Beulah Mae Donald

Beulah Mae Donald (October 10, 1920 – September 17, 1988) was an American who successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan in the 1980s after her son, Michael Donald, was lynched.

Early and personal life Donald was born on October 10, 1920, in DeLisle, Mississippi, to Marion Gregory, a worker in a saw mill, and Mary Gregory, a laundress. The youngest child in a family of eight children, she helped her family and was raised as a devout member of the Southern Baptist Convention. Donald moved to Mobile, Alabama, with her family, where she became pregnant in tenth grade and was forced to leave school and work in a hotel. By the 1960s, Donald had two children and was living as a divorced single mother.

Lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan

On March 21, 1981, Beulah's youngest child, Michael Donald, was lynched by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK); he was beaten and choked, had his throat slit, and was hanged from a tree. While some authorities initially argued that his killing was not connected to the KKK and may have instead been motivated by a drug deal or affair, Donald disagreed and set out to clear Michael's name. It targeted Unit 900 of the KKK, which was considered "one of the largest and most violent of the groups". Donald's attorney, Michael Figures, said that she represented "the rock on which all of this was ultimately built".

Ms. named Donald one of the 1987 women of the year and Essence gave her an award the following year. She received a Candace Award in 1988.

Death Donald died of natural causes on September 17, 1988, in a Mobile hospital.