MICHAEL DONALD

[Written by: Gabriel Scott]

The picture you see here is a bit disturbing for some people, if not everybody, but it goes to show that even after Slavery, The Civil Rights Movement and The Black Power Movement, racism and bigotry was and still is very imminent in America. This is 19 yr. old, Michael Donald, and he was a random victim of a violent, racist act that took place in March of 1981 in Mobile, Alabama. While walking home, he was kidnapped and forced inside of a vehicle by two Klansmen. They drove to an isolated grassy area where they beat and strangled him. Once he was dead, his throat was slit three times and his body was hung from a tree. Eventually, four men had been charged and convicted for Michael's death and his mother was given a $7 Million settlement. In contrast to the shooting deaths of African American males today that they call modern day lynchings, Michael Donald was lynched... LITERALLY! In terms of what African Americans have endured and experienced in this country, and the subject of a lynching, 1981 was not that long ago. We all have to be mindful of the racism that still exists. God forbid, we go back to those days.