Beulah Mae Donald was born Oct. 10, 1920, in DeLisle, Mississippi, the daughter of Marion and Mary Greggory. She married David Donald as her second husband (ref., Notable Black American Women By Jessie Carney Smith).
AP
Published: September 20, 1988
LEAD: Beulah Mae Donald, who won a $7 million judgment against the Ku Klux Klan for the death of her son Michael in a beating, died of natural causes Saturday at a hospital in Mobile, according to the Mobile County Coroner, Leroy Riddick. She was 67 years old.
''She'll forever have a place in history as the woman who beat the Klan,'' said Morris Dees, who was the chief attorney for the family. The Donalds are black.
Mrs. Donald's son, Michael, was strangled and fatally beaten in Baldwin County and his body found hanging from a tree in a neighborhood in Mobile. Two Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in the case.
On Feb. 12, 1987, a jury awarded the family a $7 million judgment against the Klan.
The United Klans of America's national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, its only asset, was later signed over to the estate of Michael Donald and sold for an undisclosed amount. It had been appraised at $150,000 to $200,000.
''I just think she was a brave and courageous mother whose love for her son insured that he did not die in vain,'' said Mr. Dees, who is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.
Last December, Mrs. Donald was named one of Ms. Magazine's 1987 Women of the Year.
Shortly after receiving the honor, Mrs. Donald said she never sought revenge. 'I Wanted to Know'
''I wanted to know who all really killed my child,'' she said. ''I wasn't even thinking about the money. If I hadn't gotten a cent, it wouldn't have mattered. I wanted to know how and why they did it.''
Her son, who was 19, was kidnapped from a Mobile street in March 1981 and taken to a rural area where he was beaten and choked. His throat was cut and his body was hanged from a tree.
Henry Francis Hays has been sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair for Michael Donald's murder and James L. Knowles is serving a life sentence in a Federal prison. He pleaded guilty to violating Donald's civil rights. Both were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear Mr. Hays's appeal of his capital murder conviction in February.
In the same month a mistrial was declared in the trial of two alleged accomplices, Bennie Jack Hays and Benjamin Franklin Cox, after Bennie Hays collapsed in court.
Mrs. Donald's survivors include four daughters: Mary A. Houston of Jackson, Miss.; and Cecelia Perry, Cynthia Mitchell and Betty J. Wyatt, all of Mobile, and two sons, Stanley Donald of Biloxi, Miss., and Leo Donald of Detroit.
AP
Published: September 20, 1988
LEAD: Beulah Mae Donald, who won a $7 million judgment against the Ku Klux Klan for the death of her son Michael in a beating, died of natural causes Saturday at a hospital in Mobile, according to the Mobile County Coroner, Leroy Riddick. She was 67 years old.
''She'll forever have a place in history as the woman who beat the Klan,'' said Morris Dees, who was the chief attorney for the family. The Donalds are black.
Mrs. Donald's son, Michael, was strangled and fatally beaten in Baldwin County and his body found hanging from a tree in a neighborhood in Mobile. Two Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in the case.
On Feb. 12, 1987, a jury awarded the family a $7 million judgment against the Klan.
The United Klans of America's national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, its only asset, was later signed over to the estate of Michael Donald and sold for an undisclosed amount. It had been appraised at $150,000 to $200,000.
''I just think she was a brave and courageous mother whose love for her son insured that he did not die in vain,'' said Mr. Dees, who is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.
Last December, Mrs. Donald was named one of Ms. Magazine's 1987 Women of the Year.
Shortly after receiving the honor, Mrs. Donald said she never sought revenge. 'I Wanted to Know'
''I wanted to know who all really killed my child,'' she said. ''I wasn't even thinking about the money. If I hadn't gotten a cent, it wouldn't have mattered. I wanted to know how and why they did it.''
Her son, who was 19, was kidnapped from a Mobile street in March 1981 and taken to a rural area where he was beaten and choked. His throat was cut and his body was hanged from a tree.
Henry Francis Hays has been sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair for Michael Donald's murder and James L. Knowles is serving a life sentence in a Federal prison. He pleaded guilty to violating Donald's civil rights. Both were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear Mr. Hays's appeal of his capital murder conviction in February.
In the same month a mistrial was declared in the trial of two alleged accomplices, Bennie Jack Hays and Benjamin Franklin Cox, after Bennie Hays collapsed in court.
Mrs. Donald's survivors include four daughters: Mary A. Houston of Jackson, Miss.; and Cecelia Perry, Cynthia Mitchell and Betty J. Wyatt, all of Mobile, and two sons, Stanley Donald of Biloxi, Miss., and Leo Donald of Detroit.
Beulah Mae Donald was born Oct. 10, 1920, in DeLisle, Mississippi, the daughter of Marion and Mary Greggory. She married David Donald as her second husband (ref., Notable Black American Women By Jessie Carney Smith).
AP
Published: September 20, 1988
LEAD: Beulah Mae Donald, who won a $7 million judgment against the Ku Klux Klan for the death of her son Michael in a beating, died of natural causes Saturday at a hospital in Mobile, according to the Mobile County Coroner, Leroy Riddick. She was 67 years old.
''She'll forever have a place in history as the woman who beat the Klan,'' said Morris Dees, who was the chief attorney for the family. The Donalds are black.
Mrs. Donald's son, Michael, was strangled and fatally beaten in Baldwin County and his body found hanging from a tree in a neighborhood in Mobile. Two Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in the case.
On Feb. 12, 1987, a jury awarded the family a $7 million judgment against the Klan.
The United Klans of America's national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, its only asset, was later signed over to the estate of Michael Donald and sold for an undisclosed amount. It had been appraised at $150,000 to $200,000.
''I just think she was a brave and courageous mother whose love for her son insured that he did not die in vain,'' said Mr. Dees, who is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.
Last December, Mrs. Donald was named one of Ms. Magazine's 1987 Women of the Year.
Shortly after receiving the honor, Mrs. Donald said she never sought revenge. 'I Wanted to Know'
''I wanted to know who all really killed my child,'' she said. ''I wasn't even thinking about the money. If I hadn't gotten a cent, it wouldn't have mattered. I wanted to know how and why they did it.''
Her son, who was 19, was kidnapped from a Mobile street in March 1981 and taken to a rural area where he was beaten and choked. His throat was cut and his body was hanged from a tree.
Henry Francis Hays has been sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair for Michael Donald's murder and James L. Knowles is serving a life sentence in a Federal prison. He pleaded guilty to violating Donald's civil rights. Both were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear Mr. Hays's appeal of his capital murder conviction in February.
In the same month a mistrial was declared in the trial of two alleged accomplices, Bennie Jack Hays and Benjamin Franklin Cox, after Bennie Hays collapsed in court.
Mrs. Donald's survivors include four daughters: Mary A. Houston of Jackson, Miss.; and Cecelia Perry, Cynthia Mitchell and Betty J. Wyatt, all of Mobile, and two sons, Stanley Donald of Biloxi, Miss., and Leo Donald of Detroit.
AP
Published: September 20, 1988
LEAD: Beulah Mae Donald, who won a $7 million judgment against the Ku Klux Klan for the death of her son Michael in a beating, died of natural causes Saturday at a hospital in Mobile, according to the Mobile County Coroner, Leroy Riddick. She was 67 years old.
''She'll forever have a place in history as the woman who beat the Klan,'' said Morris Dees, who was the chief attorney for the family. The Donalds are black.
Mrs. Donald's son, Michael, was strangled and fatally beaten in Baldwin County and his body found hanging from a tree in a neighborhood in Mobile. Two Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted in the case.
On Feb. 12, 1987, a jury awarded the family a $7 million judgment against the Klan.
The United Klans of America's national headquarters building in Tuscaloosa, its only asset, was later signed over to the estate of Michael Donald and sold for an undisclosed amount. It had been appraised at $150,000 to $200,000.
''I just think she was a brave and courageous mother whose love for her son insured that he did not die in vain,'' said Mr. Dees, who is director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.
Last December, Mrs. Donald was named one of Ms. Magazine's 1987 Women of the Year.
Shortly after receiving the honor, Mrs. Donald said she never sought revenge. 'I Wanted to Know'
''I wanted to know who all really killed my child,'' she said. ''I wasn't even thinking about the money. If I hadn't gotten a cent, it wouldn't have mattered. I wanted to know how and why they did it.''
Her son, who was 19, was kidnapped from a Mobile street in March 1981 and taken to a rural area where he was beaten and choked. His throat was cut and his body was hanged from a tree.
Henry Francis Hays has been sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair for Michael Donald's murder and James L. Knowles is serving a life sentence in a Federal prison. He pleaded guilty to violating Donald's civil rights. Both were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear Mr. Hays's appeal of his capital murder conviction in February.
In the same month a mistrial was declared in the trial of two alleged accomplices, Bennie Jack Hays and Benjamin Franklin Cox, after Bennie Hays collapsed in court.
Mrs. Donald's survivors include four daughters: Mary A. Houston of Jackson, Miss.; and Cecelia Perry, Cynthia Mitchell and Betty J. Wyatt, all of Mobile, and two sons, Stanley Donald of Biloxi, Miss., and Leo Donald of Detroit.
