On a July day in 2006 in Brandenberg, Kentucky, Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian descent was approached by Ku Klux Klansmen. He was called names, spat upon, doused with alcohol, knocked to the ground and punched and kicked.
When the blows stopped, Gruver had a broken jaw and left forearm, two cracked ribs and cuts and bruises.
With the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Gruver decided to sue.
"We want to win justice for Jordan to compensate him for his injuries and put this group out of business," said center spokesman Booth Gunter. "We've won a number of these suits in the past."
And win they did. The all-white jury of seven men and seven women deliberated for five hours and awarded Gruver $2.5 million in damages.
At one point the court testimony revealed an alleged Klan plot to kill the Southern Poverty Law Center's attorney, Morris Dees.
Former Klansman Kale Kelly, once a member of Edwards' inner circle, testified he was told to kill Dees because of the center's lawsuit in Idaho against the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi supremacist organization.
The plot was thwarted by the FBI in 1999, according to testimony.
After winning the case, Dees stated: "We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business"
According to the CNN article on the case, The Anti-Defamation League estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or "klaverns," across the country.
Which is just about the saddest statistic I have read today.
"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
When the blows stopped, Gruver had a broken jaw and left forearm, two cracked ribs and cuts and bruises.
With the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Gruver decided to sue.
"We want to win justice for Jordan to compensate him for his injuries and put this group out of business," said center spokesman Booth Gunter. "We've won a number of these suits in the past."
And win they did. The all-white jury of seven men and seven women deliberated for five hours and awarded Gruver $2.5 million in damages.
At one point the court testimony revealed an alleged Klan plot to kill the Southern Poverty Law Center's attorney, Morris Dees.
Former Klansman Kale Kelly, once a member of Edwards' inner circle, testified he was told to kill Dees because of the center's lawsuit in Idaho against the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi supremacist organization.
The plot was thwarted by the FBI in 1999, according to testimony.
After winning the case, Dees stated: "We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business"
According to the CNN article on the case, The Anti-Defamation League estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or "klaverns," across the country.
Which is just about the saddest statistic I have read today.
"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
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