WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Beulah Mae Donald

0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:06.400
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and

0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:11.360
<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and this is short stuff. So here we go. Yeah,

0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.360
<v Speaker 1>short stuff, terrible, awful, sad story with a bit of

0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.560
<v Speaker 1>a silver lining on it. Have you have you heard

0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.680
<v Speaker 1>of Bula May Donald? I had not. I had neither.

0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.760
<v Speaker 1>Actually I found this article on how stuff works by

0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.000
<v Speaker 1>John Donovan, uh, and it was very eye opening. Um

0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:31.800
<v Speaker 1>Beulah May Donald was a woman who lived in Alabama

0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.680
<v Speaker 1>who is well known for having taken on the clan

0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.199
<v Speaker 1>in one she basically sued the clan and ended up

0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:46.080
<v Speaker 1>disassembling at least a significant portion of the clan operating

0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.960
<v Speaker 1>in the South at the time. Right, And this was

0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.680
<v Speaker 1>not in the nineteen fifties or sixties. This on theies.

0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.600
<v Speaker 1>And it's a very shocking story, so you know, trigger

0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.640
<v Speaker 1>warnings about But she got the news when her son,

0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.800
<v Speaker 1>Michael did not come home. He was I believe, the

0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 1>youngest of seven kids. And the next morning got a

0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.600
<v Speaker 1>call that said, hey, they found her son's wallet, and

0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.120
<v Speaker 1>she thought that might be good news, that may he

0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.120
<v Speaker 1>may be out there somewhere, but they said no, Um,

0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.400
<v Speaker 1>he was killed and he was murdered at the age

0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.399
<v Speaker 1>of nineteen, beaten with a tree limb, his throat cut

0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.960
<v Speaker 1>and had a noose tied around his neck, and after

0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.480
<v Speaker 1>he died, his body was pulled up into a tree

0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.760
<v Speaker 1>and hanged there just a few blocks from his house. Um,

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.520
<v Speaker 1>the first lynching in the United States, I believe for

0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.480
<v Speaker 1>about twenty years. Yeah, I mean that qualifies as the

0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.560
<v Speaker 1>lynching and this one right, so America's moved on from

0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.480
<v Speaker 1>lynch ings, and this just shocked the conscience of the

0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.520
<v Speaker 1>of the entire country, like it made national news. It

0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.400
<v Speaker 1>was a really big deal. Um, and a Bulah May

0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.400
<v Speaker 1>followed in the footsteps of Mami Till and had the

0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.920
<v Speaker 1>casket kept open for the world to see. Really drive

0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.280
<v Speaker 1>home like this. This just happened like this really happened

0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.280
<v Speaker 1>it and UM, very quickly the police zeroed in on

0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.600
<v Speaker 1>the Ku Klux Klan, and the clan at the time

0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.800
<v Speaker 1>was um nothing like they were, you know, twenty years before,

0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.200
<v Speaker 1>but they were still active and in Alabama, there was

0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.480
<v Speaker 1>a particularly violent chapter of the clan, the United Clans

0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.200
<v Speaker 1>of America. And it just so happened that across the

0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:30.240
<v Speaker 1>street from where Michael Donald's body was hanging. Uh, members

0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.120
<v Speaker 1>of the United Clans of America were watching the police

0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.119
<v Speaker 1>take the body down, and then later on that night

0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:41.360
<v Speaker 1>a cross was burned into the courthouse lawn in Mobile County.

0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.320
<v Speaker 1>This is all this all happened in Mobile, Alabama, so

0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.560
<v Speaker 1>they knew it was the clan, and yet the police

0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:51.000
<v Speaker 1>were not exactly um, super efficient in bringing the clan

0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.560
<v Speaker 1>to justice in Alabama at this time. Yeah, I think

0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.280
<v Speaker 1>that's probably the kindest way you can say that to

0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:02.640
<v Speaker 1>two years to get any kind of chrome old justice. Um.

0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.320
<v Speaker 1>I believe that if it had not been for Beula

0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.080
<v Speaker 1>May Donald causing such a ruckus, it probably would have

0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.119
<v Speaker 1>been swept under the rug and gone away without any

0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.880
<v Speaker 1>kind of convictions. But she Um kept stirring the pot

0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.200
<v Speaker 1>and kept advocating for more police work. Um the police.

0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.240
<v Speaker 1>At one point, had Um suggested that her son's death

0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.800
<v Speaker 1>was the result of a drug deal gone bad, because

0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:32.160
<v Speaker 1>that's what yeah, exactly right. So that of course further

0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>and since her and that and since you know, more

0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.280
<v Speaker 1>people in the country to get on board, and once

0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:41.960
<v Speaker 1>you've got Jesse Jackson and the Bullhorn uh squad going,

0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.280
<v Speaker 1>then you better take some action because it's just not

0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.520
<v Speaker 1>gonna go away like you wanted to know. And it

0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.920
<v Speaker 1>was the police mirroring her son's name. That that was,

0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.960
<v Speaker 1>she said, what drove her this whole time, absolutely, even

0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.120
<v Speaker 1>even beyond the murder, it was it was that they

0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.880
<v Speaker 1>they characterized her on as a drug dealer, drug user.

0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.720
<v Speaker 1>Even she she invited the police to come searches room.

0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.520
<v Speaker 1>They searches room, they found nothing, and that just set

0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.680
<v Speaker 1>her off on this path. She also had a friend

0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.200
<v Speaker 1>and a newly appointed or elected I can't remember, district

0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.440
<v Speaker 1>attorney who got the FBI involved, And once the FBI

0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.880
<v Speaker 1>finally got involved in the local police were kind of

0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:25.360
<v Speaker 1>pushed to the background. Uh. Two men were arrested UM

0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.760
<v Speaker 1>a guy named Henry Hayes and another guy named James

0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:35.240
<v Speaker 1>Tiger Knowles twenty six and seventeen, respectively, and they were convicted.

0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.880
<v Speaker 1>They were tried and convicted of killing Michael Donald um

0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.160
<v Speaker 1>And and the whole thing, it turned out was was

0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.599
<v Speaker 1>created were spurred on by the clan's anger at a

0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.679
<v Speaker 1>local jury um to have failed to convict a black

0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:51.680
<v Speaker 1>man for the murder of a white policeman, so they

0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.920
<v Speaker 1>decided to even things by finding a random, hapless, nineteen

0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:57.919
<v Speaker 1>year old man who happened to be walking down the

0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.520
<v Speaker 1>street um at the wrong time. Well, it was strictly

0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.320
<v Speaker 1>a case of the wrong place at the wrong time,

0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.839
<v Speaker 1>and that's what led to the murder of Michael Donald. Uh,

0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.800
<v Speaker 1>that's right. He believe Hayes will sentenced to death. No,

0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.400
<v Speaker 1>also sentenced to life in prison. And we're going to

0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.800
<v Speaker 1>take a break because that is not the end of

0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:42.480
<v Speaker 1>this story. UM. It gets better from here, all right.

0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.039
<v Speaker 1>So we promised a silver lining and uh, you know,

0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.440
<v Speaker 1>of course, when something like this happens, it's a tragedy

0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.320
<v Speaker 1>that can't be undone. But Bulamay was not finished with

0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.920
<v Speaker 1>the clan and decided, you know what I'm gonna do.

0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.880
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna sue him. I'm gonna take them to civil trial.

0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.880
<v Speaker 1>I don't think this had ever been and done. This

0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:05.560
<v Speaker 1>was in UM other planeiffs jumped on board and they

0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:10.800
<v Speaker 1>sought compensation for UM. What they said was basically a

0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.720
<v Speaker 1>right to live free and free from being intimidated and

0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:19.320
<v Speaker 1>harassed and physically harmed and killed because the clan is

0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.760
<v Speaker 1>still in operation, because we're black citizens of the United States.

0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.839
<v Speaker 1>And I'm sure at first they probably thought like this

0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.160
<v Speaker 1>lawsuits going nowhere, but that was not the case. Knowing

0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.760
<v Speaker 1>the lawsuit was helped out by a number of people,

0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:37.640
<v Speaker 1>including the Southern Poverty Law Centers founder Morris D's and UM.

0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:40.880
<v Speaker 1>In that that civil suit, like you were saying, they

0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.400
<v Speaker 1>basically alleged that the clan as an organization was trying

0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:49.240
<v Speaker 1>to to deprive black citizens throughout Alabama from some of

0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:54.919
<v Speaker 1>their basic constitutional rights by intimidating them, by murdering black

0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:59.080
<v Speaker 1>people to to use as an intimidation tactic, UM and

0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.520
<v Speaker 1>in doing that, by depriving them of their rights. They

0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.760
<v Speaker 1>had like actually a really strong lawsuit. The thing that

0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.080
<v Speaker 1>made it unusual, well, one they were suing the clan,

0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.120
<v Speaker 1>but two they were coming at the clan as an organization.

0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.640
<v Speaker 1>So in the same way that like if you work

0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.320
<v Speaker 1>at McDonald's and you don't like the looks of one

0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.560
<v Speaker 1>of your customers and you throw hot fried grease in

0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.440
<v Speaker 1>their face, it's not just on you. McDonald's is culpable too.

0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.440
<v Speaker 1>They hired you. You're a representative of their corporation, Like

0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.680
<v Speaker 1>they're on the hook too. That's how they were trying

0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.960
<v Speaker 1>to sue the clan. These weren't just clan members. They

0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.600
<v Speaker 1>were definitely clan members that did this, but the clan

0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:39.280
<v Speaker 1>as a whole was being sued because the organization encouraged

0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:44.280
<v Speaker 1>this kind of behavior, if not that particular act specifically. Yeah,

0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:49.280
<v Speaker 1>and so Hayes and and Knowles were obviously convicted for

0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.320
<v Speaker 1>the crime named in the suit, but more people were

0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.880
<v Speaker 1>dragged into this. UM. Hayes's father, Benny Jack Hayes, he

0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.360
<v Speaker 1>was an official, pretty high ranking one in the clan.

0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.160
<v Speaker 1>A man by the name of Frank Cox, and another

0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.480
<v Speaker 1>clan member who uh supposedly supplies supplied the rope used

0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.080
<v Speaker 1>for the hanging. That was Frank Cox. Yeah, ok oh,

0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.680
<v Speaker 1>that was Cox. Okay um so inn. In February of

0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.040
<v Speaker 1>that year, a jury in all white jury, mind you

0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.280
<v Speaker 1>h in the U. S. District Court the Southern District

0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.480
<v Speaker 1>of Alabama, UM awarded Beulah Maydonald and the other plaintiff

0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.600
<v Speaker 1>seven million bucks, which is about fifteen to seventeen million

0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:33.520
<v Speaker 1>dollars today. And that was a real settlement, Like she

0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:38.880
<v Speaker 1>basically uh was handed the keys to their headquarters and

0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.680
<v Speaker 1>she sold it for money. Yeah, the clan did not

0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:46.040
<v Speaker 1>have sixteen million in today's dollars to hand us anybody. Again,

0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.360
<v Speaker 1>they were on the wayne. So this bankrupted the clan. UM.

0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:55.520
<v Speaker 1>Beulah Maydonald's lawsuit bankrupted the the United Clans. Um again

0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.160
<v Speaker 1>this really violent group and this this was this group

0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.600
<v Speaker 1>in particular, was they responsible for the Sixteenth Street Baptist

0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:06.000
<v Speaker 1>Church bombing. They murdered Viola Louso, the civil rights activist

0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.520
<v Speaker 1>at Selma. They beat freedom writers in Birmingham. This group

0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:13.520
<v Speaker 1>really excelled at being pieces of human garbage. And she

0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.480
<v Speaker 1>disassembled their group. She she bankrupted them. But even better, chuck,

0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.800
<v Speaker 1>even better than that. Because of evidence that was presented

0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.120
<v Speaker 1>at the civil trial, Jack Hayes and Frank Cox were

0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.920
<v Speaker 1>also indicted as well, along with Knowls and the younger

0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.559
<v Speaker 1>Henry Hayes, who had already been convicted. That's right, Uh,

0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.360
<v Speaker 1>and it doed. It did not end well for any

0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.520
<v Speaker 1>of them. Uh. Henry Hayes, who actually committed the murder,

0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.880
<v Speaker 1>Um died by way of electric chair. Even though Beula May,

0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.720
<v Speaker 1>who was a devout I believe Baptist, was against the

0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:50.040
<v Speaker 1>death penalty and was not in favor of the man

0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.760
<v Speaker 1>who killed her son dying in the electric chair. Uh.

0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.360
<v Speaker 1>He was forty two years old. I think it was

0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.560
<v Speaker 1>the very first execution of a white person for crimes

0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.640
<v Speaker 1>against a black person in more than eighty years in

0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.000
<v Speaker 1>the State of Alabama. Benny Jack Hayes, the father Um,

0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.440
<v Speaker 1>he was indicted to but he died before his trial

0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.640
<v Speaker 1>was completed. He was never sentenced. But Frank Cox, the

0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.160
<v Speaker 1>guy who supplied the rope, he was found guilty and

0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.160
<v Speaker 1>sentenced to ninety nine years in prison. So all these

0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.760
<v Speaker 1>guys who basically decided to do this like got like

0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.760
<v Speaker 1>real justice in Alabama. Again, like it's nine eighty one,

0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.480
<v Speaker 1>but it's still eighty one in Alabama. And the an

0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:33.120
<v Speaker 1>all white jury jury favor found in favor of Beulah

0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.400
<v Speaker 1>may and her Um her lawsuit. And then when after

0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.440
<v Speaker 1>these other guys too, it was about as beautiful an

0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.199
<v Speaker 1>outcome as you could hope for from some despicable act

0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.920
<v Speaker 1>like this. Absolutely knowles, if you're wondering the other young man,

0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.280
<v Speaker 1>I believe he, like you said, he was seventeen at

0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:54.520
<v Speaker 1>the time of the murder. Um was very seemingly remorseful.

0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.600
<v Speaker 1>At the civil trial. Um apologized in tears to Beulah

0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.640
<v Speaker 1>May Uh testify against the other guys, and but he

0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:03.679
<v Speaker 1>still went to prison for quite a long time. He

0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.160
<v Speaker 1>was just released in Yeah, I think around twenty five

0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.880
<v Speaker 1>years in prison is what he did. Um and Beulah

0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.920
<v Speaker 1>May throughout like even at their their criminal trials, she

0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.000
<v Speaker 1>she said that they she forgave both of them, She

0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.559
<v Speaker 1>forgave them all. It was again the thing that drove

0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.920
<v Speaker 1>her was clearing her son's name, that this was not

0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.200
<v Speaker 1>a drug deal. This was the clan that did this

0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.680
<v Speaker 1>and her son had it was totally innocent. Um. And

0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.839
<v Speaker 1>as a matter of fact, Herndon Avenue, where Michael's body

0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.920
<v Speaker 1>was found hanging from a tree, was renamed in his honor. Yeah,

0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:39.760
<v Speaker 1>and if you want to know more about it, CN

0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.960
<v Speaker 1>ended a four part series called The People Versus the

0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.720
<v Speaker 1>Claim The Untold story of Beulah May Donald, which seems

0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.160
<v Speaker 1>work worth checking out. Yeah. And Beulah May herself passed

0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.319
<v Speaker 1>away at sixty seven, um, sadly only about a year

0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.600
<v Speaker 1>and a half after the verdict. But she was alive

0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.360
<v Speaker 1>during the verdict. And I think that was a big deal. Yeah,

0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.880
<v Speaker 1>for sure. Uh So I think that's it. That's the

0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.400
<v Speaker 1>story of Bula Maydonald taking on the clan and everybody's

0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:12.079
<v Speaker 1>short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a

0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.480
<v Speaker 1>production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio,

0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.800
<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.880
<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows. H