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

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

handyman in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, who was abducted by seven members of Asa Earl Carter's independent

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

group on

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

, 2 September 1957.

Background

Aaron, or Arone, was born in Barbour County, Alabama on 24 January 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, where he was treated and survived.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 not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

, 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. However, when

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

became governor of Alabama, he pardoned the four convicted men, but not the two who had turned state's evidence, with no explanation. Alabama author, William Bradford Huie, broke the story of this atrocity in the October 1964 issue of "True" magazine in an article titled "Ritual Cutting by the Ku Klux Klan" pp. 22-24,28, 32, 36. Huie donated the $3000 "True" paid him for the story to Aaron to help pay his medical expenses. Huie also published the story in his 1964 bestseller, "Three Lives for Mississippi" pp. 18-36. In a 1979 interview by Blackside, Inc. for "Eye on the Prize" (available free online), Huie described his investigation of the story and contact with Edward Aaron. 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 11 March 1991 in Dayton, Ohio, aged 68.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaron, Judge Edward 1923 births 1991 deaths 20th-century African-American people American torture victims Castrated people Formerly missing American people Kidnapped American people Ku Klux Klan crimes in Alabama "Ritual Cutting by the Ku Klux Klan" by William Bradford Huie "True" magazine, Oct. 1964, Vol. 45, No. 329, pp. 22-24, 28, 32, 36 "Three Lives for Mississippi" by William Bradford Huie, WCC Books, 1964 Racially motivated violence against African Americans in Alabama

Background

See also

References