Film Screening: How to Sue the Klan

Join us for a special screening of How to Sue the Klan, followed by a poetry reading from creative Erika Roberts of Velvet Poetry and a Q&A with the director, John Beder, on how to make a documentary.

About How to Sue the Klan:

Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump brings his expertise and experience to the documentary, How to Sue the Klan, where he serves as Producer. The film features the heroic efforts of five Black women who fought the Klan in a landmark 1982 civil trial and won. After surviving a racially motivated mass shooting on the streets of Chattanooga, the women invoked the little-known Civil War-era Ku Klux Klan Act to win their case, a strategy that still serves as a model in the fight against racial violence today.

How to Sue the Klan is a timely and urgent documentary that explores the use of legal strategies to combat racial violence. Two of the three Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the attack were acquitted in criminal court, the third sentenced to a few months, but civil rights lawyers used the Ku Klux Klan Act to sue them in civil court for damages. The landmark trial seta precedent that exposed how the Klan could be hit hardest: their bank accounts. The judgment also came with an injunction against all Klan activities in Chattanooga, forever banning the KKK from the city. The film explores the impact of the trial, the legacy of the five women who fought for justice, and the ongoing relevance of the Ku Klux Klan Act in today's fight against organized hate.