KKK Told to Pay $1 Million to Marchers
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ATLANTA — Two chapters of the Ku Klux Klan were ordered today to pay almost $1 million to civil rights marchers attacked last year in all-white Forsyth County, Ga.
Federal Judge Charles Moye unsealed a verdict awarding $948,000 to 57 people pelted by rocks and bottles as they staged a march in January, 1987, to mark the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The marchers chose Forsyth County, which is near Atlanta, because it has no black residents.
After being attacked, they filed a suit charging that two Georgia Klan chapters had conspired to deprive them of their civil rights. A six-member jury returned its verdict two weeks ago.
However, Moye sealed the decision because one of the march leaders, Atlanta City Council member Hosea Williams, withdrew from the suit during jury deliberations.
Court officials then contacted all the other plaintiffs to see if they wanted to continue with the action.
Today’s verdict was the second large decision won against the Klan by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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