KLANWATCH: Bringing the Ku Klux Klan to Justice

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated, 1991. First Edition, First Printing 1st Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. On March 20, 1981, Michael Donald, a nineteen-year-old technical student was randomly abducted, savagely murdered, and left hanging from the bough of an elm tree, in one of the most publicized race murders in recent times. Six years later his mother was awarded the record sum of $7 million in damages from the Ku Klux Klan. The power behind this landmark lawsuit was the Southern Poverty Law Center's Klanwatch Project. Since its founding in 1980, Klanwatch has successfully challenged the KKK in courtrooms throughout the United States. Using corporate law in pursuit of criminal justice, the organization has set out to virtually bankrupt the Klan out of business. More than a history, this is an in-depth account--harrowing, provocative, and at times grimly comic--of the ingenious strategies Klanwatch has used to fight the KKK, often succeeding where even the police and the FBI have failed. It is also the story of the great personal courage, skill, stamina, and sheer luck that have gone into so much of Klanwatch's work. Finally, it offers an arresting portrait of the Ku Klux Klan itself, a bizarre and terrifying coalition that has been a destructive social and political force in the South for over a century and remains a menacing presence on the American landscape. Fine, in fine, mylar-protected dust jacket. CC