00:00:02.381 --> 00:00:03.214
- [Police] Police department, Thorton.

00:00:03.214 --> 00:00:04.372
- [Man] Yeah, can you
send police department

00:00:04.372 --> 00:00:06.093
9th and Douglas, people got shot.

00:00:06.093 --> 00:00:08.130
- Do you need ambulance?
- Yeah.

00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:09.307
There's been three shots fired

00:00:09.307 --> 00:00:10.440
in the last two or three minutes.

00:00:10.440 --> 00:00:12.150
Use caution, the parties are armed.

00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:13.410
He is very dangerous, dispatcher.

00:00:13.410 --> 00:00:16.440
He's an imperial wizard, more of psycho.

00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.190
- [Man] Three suspects apprehended.

00:00:19.770 --> 00:00:23.190
- [Narrator] April 19th, 1980.

00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.743
City of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

00:00:27.330 --> 00:00:30.750
Three Klansmen drove down East 9th Street

00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:35.340
and emptied two shotguns
at four elderly Black women

00:00:35.340 --> 00:00:37.590
standing on a street corner

00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:40.830
and a fifth Black woman a few blocks away.

00:00:40.830 --> 00:00:43.770
- [Announcer] Viola Ellison,
Lela Evans, Opal Jackson,

00:00:43.770 --> 00:00:45.900
and Katherine Johnson were shot.

00:00:45.900 --> 00:00:48.360
Fannie Crumsey was
injured from flying glass,

00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:51.750
all survived the attack, but
their battle had just begun.

00:00:51.750 --> 00:00:53.700
- To add insult to injury,

00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:57.300
the criminal justice
system would soon fail them

00:00:57.300 --> 00:01:00.240
and let the Klansmen off the hook.

00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.840
Even though these five
Black, courageous women

00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.870
were denied justice in
the criminal courts,

00:01:06.870 --> 00:01:11.190
they took it upon themselves
with their legal team

00:01:11.190 --> 00:01:14.160
to bring a civil action to say

00:01:14.160 --> 00:01:16.263
that won't be the end of the story.

00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.396
- Okay, we ready to roll?
- Yeah.

00:01:28.396 --> 00:01:30.146
- All right, let's see what we got.

00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:34.823
Wow.

00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:40.863
So these are the case files.

00:01:43.110 --> 00:01:46.650
I haven't seen these files since 1982

00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:48.150
and this is in my handwriting.

00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:52.740
This is a police report

00:01:52.740 --> 00:01:56.133
dated April 19 at 20:45 hours.

00:01:57.703 --> 00:02:00.620
(foreboding music)

00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:06.997
You see the trestle down there?

00:02:06.997 --> 00:02:09.120
- They set the cross down there.

00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:10.230
Then they went around to,

00:02:10.230 --> 00:02:12.210
I guess it's 10th Street back here.

00:02:12.210 --> 00:02:13.920
And they drove around 'cause they knew

00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:15.480
there were social clubs,

00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:17.520
as you can see on the
facade of that building.

00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:18.960
That was the Whole Note.

00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:21.210
That was a social club and
there were a couple of the clubs

00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:22.320
right near it.

00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:24.300
And the women were walking from the clubs

00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:25.560
and they're walking here.

00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:28.620
One of them saw this, the car come down

00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:31.320
and what she described,
Ms. Jackson describes it

00:02:31.320 --> 00:02:34.980
as this ball of flame coming at her.

00:02:34.980 --> 00:02:36.030
That's what she saw.

00:02:36.030 --> 00:02:38.970
And literally they came,
this is how close they were

00:02:38.970 --> 00:02:40.235
when they were shot.

00:02:40.235 --> 00:02:42.810
(melancholy music)

00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:46.290
- [Connie] All of those
ladies was her best friends

00:02:46.290 --> 00:02:48.123
and they had been for years.

00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:54.240
- She said they had just
came out from drinking

00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:55.770
and had them a good time

00:02:55.770 --> 00:02:58.770
and they were just standing there.

00:02:58.770 --> 00:03:02.640
And next thing you know, a car just

00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:05.580
was flying down the street.

00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:09.607
And out of nowhere she heard
one of the other ladies say,

00:03:09.607 --> 00:03:11.340
"Get down."

00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:13.683
And that's when they
start hearing the shots.

00:03:16.290 --> 00:03:18.750
- The Klansmen shot the ladies down there,

00:03:18.750 --> 00:03:21.750
drove up and Mrs. Crumsey was bent over

00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:24.780
tending to her garden right in this area.

00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:26.010
And the Klansmen came through,

00:03:26.010 --> 00:03:29.067
stopped and emptied the shotguns again.

00:03:29.067 --> 00:03:31.701
- Okay, what is your name?
- Fannie Crumsey.

00:03:31.701 --> 00:03:34.290
- Okay Ms. Crumsey, I'll
send you a car. Yes Mamm.

00:03:34.290 --> 00:03:38.370
- My two grandchildren
was sitting on the steps.

00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:42.770
They were little then when
them Klansmen come and shot.

00:03:42.770 --> 00:03:44.729
And that scared me to death.

00:03:44.729 --> 00:03:47.093
I thought they had shot my child

00:03:47.093 --> 00:03:49.676
and I thought they had shot me.

00:03:50.910 --> 00:03:54.870
- I felt she protected me
everywhere, anywhere I went.

00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:59.870
But when this happened,
I guess reality set in.

00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:05.010
- Because she was bent over,
glass hit her in the face

00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:06.720
so the bullets never hit her.

00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:10.950
But if you look on the wall,
the pellet marks on the facade

00:04:10.950 --> 00:04:13.620
of the building are about
the height of my head.

00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:17.160
So had she been standing,
when those Klansmen came by,

00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:18.990
they would've taken her head off,

00:04:18.990 --> 00:04:21.640
'cause look at how many
holes there are in that wall.

00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:26.730
- I was downstairs in the kitchen

00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:29.250
and that's when I heard boom boom.

00:04:29.250 --> 00:04:32.100
And when I came out, we
looking around like what? What?

00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:34.020
They say they done went up the street.

00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:38.280
- Later on we found out it
was the Klansmen, the KKK.

00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:40.830
- Racism and bigotry far
from being on the decline

00:04:40.830 --> 00:04:42.690
are actually on the rise.

00:04:42.690 --> 00:04:44.910
- So this Klan violence
and Klan organizing

00:04:44.910 --> 00:04:46.980
had started spreading
all over the country.

00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:49.533
During the late 70s, early 80s.

00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:53.940
Generally, the Klan
emerges like this in times

00:04:53.940 --> 00:04:58.680
of economic uncertainty or
times when they perceive

00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:01.110
that Blacks are getting too much,

00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:03.513
they're advancing at their expense.

00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.540
So you had like several
Klan groups operating

00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:13.590
in Chattanooga, burning
crosses, threatening people

00:05:13.590 --> 00:05:17.280
and eventually engaging in the
most heinous act of violence,

00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:21.000
shooting in cold blood five elderly women

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:22.710
who were doing nothing
but trying to get home

00:05:22.710 --> 00:05:23.710
on a Saturday night.

00:05:27.750 --> 00:05:30.540
- This was an all Black area

00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:35.540
and no Black people dared
to go out of their area.

00:05:35.730 --> 00:05:39.063
We thought this was our safe haven.

00:05:42.900 --> 00:05:44.430
I knew all this was going on,

00:05:44.430 --> 00:05:48.030
but I never thought it would
happen in our little area here,

00:05:48.030 --> 00:05:49.953
especially not with my mom.

00:05:56.820 --> 00:06:00.930
- The Klansmen were arrested
immediately and prosecuted.

00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:03.480
- [Announcer] William Church
is a self-imposed wizard

00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.150
of the Justice Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan.

00:06:06.150 --> 00:06:09.030
But deputy police chief Tom
Kennedy said that the shootings

00:06:09.030 --> 00:06:11.940
of Saturday night should not
be tied directly to the Klan

00:06:11.940 --> 00:06:15.360
but instead were the
works of an individual.

00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:17.730
- They've been arrested and charged.

00:06:17.730 --> 00:06:19.443
They'll have their day in court.

00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.910
- She said the streets
during the court process,

00:06:26.910 --> 00:06:28.980
you could barely get in there,

00:06:28.980 --> 00:06:33.000
said they had police everywhere.

00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:36.123
She was scared to just even go to court.

00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:41.700
- Marshall Thrash admitted he had shot

00:06:41.700 --> 00:06:43.350
but he didn't tend to hurt anybody.

00:06:43.350 --> 00:06:47.580
Okay, you empty two
shotguns into the bodies

00:06:47.580 --> 00:06:48.810
of five Black women

00:06:48.810 --> 00:06:50.880
and you tell me you didn't
tend to hurt anybody?

00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:52.350
You out of your mind.

00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:55.443
He gets a nine month sentence.

00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.320
The head of the Klan Bill Church

00:07:01.320 --> 00:07:03.510
and his little assistant, Larry Payne,

00:07:03.510 --> 00:07:05.190
they were acquitted of all charges.

00:07:05.190 --> 00:07:06.960
All charges.

00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:10.920
I mean, Church is driving the car

00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:13.440
while Marshall Thrash is shooting people,

00:07:13.440 --> 00:07:16.710
and that's not aiding
and abetting the assault?

00:07:16.710 --> 00:07:18.360
I mean, come on, it's crazy talk.

00:07:27.447 --> 00:07:29.040
- [Crowd] We want justice.

00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:30.668
We want justice.

00:07:30.668 --> 00:07:32.713
We want justice.

00:07:32.713 --> 00:07:33.800
We want justice.

00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:35.130
- [Announcer] We want justice.

00:07:35.130 --> 00:07:37.590
It was a cry heard often
as Chattanooga fire

00:07:37.590 --> 00:07:40.080
and police units responded
to a rapid succession

00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:42.630
of firebombing, looting,
and vandalism calls

00:07:42.630 --> 00:07:44.100
throughout the night.

00:07:44.100 --> 00:07:45.780
- Chattanooga, Tennessee has been placed

00:07:45.780 --> 00:07:47.430
under a dusk to dawn curfew.

00:07:47.430 --> 00:07:49.650
- The city has been rocked
for three nights with gunfire,

00:07:49.650 --> 00:07:51.270
looting, and fire bombing.

00:07:51.270 --> 00:07:52.830
Eight Policemen were wounded.

00:07:52.830 --> 00:07:54.750
No one was hurt seriously.

00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:56.040
- [Announcer] The trouble
followed a verdict

00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:57.600
by an all white jury in the trial

00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:59.880
of three Ku Klux Klansman
accused of shooting

00:07:59.880 --> 00:08:01.320
four Black women.

00:08:01.320 --> 00:08:03.810
- [Announcer] The women who
were shot expressed the dismay

00:08:03.810 --> 00:08:04.920
of many Blacks.

00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:07.527
- And I don't like it, I don't like it.

00:08:07.527 --> 00:08:08.730
I don't like it.

00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:10.320
- [Announcer] The victim
says she considers

00:08:10.320 --> 00:08:12.870
the Black retaliation justified.

00:08:12.870 --> 00:08:14.520
- For like, I think it's justified

00:08:14.520 --> 00:08:17.190
because I like it wasn't
justified when them people

00:08:17.190 --> 00:08:19.560
rolled down the street and shot us.

00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:23.073
It had to been three Black men
shot down three white women,

00:08:23.970 --> 00:08:25.500
they would've never reached the jailhouse

00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:28.260
because they would've been
hung before they got there.

00:08:28.260 --> 00:08:31.530
- To say it was a hostile
environment is putting it mildly.

00:08:31.530 --> 00:08:34.170
Jesse Jackson had to fly down there

00:08:34.170 --> 00:08:36.210
to kind of calm things down.

00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:37.260
- [Announcer] Reverend Jesse Jackson

00:08:37.260 --> 00:08:38.870
says he has been monitoring the trial,

00:08:38.870 --> 00:08:40.260
the three Ku Klux Klan members

00:08:40.260 --> 00:08:42.270
since its beginning and
was very disappointed

00:08:42.270 --> 00:08:43.560
with the jury's verdict.

00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:46.327
- It is clear to me that unlike 1880,

00:08:46.327 --> 00:08:50.760
Blacks in 1980 are not going
to give the Klan a free ride.

00:08:50.760 --> 00:08:52.320
- [Announcer] He says justice is needed,

00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:53.880
but violence would only be destructive

00:08:53.880 --> 00:08:55.443
to all parties involved.

00:08:56.910 --> 00:08:59.347
- It was after all that
that we came in sued.

00:09:02.096 --> 00:09:04.846
(soothing music)

00:09:17.411 --> 00:09:20.498
- I'm just standing here reminiscing.

00:09:20.498 --> 00:09:24.390
All of these thoughts
are coming flooding back.

00:09:24.390 --> 00:09:28.203
You know, the memories of 40 years, right?

00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:35.360
I was what you would refer
to as the briefcase carrier.

00:09:35.730 --> 00:09:36.900
That's what they would call it.

00:09:36.900 --> 00:09:41.070
Like I um, I was the
junior person on the team

00:09:41.070 --> 00:09:43.713
and the only female member of the team.

00:09:45.060 --> 00:09:47.880
Yeah, this case touched us.

00:09:47.880 --> 00:09:52.137
It touched us as African Americans because

00:09:53.446 --> 00:09:57.896
we knew that this sort
of violence was going on

00:09:57.896 --> 00:09:59.940
and were even worse.

00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:03.510
These women were fortunate
that they lived through this

00:10:03.510 --> 00:10:07.350
and they could have sat back and you know,

00:10:07.350 --> 00:10:09.900
go back into their life and ignore this.

00:10:09.900 --> 00:10:12.900
But no, they decided to
do something about it,

00:10:12.900 --> 00:10:14.523
which took courage.

00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:20.130
CCR is the Center for
Constitutional Rights

00:10:20.130 --> 00:10:22.260
and they wanted to hire me.

00:10:22.260 --> 00:10:25.530
Shortly after I arrived,
Randy sort of took me

00:10:25.530 --> 00:10:27.330
under his wing.

00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:30.570
He says, "You know, I'm going
to do this case in Chattanooga."

00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:33.027
And he said, "Would you
like to come along?"

00:10:34.560 --> 00:10:36.900
- Growing up in New York City,

00:10:36.900 --> 00:10:38.820
I got in high school in mid60s

00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:42.240
and we saw these great lawyers,

00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:43.860
whether it was Thurgood Marshall,

00:10:43.860 --> 00:10:45.810
whether it was William Kunstler,

00:10:45.810 --> 00:10:49.830
lawyers fighting for social
justice and to end segregation.

00:10:49.830 --> 00:10:51.750
And I said, I want to
be one of those lawyers.

00:10:51.750 --> 00:10:53.013
I want to do that work.

00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:01.020
CCR was the legal arm of the
National Anti Klan Network,

00:11:01.020 --> 00:11:03.030
which is a group of activists

00:11:03.030 --> 00:11:05.350
and organizers from across the country

00:11:06.210 --> 00:11:11.130
who had developed an organizing
strategy to combat the Klan.

00:11:11.130 --> 00:11:15.240
And we waited for the
right case to come along,

00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:16.740
and then Chattanooga happened.

00:11:20.040 --> 00:11:23.490
George Key, who was the head
of the NAACP in Chattanooga,

00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:26.610
contacted us and said, I'd
like to talk with you all

00:11:26.610 --> 00:11:28.953
about maybe bringing a legal action here.

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.220
So we went to Chattanooga,
met with Mr. Key,

00:11:32.220 --> 00:11:33.870
and he took us to meet the women.

00:11:36.030 --> 00:11:38.880
- And perhaps one of the most
historically brave moments

00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:41.220
in our city's history,
they found a way to go

00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:44.163
after the Klan civilly, not
criminally, but civilly.

00:11:46.410 --> 00:11:48.930
- We have to understand the difference

00:11:48.930 --> 00:11:53.253
between criminal law and civil law.

00:11:54.750 --> 00:11:59.040
The only people who can
hold people accountable

00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:03.510
under the criminal law
is government actors.

00:12:03.510 --> 00:12:07.830
The prosecutors, district
attorney, state attorney

00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:12.510
who can bring a case to arrest
somebody, charge somebody,

00:12:12.510 --> 00:12:16.590
and have somebody convicted, only people.

00:12:16.590 --> 00:12:20.010
And when the government fails us

00:12:20.010 --> 00:12:23.880
with the prosecution of
crimes, we have the ability

00:12:23.880 --> 00:12:28.710
to bring a civil action
under the Seventh Amendment

00:12:28.710 --> 00:12:32.760
where we ourselves can
bring a civil action

00:12:32.760 --> 00:12:35.583
to get some measure of justice.

00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:39.783
- In a civil case, no one's going to jail.

00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:43.830
But in a civil case, you're
seeking to get damages

00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:46.200
or compensation for the injuries

00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.030
that the person sustained.

00:12:48.030 --> 00:12:51.150
In our case, you can also
seek to get an injunction

00:12:51.150 --> 00:12:53.460
to prevent the defendant from engaging

00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:55.503
in those kind of acts in the future.

00:13:02.550 --> 00:13:04.830
When I met the ladies for the first time,

00:13:04.830 --> 00:13:07.440
and I do this for every civil rights case,

00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.440
I always tell the client,
"We have two choices.

00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:14.670
One choice, we can do
this case just for you

00:13:14.670 --> 00:13:17.910
to get your damages to
compensate you for what happened.

00:13:17.910 --> 00:13:22.590
Or we can do that and we
can make this a test case

00:13:22.590 --> 00:13:25.857
to see if we can figure out
ways to stop Klan violence."

00:13:26.880 --> 00:13:29.180
And the women to a person
said, "I want both."

00:13:31.530 --> 00:13:36.000
And the risks they took to their lives,

00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.990
to their futures, to
their family by signing on

00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:42.843
to this thing was tremendous,

00:13:44.040 --> 00:13:45.540
'cause the Klan was still around,

00:13:45.540 --> 00:13:47.190
Bill Church was still roaming around

00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:49.560
and violence was still possible.

00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:51.990
But they said "No,
we're not going to, no."

00:13:51.990 --> 00:13:56.157
They wanted justice for
what had happened to them.

00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:23.460
- My grandmother was one that
stood on what she believed in.

00:14:23.460 --> 00:14:26.137
I remember her specifically saying,

00:14:26.137 --> 00:14:28.587
"It is my duty to protect these kids."

00:14:30.090 --> 00:14:31.690
And that's always stuck with me.

00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:39.480
- She didn't discuss the
case with us too much,

00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:44.460
but she didn't let us go to the playground

00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:47.220
or places that we used to go

00:14:47.220 --> 00:14:49.500
'cause she was afraid of retaliation

00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:51.903
that they may come back and do it again.

00:14:55.350 --> 00:14:56.880
- When we're getting
ready to try the case,

00:14:56.880 --> 00:14:59.610
we hired a group called
the National Jury Project

00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:02.733
to do an opinion poll
of the potential jurors.

00:15:03.780 --> 00:15:07.710
We found one that many
of the rural residents,

00:15:07.710 --> 00:15:10.413
white residents, felt the
Klan was a good thing,

00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:13.740
felt that Blacks had gotten enough,

00:15:13.740 --> 00:15:17.610
that they were opposed
to Black out of town,

00:15:17.610 --> 00:15:21.243
civil rights lawyers trying
cases like this in Chattanooga.

00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:26.100
And in fact, the opinions that we saw

00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.110
in the public opinion poll,

00:15:28.110 --> 00:15:30.603
they were demonstrated
in the jury selection.

00:15:32.310 --> 00:15:34.863
The jury had five whites, one Black woman.

00:15:37.873 --> 00:15:40.350
We saw the case as a precedent

00:15:40.350 --> 00:15:44.910
for how you could combat
racially motivated violence.

00:15:44.910 --> 00:15:48.840
Suing private parties for
racially motivated violence,

00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:49.770
that's unusual.

00:15:49.770 --> 00:15:51.690
That doesn't happen that
often because there aren't

00:15:51.690 --> 00:15:54.363
that many federal laws
that deal with that.

00:15:55.884 --> 00:15:59.340
We found a statute called
the Ku Klux Klan Act.

00:15:59.340 --> 00:16:02.640
It had been buried and
it was passed in 1871.

00:16:02.640 --> 00:16:05.040
Right around the time
reconstruction was taking off

00:16:05.040 --> 00:16:07.950
in the south, president Grant
sent a message to Congress

00:16:07.950 --> 00:16:11.100
saying, law enforcement
throughout the south basically

00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.203
are Klansmen going to go lynch people.

00:16:15.540 --> 00:16:19.170
Grant said "I don't have
the power under current law

00:16:19.170 --> 00:16:20.760
to do anything about this."

00:16:20.760 --> 00:16:23.260
And he said, "I'm asking
for federal legislation."

00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:29.240
- The 1871 KKK Act was passed
because the Southerners

00:16:31.140 --> 00:16:35.940
who had lost the Civil War
still had not acquiesced

00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:39.123
to this notion that
Black people were free.

00:16:40.800 --> 00:16:43.500
We needed Congress to act.

00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:47.280
And what they produced
was this unprecedented law

00:16:47.280 --> 00:16:48.113
at the time.

00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:51.990
- And that statute created a right

00:16:51.990 --> 00:16:55.680
to file a lawsuit in
federal court by the victims

00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:57.123
of Klan violence.

00:17:01.290 --> 00:17:04.770
- I knew that our case in certain respects

00:17:04.770 --> 00:17:08.520
was extremely important and landmark

00:17:08.520 --> 00:17:12.960
because people like Payne and Church,

00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.000
they would get away with
something like that.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.090
They would get away with
it in the criminal setting.

00:17:18.090 --> 00:17:21.540
And I know that the act
was passed way back when,

00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:24.993
just to prevent that specific
thing from happening.

00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:31.650
- It was a theory of the case.

00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:34.410
The Klan was organized to replicate

00:17:34.410 --> 00:17:36.420
what the old original Klan did.

00:17:36.420 --> 00:17:38.220
And it was designed the racial animus

00:17:38.220 --> 00:17:40.470
to emulate the historical Klan.

00:17:40.470 --> 00:17:44.190
And through harassment, physical
assault and intimidation.

00:17:44.190 --> 00:17:46.533
This is what I, and I
went through the facts.

00:17:49.500 --> 00:17:54.003
This is the ambulance record
for Catherine Johnson.

00:17:55.020 --> 00:17:59.130
She sustained, I think over
a hundred shotgun pellets

00:17:59.130 --> 00:18:00.153
to her legs.

00:18:01.020 --> 00:18:05.550
They use birdshot as opposed a buckshot.

00:18:05.550 --> 00:18:07.680
The bigger the pellet,
the bigger the hole.

00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.140
So if you're shooting
deer, you use buckshot

00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:12.270
'cause it's going to
really take the deer down.

00:18:12.270 --> 00:18:14.790
If you're shooting birds,
then you use birdshot

00:18:14.790 --> 00:18:18.540
'cause it's a smaller pellet
and won't make as big a hole.

00:18:18.540 --> 00:18:20.340
They use birdshot.

00:18:20.340 --> 00:18:21.393
Why birdshot?

00:18:23.580 --> 00:18:27.390
Birdshot, once it enters
you, it can't be removed.

00:18:27.390 --> 00:18:28.770
It's too small.

00:18:28.770 --> 00:18:33.660
So eventually what happens with
birdshot is that the pellet

00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:37.410
will just push its way
out through your skin

00:18:37.410 --> 00:18:39.240
and that's extremely painful.

00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:41.460
So this woman had over a hundred of these

00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:43.470
that were pushing their
way through her skin.

00:18:43.470 --> 00:18:46.593
Some of them were still in her
body when we tried the case.

00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:53.100
What we did was to structure
this approach to litigation

00:18:53.100 --> 00:18:57.030
by marrying the damage
action for the women

00:18:57.030 --> 00:19:01.113
and a class action for all
Black residents of Chattanooga.

00:19:02.130 --> 00:19:02.963
All of them.

00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:09.033
Protect them against
future violence like this.

00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.280
In order to get an injunction,

00:19:17.280 --> 00:19:21.750
you have to prove to the
judge that this defendant

00:19:21.750 --> 00:19:26.250
has a likelihood of engaging
and acts in our case

00:19:26.250 --> 00:19:28.503
of violence in the future.

00:19:30.120 --> 00:19:31.083
What's this?

00:19:33.150 --> 00:19:34.413
OMG.

00:19:40.710 --> 00:19:43.143
William Church's Press conference.

00:19:44.610 --> 00:19:45.610
That's what this is.

00:19:49.280 --> 00:19:51.580
We use that to get the injunction

00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:56.433
'cause Church claimed
that he had quit the Klan.

00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:00.570
- I'm rejoining the Klan.

00:20:00.570 --> 00:20:03.210
Same organization except it's more people

00:20:03.210 --> 00:20:07.210
and we've changed from a
robe to combat uniform.

00:20:15.120 --> 00:20:17.190
- [Reporter] What kind of
activities you plan on?

00:20:17.190 --> 00:20:19.660
- I see a war coming
between Klan against Klan

00:20:20.760 --> 00:20:23.040
and I see a racial war coming

00:20:23.040 --> 00:20:28.023
and just being prepared for
activities such as this.

00:20:29.100 --> 00:20:30.510
- There was certainly a need

00:20:30.510 --> 00:20:32.880
to prevent these
terrorists from continuing

00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:34.953
to engage in these types of activities.

00:20:40.560 --> 00:20:42.480
- [Betty] And then the jury deliberated

00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.193
and came back with the verdict.

00:20:47.010 --> 00:20:48.780
- There was no court of law

00:20:48.780 --> 00:20:51.063
that they had precedent to turn to.

00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.990
And I can only imagine how many times

00:20:54.990 --> 00:20:58.800
they would've been told by legal scholars

00:20:58.800 --> 00:21:00.693
that you don't have a chance.

00:21:01.980 --> 00:21:04.713
- [Randolph] Remember,
the Klan had won the

00:21:04.713 --> 00:21:07.446
criminal trial, so we didn't know what

00:21:07.446 --> 00:21:10.106
to expect or what was going to happen.

00:21:11.550 --> 00:21:13.983
I'll never forget the day
that verdict came out.

00:21:16.170 --> 00:21:17.880
It's very formal.

00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:20.793
The clerk gives the note to the judge,

00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:25.743
he opens the note, good
air pin drop so quiet.

00:21:26.850 --> 00:21:29.010
With respect to William Church,

00:21:29.010 --> 00:21:32.780
we find him liable for damages.

00:21:32.780 --> 00:21:35.940
Respect to Justice Knights KKK, liable.

00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:37.650
Larry Payne, liable.

00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:39.273
Marshall Thrash, liable.

00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:44.727
I'm like, "Oh my God, we actually won."

00:21:46.170 --> 00:21:47.790
We were hugging each other.

00:21:47.790 --> 00:21:51.033
The lawyers were beaming,
the women were crying.

00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:55.773
Relief for us and the women.

00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.800
- And the judge issued the
injunction, we were happier.

00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:03.453
It was precedent setting.

00:22:07.830 --> 00:22:09.902
- I first learned about the shooting

00:22:09.902 --> 00:22:12.780
that took place in 1980
within the last two years.

00:22:12.780 --> 00:22:16.895
So many of us in the city
were unaware of this story.

00:22:16.895 --> 00:22:17.940
(audience applause)

00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:20.310
- [Announcer] Opal Lee Jackson
and her friends were shot

00:22:20.310 --> 00:22:23.370
while waiting for a taxi
nearly 40 years ago.

00:22:23.370 --> 00:22:25.710
She's the only victim still alive.

00:22:25.710 --> 00:22:29.820
The 86-year-old still remembers
bullets flying at her.

00:22:29.820 --> 00:22:32.720
- We looked up and seen a ball of fire,

00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:34.833
just like a broad daylight.

00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:40.620
- Even though my grandma, she's here,

00:22:40.620 --> 00:22:42.093
but she hasn't recovered.

00:22:47.130 --> 00:22:51.750
Back then, they wouldn't
afforded a lot of pain meds.

00:22:51.750 --> 00:22:55.980
They wouldn't giving a
lot to treat, you know,

00:22:55.980 --> 00:22:59.805
their ailments and they didn't
have nobody to help them

00:22:59.805 --> 00:23:00.638
get through that.

00:23:00.638 --> 00:23:02.580
They just was out of the hospital

00:23:02.580 --> 00:23:04.203
and thrown back into the street.

00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:12.370
- [Interviewer] All of you
all only got one $500 check?

00:23:13.330 --> 00:23:14.730
- One $500 out of the Ku Klux Klan.

00:23:15.933 --> 00:23:20.640
- They were awarded, but it's
forced them getting the money.

00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.580
And I thought she said maybe $50,

00:23:23.580 --> 00:23:25.020
they sent her $50 and they-

00:23:25.020 --> 00:23:27.362
- She said they sent her $500.

00:23:27.362 --> 00:23:28.412
- 500?
- Yes.

00:23:28.412 --> 00:23:29.245
- Okay.

00:23:31.030 --> 00:23:35.490
- There are times when the
verdict amount will represent

00:23:35.490 --> 00:23:40.490
an amount that is greater than
the assets of the defendant.

00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:45.960
- [Randolph] There were efforts
to collect on the judgment

00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:47.490
after the case was won.

00:23:47.490 --> 00:23:49.890
But when you sue individual Klansmen,

00:23:49.890 --> 00:23:52.260
it's unlikely that you're
going to see any money

00:23:52.260 --> 00:23:53.093
at the end of the day

00:23:53.093 --> 00:23:56.400
because it's unlikely the
Klansmen will have any money.

00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.343
So damages are hard to
come by in these cases.

00:24:00.939 --> 00:24:02.250
- You said one woman has already died?

00:24:02.250 --> 00:24:07.250
- Yeah, her name is Katherine Johnson.

00:24:07.350 --> 00:24:08.523
That's her name.

00:24:11.850 --> 00:24:16.320
- I do recall my grandmother
just really getting touched

00:24:16.320 --> 00:24:18.720
and upset by that in that.

00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:23.720
She was like, "No, no,
somebody got to pay for this."

00:24:26.656 --> 00:24:29.400
- They were very reserved, the women.

00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:32.760
Very reserved except for Ms. Crumsey.

00:24:32.760 --> 00:24:33.840
She was feisty.

00:24:33.840 --> 00:24:34.890
She was an organizer.

00:24:34.890 --> 00:24:35.910
She would travel.

00:24:35.910 --> 00:24:38.130
She became part of the
National Anti-Klan Network

00:24:38.130 --> 00:24:39.660
and would travel around the south,

00:24:39.660 --> 00:24:41.673
giving speeches, going to rallies.

00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:45.900
- She fought for our rights.

00:24:45.900 --> 00:24:50.580
She fought, you know, most people
wouldn't want to pursue it,

00:24:50.580 --> 00:24:52.080
wouldn't want to go no further.

00:24:52.080 --> 00:24:53.700
Even when the trial was over

00:24:53.700 --> 00:24:55.200
with them just getting a little time,

00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:56.700
instead of making it a silver trial,

00:24:56.700 --> 00:24:58.440
she could have just stopped
right there, but she didn't.

00:24:58.440 --> 00:24:59.273
She fought.

00:25:07.110 --> 00:25:11.820
- We didn't know that what she
had done for stepping forward

00:25:11.820 --> 00:25:14.583
and going against the
Klan the way she did,

00:25:16.350 --> 00:25:20.583
would ever, ever lead to
what is going on today.

00:25:21.870 --> 00:25:24.000
- A federal law used to prosecute members

00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.860
of the Ku Klux Klan in Chattanooga

00:25:25.860 --> 00:25:29.193
for a 1980 drive-by shooting
is being used again.

00:25:32.143 --> 00:25:34.830
- The case in Chattanooga became

00:25:34.830 --> 00:25:36.540
an excellent precedent model.

00:25:36.540 --> 00:25:38.790
If you establish that precedent,

00:25:38.790 --> 00:25:40.680
other attorneys pay attention

00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:44.250
and they can see, here's
another tool in our toolbox

00:25:44.250 --> 00:25:46.230
that we can use to try to achieve justice.

00:25:46.230 --> 00:25:47.910
And so they go out and they use it.

00:25:47.910 --> 00:25:50.460
They develop their cases,
and that's what happened.

00:25:52.290 --> 00:25:56.160
- [Ben] Lawyers around the
country saw what was possible

00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:00.240
and took this strategy
to their own fights.

00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:05.220
In Mississippi, Virginia, and everywhere,

00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:08.070
racists dared to commit acts

00:26:08.070 --> 00:26:10.390
of racially motivated violence

00:26:12.360 --> 00:26:15.540
precedent set by the Chattanooga Five.

00:26:15.540 --> 00:26:18.000
- [Announcer] The country's
oldest group of Ku Klux Klansmen

00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:19.860
is threatened with financial ruin.

00:26:19.860 --> 00:26:23.550
- We know that the Ku
Klux Klan has evolved

00:26:23.550 --> 00:26:26.040
and now they're using different names

00:26:26.040 --> 00:26:29.310
to mask this white supremacy

00:26:29.310 --> 00:26:34.290
or this notions of superiority over people

00:26:34.290 --> 00:26:36.600
of different ethnicities.

00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:40.140
Thank God to these five Black women

00:26:40.140 --> 00:26:45.003
for giving us a precedent, an example,

00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:49.530
a trail that they've blazed

00:26:49.530 --> 00:26:54.079
for future civil rights
litigants to be able to follow.

00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:56.130
"Jews will not replace us"

00:26:56.130 --> 00:26:57.300
- In Charlottesville, Virginia,

00:26:57.300 --> 00:26:59.820
jury selection is now
underway in a civil trial

00:26:59.820 --> 00:27:02.580
against the organizers of
the Unite the Right rally.

00:27:02.580 --> 00:27:06.090
- [Announcer] The civil
lawsuit cites an 1871 law

00:27:06.090 --> 00:27:08.160
known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.

00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:11.550
- For what happened in
Charlottesville, Virginia.

00:27:11.550 --> 00:27:15.360
What happened on January 6th, 2021.

00:27:15.360 --> 00:27:18.123
- Treason, treason, treason, treason.

00:27:19.260 --> 00:27:20.910
- [Announcer] The Proud
Boys and the Oath keepers

00:27:20.910 --> 00:27:24.360
are accused of violating
the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act.

00:27:24.360 --> 00:27:29.340
- What happened in Buffalo, New
York at the Tops supermarket

00:27:29.340 --> 00:27:32.040
where a young white
supremacist went and shot

00:27:32.040 --> 00:27:33.750
10 innocent Black people?

00:27:33.750 --> 00:27:38.610
We cite back to the Civil
Rights Act, the 1871.

00:27:38.610 --> 00:27:40.770
- [Announcer] The alleged
shooter wearing full body armor

00:27:40.770 --> 00:27:43.710
and tactical gear
targeting people of color.

00:27:43.710 --> 00:27:45.690
- What does justice look like for them?

00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:48.750
- It looks like holding
not only this individual

00:27:48.750 --> 00:27:52.680
who committed this all for
act of hate accountable,

00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:57.060
but also holding those
who curate the hate.

00:27:57.060 --> 00:27:58.680
Those who are at the root of the hate,

00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:02.100
holding them accountable as accomplices.

00:28:02.100 --> 00:28:02.933
They may...

00:28:02.933 --> 00:28:06.570
We must remember America
is a capitalistic society.

00:28:06.570 --> 00:28:10.620
And if there's anything
that America understands,

00:28:10.620 --> 00:28:11.910
it is money.

00:28:11.910 --> 00:28:15.690
And so what we have to endeavor to do

00:28:15.690 --> 00:28:19.780
is to make it financially unsustainable

00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:25.320
for anybody to kill Black people unjustly.

00:28:25.320 --> 00:28:29.250
We have to sue them in civil court

00:28:29.250 --> 00:28:31.740
and we have to hold them accountable,

00:28:31.740 --> 00:28:34.860
even if that means bankrupting them all

00:28:34.860 --> 00:28:38.940
until they know there
will be some consequences

00:28:38.940 --> 00:28:40.563
to their actions.

00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:45.360
- None of the defendants
in our Charlottesville case

00:28:45.360 --> 00:28:47.490
showed up on January 6th.

00:28:47.490 --> 00:28:50.280
They were all sympathetic, for sure,

00:28:50.280 --> 00:28:52.830
but they were too afraid to show up

00:28:52.830 --> 00:28:55.110
because they knew that if they showed up,

00:28:55.110 --> 00:28:56.885
that would just make
things worse for them.

00:28:56.885 --> 00:28:59.250
Now, the goal here with
these big judgements

00:28:59.250 --> 00:29:01.320
is to deter a lot more people than that.

00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:03.240
- There was a conspiracy

00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:05.100
to commit racially motivated violence.

00:29:05.100 --> 00:29:07.800
One of the things that we
always said about our case

00:29:07.800 --> 00:29:11.460
that we brought under the
KKK Act is we are so glad

00:29:11.460 --> 00:29:14.040
that it's there, but we are really sorry

00:29:14.040 --> 00:29:16.740
that it has to be relied upon.

00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:20.610
It's a statute that really
should be a relic of our past

00:29:20.610 --> 00:29:24.633
and unfortunately is very
much a reality of our present.

00:29:26.100 --> 00:29:29.430
- We can get really
depressed right around now

00:29:29.430 --> 00:29:31.410
because of what happened on January 6th

00:29:31.410 --> 00:29:32.940
and what's happening now.

00:29:32.940 --> 00:29:34.740
And I say, I said, "Look,

00:29:34.740 --> 00:29:36.270
we've been in a struggle in this country

00:29:36.270 --> 00:29:39.717
ever since Jamestown."

00:29:41.130 --> 00:29:42.300
I am very realistic.

00:29:42.300 --> 00:29:44.760
I don't think we are
going to change the world

00:29:44.760 --> 00:29:48.060
or the country by a judicial decision,

00:29:48.060 --> 00:29:50.370
but I believe in incremental change.

00:29:50.370 --> 00:29:55.170
And every case that you win,
if it's connected to the people

00:29:55.170 --> 00:29:57.030
and the people can use it,

00:29:57.030 --> 00:29:59.223
is one step along the freedom journey.

00:30:01.470 --> 00:30:05.043
So these cases are an effort to kind of,

00:30:06.010 --> 00:30:07.860
you know, what King talked about.

00:30:07.860 --> 00:30:10.830
He says the arc of history
bends towards justice.

00:30:10.830 --> 00:30:14.280
Well, it's not like some
mystical forces up there

00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:16.110
pulling the universe down.

00:30:16.110 --> 00:30:17.970
We've got to do that.

00:30:17.970 --> 00:30:19.563
We've got to pull that hard.

00:30:20.670 --> 00:30:22.560
And if we don't do the work,

00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:24.844
there'll be no justice for anyone.

00:30:24.844 --> 00:30:29.844
(water streaming)
(soothing music)

00:30:53.640 --> 00:30:56.220
- These incredible new murals
will revitalize 10th Street

00:30:56.220 --> 00:30:59.945
just in time for Juneteenth,
which we're proud say.

00:30:59.945 --> 00:31:02.945
(audience applause)

00:31:20.327 --> 00:31:21.160
- How you doing?

00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:23.362
Look what they got for you.

00:31:23.362 --> 00:31:25.081
- There you go.
- So you look the same.

00:31:25.081 --> 00:31:28.125
Look how beautiful you are.

00:31:28.125 --> 00:31:29.292
- Yeah, I see.

00:31:33.361 --> 00:31:36.089
- I didn't know we was
upside the wall here.

00:31:36.089 --> 00:31:36.922
- Yeah.

00:31:37.829 --> 00:31:39.375
- Here you go, mom.
- Dang.

00:31:39.375 --> 00:31:41.262
- Yeah, I look good there.

00:31:41.262 --> 00:31:42.679
There it is.

00:31:46.089 --> 00:31:49.006
(melancholy music)

00:32:22.500 --> 00:32:27.500
- These five Black women
were extraordinary.

00:32:27.870 --> 00:32:32.870
They have given us legal
precedent for which to go fight,

00:32:33.060 --> 00:32:37.140
to make a better world
for all of our children.

00:32:37.140 --> 00:32:41.580
And we all as society are the better

00:32:41.580 --> 00:32:44.583
for their willingness to take a stand.

00:32:47.040 --> 00:32:52.040
They provided hope for America
that justice may be delayed,

00:32:52.080 --> 00:32:55.350
but it will not be denied
as long as we're willing

00:32:55.350 --> 00:32:56.653
to fight for it.

00:32:58.718 --> 00:33:01.468
(relaxing music)