Professor Randolph McLaughlin speaks to NBC regarding the Ku Klux Klan Act
February 17, 2021
The Ku Klux Klan Act remained virtually forgotten for about 100 years until the 1980s, when attorney Randolph McLaughlin rediscovered it and used it in a federal civil lawsuit brought by five Black women against the Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Four of the women were injured when Klansmen drove through a Black neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, firing shotguns after burning a wooden cross. The fifth was hit by flying glass. Riots broke out as a result, and though the Klansmen were charged, two were acquitted and a third served a brief sentence. In 1982, McLaughlin won an award of $535,000 for the women.
Now, nearly 40 years later, McLaughlin, now a Haub Law professor, says the act is more valuable than ever.
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