Donald’s wallet was found in a dumpster, with an ID card inside identifying the body that hung on Herndon Avenue as Michael Anthony Donald. Word spread quickly through Mobile about the lynching as police arrived on the scene. That night, members of the same local Klan chapter also burned a cross on the lawn at the Mobile County courthouse. They then took his body back to a residential area of Mobile, where they hung his body from a tree. The two Klansmen, Henry Hays and James “Tiger” Knowles, then took Donald to a secluded location where they beat him, strangled him and cut his throat. It was a ruse – once Donald paused to help, one of the men produced a gun and forced Donald into their car. While out walking, Donald was stopped by two White men in a vehicle asking for directions. … My niece Vanessa said, ‘I need some cigarettes.’ Michael said, ‘I’ll walk up there and get ‘em.’” “We would always sit around on Friday night, ‘cause she lived right round the corner from my mom. “We were all gathered at my oldest sister’s house, Betty,” Perry recalls. He spent his last night alive with his family, watching a basketball game. Treated yearbook photo of Michael Donald.
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