Word: klan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is the second in a series. The next installment will have anecdotes about Klan meetings, Wallace rallies, and other Southern phenomena...
This summer's court session in Alabama saw two major trials, each illustrating one phase of the fight against Freedom of Choice. The first, held in early August, was mainly valuable as a theatrical production. The name of the suit--The United States of America vs. The United Klans of America--hinted what kind of an affair it would be. An inexperienced Justice Department lawyer brought a parade of 50 residents of Crenshaw County, Ala., to the stand and had them tell what the Klan had been doing to keep Freedom of Choice from working in the county's schools...
...evidence was juicy. Black parents told of cross-burnings, huge KKK's painted on their houses, midnight Klan rallies, and assorted other harrassments designed to keep black kids out of white schools. A few reluctant white witnesses, appearing under Federal subpoena, grudgingly admitted that the white citizens of Crenshaw County had circulated a petition to enforce an economic boycott against all black families who integrated the schools...
...Dement, a sometimes-liberal lawyer with a hound-dawg face, cross-examined each of the black witnesses, always beginning with the question, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" His defense case was as straightforward as it was absurd, consisting of character-witness testimony from assorted Klan members...
That trial turned out all right. The judge ordered an injunction prohibiting the Klan from giving the black people trouble. But even the Justice Department realized that this was a short-term victory, and near the end of August Federal lawyers launched a massive court battle against the whole Freedom of Choice system...