Judge Edward Aaron |
---|
Born | (1923-01-24)January 24, 1923
|
---|
Died | March 11, 1991(1991-03-11) (aged 68)
|
---|
Occupation | Handyman |
---|
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.
Background
Aaron, or Arone, was born in Barbour County, Alabama on January 24, 1923 and grew up in Batesville.
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. Police found Aaron, near death from blood loss, and took him to Hillman Hospital.
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.
The 1988 film Mississippi Burning references the story of Judge Aaron, but gives his name as Homer Wilkes. He was interviewed about the abduction and attack in 1965.
Aaron died on March 11, 1991 in Dayton, Ohio, aged 68.
See also
|
---|
|
---|
Before 1900 | |
---|
1900–1940 | |
---|
After 1940 | |
---|
|
|
Multiple victims |
---|
- Death of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith) (1844)
- Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre (1858)
- Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX (1862)
- New York City draft riots (1863)
- Detroit race riot (1863)
- ? Lachenais and four others (1863)
- Fort Pillow, TN, massacre (1864)
- Plummer Gang (1864)
- Memphis massacre (1866)
- Gallatin County, KY, race riot (1866)
- New Orleans massacre of 1866
- Reno Brothers Gang (1868)
- Camilla, GA, massacre (1868)
- Steve Long and two half-brothers (1868)
- Pulaski, TN, riot (1868)
- Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman (1868)
- Opelousas, LA, massacre (1868)
- Bear River City riot (1868)
- Chinese massacre of 1871
- Meridian, MS, race riot (1871)
- Colfax, LA, massacre (1873)
- Election riot of 1874 (AL)
- Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya (1874)
- Benjamin and Mollie French (1876)
- Ellenton, SC, riot (1876)
- Hamburg, SC, massacre (1876)
- Thibodeax, LA, massacre (1878)
- Mart and Tom Horrell (1878)
- Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer (1879)
- Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken (1879)
- T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey (1880)
- New Orleans 1891 lynchings (1891)
- Ruggles Brothers (CA) (1892)
- Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN) (1892)
- Porter and Spencer (MS) (1897)
- Phoenix, SC, election riot (1898)
- Wilmington, NC, insurrection (1898)
- Julia and Frazier Baker (1898)
- Pana, IL, riot (1899)
- Watkinsville lynching (1905)
- Atlanta race riot (1906)
- Kemper County, MS (1906)
- Walker family (1908)
- Springfield race riot of 1908
- Slocum, TX, massacre (1910)
- Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911)
- Harris County, GA, lynchings (1912)
- Newberry, FL, lynchings (1916)
- East St. Louis, IL, riots (1917)
- Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA (1918)
- Jenkins County, GA, riot (1919)
- Longview, TX, race riot (1919)
- Elaine, AR, race riot (1919)
- Omaha race riot of 1919
- Knoxville riot of 1919
- Red Summer (1919)
- Duluth, MN, lynchings (1920)
- Ocoee, FL, massacre (1920)
- Tulsa race massacre (1921)
- Perry, FL, race riot (1922)
- Rosewood, FL, massacre (1923)
- Jim and Mark Fox (1927)
- Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930)
- Tate County, MS (1932)
- Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (1933)
- Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels (1937)
- Beaumont, TX, Race Riot (1943)
- O'Day Short, wife, and two children (1945)
- Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings (1946)
- Harry and Harriette Moore (1952)
- Anniston, AL (1961)
- Freedom Summer Murders (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) (1964)
- Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore (1964)
|
|
|