cover image Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America

Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America

B.J. Hollars. Univ. of Alabama, $24.95 (248p) ISBN 978-0-8173-1753-9

In 1981, Michael Donald, a 19-year-old black man from Mobile, Alabama, was lynched by two members of the KKK, the killers making 13 loops as they tightened the rope around his neck. Through newspaper accounts and copious interviews, Hollars has wrought a highly stylized%E2%80%94and frequently jumbled%E2%80%94 account of the murder and its aftermath, with discussions of two other homicides (the 1979 shooting of a Birmingham police officer, and the 1933 murder of a white girl in Tuscaloosa)) adds more confusion than perspective. However, the substantive central narrative justifies the effort of following these twists and turns. After years of confessions, trials, and appeals, one of Donald's killers died in the electric chair in 1997, becoming the first white man in 84 years to be executed for the murder of a black person. As a result of the civil proceedings, the United Klans of America, one of the most violent sects of the KKK, was ordered to pay seven million dollars in damages to Donald's mother, and the verdict bankrupted the organization. Hollars compares Donald's legacy to those of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, James Meredith, and Martin Luther King Jr. Though this might be a stretch, Donald's life and death are certainly worth remembering. (Sept.)