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The Lynching

the Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan
Aug 25, 2016pokano rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Interesting book about the lawsuit that killed the KKK, brought by Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Group. The lawsuit was a civil case arising out of the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald by KKK members. Dees and his SPL assistants obtained from an Alabama jury a $7 million verdict, which, of course, the Klan could not pay. Surprisingly, Dees started out as a segregationist and even campaigned for George Wallace early in his career. Although several reviewers have complained that the book is really a history of the civil rights movement, it is hardly that. The book does go into background material to explain the KKK's status before and after the lynching and the toxic racial atmosphere that led to it (including George Wallace's part in promoting that atmosphere), but does not go into the entire civil rights movement. The writing is not as good as the best personal journalists', and is reminiscent of a news writer trying to meet a deadline.