Judge Edward Aaron (January 24, 1923 – March 11, 1991) was an African American handyman in Birmingham, Alabama , who was abducted by seven members of Asa Earl Carter 's independent Ku Klux Klan group on Labor Day , September 2, 1957.[1]
Background
Aaron, or Arone, was born in Barbour County , Alabama on January 24, 1923, and grew up in Batesville .[2]
Aaron, who was mildly developmentally disabled, was abducted by Klan members who beat him with an iron bar, carved the letters "KKK" into his chest, castrated him with a razor, and poured turpentine on his wounds. They then put him in the trunk of a car and drove him away from the scene, finally dumping him near a creek.[3] Police found Aaron, near death from blood loss, and took him to Hillman Hospital .[4]
Two of the six Klansmen turned state's evidence and received five-year sentences in exchange for testifying against the other four men. Those four were convicted and received 20-year sentences at Kilby Prison . However, when George Wallace became governor of Alabama, he pardoned the four convicted men, but not the two who had turned state's evidence, with no explanation.[1] [5]
The 1988 film Mississippi Burning references the story of Judge Aaron, but gives his name as Homer Wilkes.[6] He was interviewed about the abduction and attack in 1965.[7]
Aaron died on March 11, 1991, in Dayton, Ohio, aged 68.[8] [9]
See also
Notes
^ a b W. Edward Harris (January 1, 2004). Miracle in Birmingham: A Civil Rights Memoir, 1954–1965 . Stonework Press. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-0-9638864-7-7 . Retrieved July 8, 2013 .
^ "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947" . Ancestry . Retrieved May 30, 2023 .
^ Harris, W. Edward (2004). Miracle in Birmingham: A Civil Rights Memoir, 1954–1965 . Stonework Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780963886477 .
^ Eskew, Glenn T. But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle , Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press , 1997. (p.115)
^ "The Birmingham Church Bombing: Bombingham" . Archived from the original on June 1, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2013 .
^ "Mississippi Burning Quote" . IMDb .
^ "User Clip: Judge Edward Aaron | C-SPAN.org" . www.c-span.org . Retrieved September 12, 2021 .
^ "Obituary" . Dayton Daily News . March 17, 1991. Retrieved May 30, 2023 .
^ "U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019" . Ancestry . Retrieved May 30, 2023 .
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