The Lynching

April 18, 2016
The prolific Leamer (The Price of Justice)swiftly traces the entwined lives of three Alabama menâcivil rights lawyer Morris Dees, Gov. George Wallace, and top Klansman Robert Sheltonâduring and following the civil rights movement. Bookending this tripartite biography are two legal cases concerning the 1981 murder of Michael Donald, a young black man lynched by United Klans of America (UKA) members in Mobile County. The ensuing investigation and criminal trial reveal lingering sympathies for white supremacy. During Shelton's time as imperial wizard, Klansmen had attacked Freedom Riders in collusion with local cops and bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church. Leamer details Shelton's privileged relationship with Governor Wallace, who rode populist racism into the state's executive office and ran for president, showing how Wallace stoked rage against integration while carefully distancing himself from racist violence. As a student, Dees worked for Wallace's gubernatorial campaign and had even defended a Klansman in court. By the time he files a civil lawsuit against Shelton and the UKA over Donald's death, intending to bankrupt the organization, Dees is a changed man. Leamer's slice of American civil rights history prefers courtrooms and the Capitol to churches and the streets, with Deesâa cunning and tenacious lawyer doing dangerously unpopular workâplaying hero. This well-written, suspense-filled book vividly evokes themes from the ugly, not-so-distant past. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.

April 15, 2016

In 1981, members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered African American Michael Donald in Mobile, AL. Their prosecution and a subsequent civil lawsuit dealt a fatal blow to the largest U.S. Klan organization and effectively ended the protected status of the group and its members in Alabama. Leamer (The Price of Justice; The Kennedy Women) explores the tragic murder, drawing sad and telling details from interviews and court records. The middle section of the book looks back at the lives and careers of the men who would become adversaries in the courtroom: Morris Dees, the country lawyer from Montgomery who would emerge as an unlikely crusader for civil rights and who founded the influential Southern Poverty Law Center; and Robert Shelton, the leader of the United Klans of America. Leamer also traces the career of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, whose policies enabled the Klan to operate freely in the state for decades. The book closes with a dramatic account of the court case that would officially bankrupt the Klan. VERDICT Leamer skillfully weaves the facts of a single case with the story of the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan. Recommended for all readers interested in American history. [See Prepub Alert, 12/7/15.]--Nicholas Graham, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016

In 1981, when a mostly black jury failed to reach a verdict regarding a black man's killing of a white man, klansmen Henry Hays and James Knowles sought a black man to punish, ultimately leaving 19-year-old Michael Donald hanging on a lamppost. Hays was tried and sentenced to death, and Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, acted on behalf of Donald's mother to file a civil suit against both the local Klan and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2016
A powerful account of how a Ku Klux Klan-sanctioned lynching in Mobile, Alabama, paved the way for legal victories against such hate groups.Prolific journalist Leamer (The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, 2013, etc.) ably re-creates this ugly flash point within a sprawling narrative about race relations and white supremacy's gradual weakening, noting that even after the victories and bitterness of the 1960s, "the Klan had what appeared to be a legitimate place in Mobile life." In 1981, young Klansmen randomly murdered 19-year-old African-American Michael Donald in retaliation for an unrelated shooting. After an initially botched investigation, the FBI and Justice Department oversaw the killers' 1983 convictions. The prosecution attracted the attention of Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, who then represented Donald's family in a civil action against the United Klans of America, whose leaders first regarded it as "an aggravating, foolish lawsuit." In the middle third of the book, Leamer uses Dees' life as a lens, his growing devotion to legal activism contrasting with the massive resistance to civil rights embodied by his one-time mentor George Wallace, another key figure. While Dees was revolted by the Klan's violence, writes the author, "for Wallace...race was simply a fantastic political issue that he intended to parlay as far as it would go." By the time of the Donald murder, the Klan seemed diminished, yet Dees still faced threats as he built a case. Leamer develops incremental, disturbing portraits of the Klansmen, terming them "less a militant militia of white supremacist storm troopers than...a motley, disparate assembly of marginal men." Concluding with a well-paced courtroom drama, the author captures the climactic improbability of Dees' success, which bankrupted the UKA. Leamer confidently untangles the legal and social aspects of the story, showing how the South has grappled with the horrific legacy Donald's murder represents. An engrossing true-crime narrative and a pertinent reminder of the consequences of organized hatred.

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March 15, 2016
Prolific journalist Leamer takes on the 1981 murder and lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama. Leamer is workmanlike in telling the story of how federal agents and others closed in on the murderers, securing life sentences (later changed to death) against Klansmen Henry Hays and James Tiger Knowles. But he is at his best in recounting attorney Morris Dees' efforts to destroy the United Klans of America and its leader Robert Shelton. It's like an episode of Law and Order with very high stakes. Dees and his organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center, used this trial to win that overwhelming fight. The writing is solid, the research (especially the interviews) imposing, the case important, and the book's unquestionable hero, Dees, emerges powerfully. A great deal more will be written about Dees and his role in civil rights in the future, but this is a very good place to start.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)