Daniel Duke oral history interview, October 3, 1990

Interviewed by Cliff Kuhn and Anne Larcom. Among topics discussed: Personal background; early interest in law; John Ritter Daniel; Wheeler Mangum, sheriff of Fulton County at the time of the Leo Frank Case; Leo Frank case; law school experiences; hired by Solicitor General's staff to investigate Highway Department corruption; involvement of Ku Klux Klan head Hiram Evans; John Boykin as Solicitor General; Jimmy Carmichael; Frank Lawson, editor of The Statesman; first experience with the Ku Klux Klan; common knowledge of flogging in south Fulton County; Ike Gaston case; reasons many became Ku Klux Klan members; Henry Cawthorn case; Ku Klux Klan as a moral force; problems finding witnesses; Paul Donehoo, blind coroner; Duke given case against floggers; staff for investigation assembled; Ku Klux Klan records seized; P.S. Toney flogging case; involvement of Fulton County Sheriff's Department; Grady Kent flogging case; Rainwater flogging case; cases of blacks not prosecuted for lack of evidence; Allen flogging case; Duke's role in coroner's inquest; background of Gaston case; special sessions of the Fulton County Grand Jury; Boykin's requirement of second confession; the appeal of the Ku Klux Klan; differences between criminal justice system then and now; Judge Etheridge; coordination of other investigations at the same time; Camp family; seizure and burning of Ku Klux Klan records; support for the Ku Klux Klan by Ford and General Motors for their anti‑union actions; Klan member on the jury; episode with George Cameron in an elevator; "Judge" Parham; E. D. Rivers's Ku Klux Klan association; origin of River's nickname "Asphalt Ed"; corruption in the Highway Department; Talmadge clemency hearings in 1941; Walter LeCraw; Duke as assistant Attorney General under Eugene Cook; CIO; plan to revoke the Ku Klux Klan charter; Cleburne Gregory as the governor's lawyer; theft of Klan records; connection between Samuel Green and Drew Pearson; cooperation with press against Klan; Ralph McGill's role in anti‑Klan publicity; importance of the charter revocation; Homer Loomis and the Colombians; appeal of the modern Ku Klux Klan; Duke's analysis of Klan membership; Ku Klux Klan sympathizers; locations of Ku Klux Klan activity; three‑governor controversy; duties as assistant Attorney General; involvement in pioneering jury box challenges; John Crum case; Amos Reese case; Helen Mankin's 1946 congressional campaign.