Judge Edward Aaron (January 24, 1923 – March 11, 1991) was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

handyman A handyman, also known as a fixer, handyperson or handyworker, is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both interior and exterior, and are so ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

who was abducted by seven members of

Asa Earl Carter Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was a 1950s segregationist speech writer, and later Western novelist. He co-wrote George Wallace's well-known pro- segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregati ...

'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.Eskew, Glenn T. ''But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle'', Chapel Hill :

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the As ...

, 1997. (p.115) 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 Kilby Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) prison for the state of Alabama, located in Mt. Meigs, Alabama, Mt. Meigs, an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Alabama, with a capacity to house over 1,400 inmate ...

. 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.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaron, Judge Edward 1923 births 1991 deaths 20th-century African-American people American torture victims Castrated people Formerly missing people Kidnapped American people Ku Klux Klan crimes in Alabama Racially motivated violence against African Americans

Background

See also

Notes