could hope for from some despicable act
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: like this. Absolutely knowles, if you're wondering the other young man,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I believe he, like you said, he was seventeen at
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the time of the murder. Um was very seemingly remorseful.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: At the civil trial. Um apologized in tears to Beulah
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: May Uh testify against the other guys, and but he
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: still went to prison for quite a long time. He
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: was just released in Yeah, I think around twenty five
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: years in prison is what he did. Um and Beulah
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: May throughout like even at their their criminal trials, she
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: she said that they she forgave both of them, She
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: forgave them all. It was again the thing that drove
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: her was clearing her son's name, that this was not
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a drug deal. This was the clan that did this
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and her son had it was totally innocent. Um. And
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, Herndon Avenue, where Michael's body
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: was found hanging from a tree, was renamed in his honor. Yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and if you want to know more about it, CN
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: ended a four part series called The People Versus the
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Claim The Untold story of Beulah May Donald, which seems
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: work worth checking out. Yeah. And Beulah May herself passed
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: away at sixty seven, um, sadly only about a year
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and a half after the verdict. But she was alive
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: during the verdict. And I think that was a big deal. Yeah,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: for sure. Uh So I think that's it. That's the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: story of Bula Maydonald taking on the clan and everybody's
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a
• 12:12
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• 12:15
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• 12:18
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