Word: cullman
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...October 1, the Sunday night before the trial date in Cullman, approximately 25 blacks marched from Decatur to Cullman--a 35-mile journey--while 3,000 whites stood on the side of the road, teasing and shouting obscenities. Although no one was physically hurt in the short exchange of words that occurred, the ugly tone...
...FIRST WEEK of September, Mims asked the court for a change of venue because of substantial publicity in both Morgan County and Huntsville's Madison County. The judge agreed, but he chose Cullman County as "the nearest adjacent county without prejudice." Less than 1% of the total voting population is black in Cullman County. Because of hiring practices, the small city of Cullman has historically kept blacks out. This, then, would be the "unprejudiced" site of Tommy Lee Hines' trial...
...trial, which lasted 9 full court days, involved the first rape. Mims' assistant, a lawyer from the NAACP, George E. Hairston of New York, came into a head-on confrontation with Cullman County Judge Jack Riley. Judge Riley told Hairston at one point in the trial, "We may yet have to send you to law school." At times during the trial, Riley would order Hairston to remained confined to his seat and not move. Riley also overruled every objection that Mims and Hairston made, and had the jury under a suppression motion--meaning that the all-white jury received information...
Defense Attorney Henry Sanders Mims asked that the trial be moved to a less hostile place. The alternative, Cullman, 30 miles away, was not much of an improvement. Only about 1% of its 14,200 people are black, so it was no surprise that the nine men and three women selected for the jury were all white. On the eve of the trial, Hines supporters began a protest march from Decatur to Cullman. They were stopped at the Cullman town line by police and jeering Klansmen. Twenty-three blacks were arrested...
...trial proceeded, the threat of violence was never far. Two bomb scares emptied the courtroom, and police confiscated several automatic weapons. Defense lawyers monitored CB radio conversations that called for the jury to "hang the nigger." Cullman Mayor Bob McGluckin vowed that the authorities could maintain order. Said he: "We have a peaceful, law-abiding community. We do not like outside people coming in and exerting a detrimental influence...