Films & Events

How to Sue the Klan is a powerful short documentary that uncovers a little-known but landmark civil rights victory—one that continues to shape how hate groups are challenged in the United States today. Through historical footage, legal insight, and survivor-centered storytelling, the film recounts the 1980 Chattanooga shooting in which five Black women were injured by members of the Ku Klux Klan—and the extraordinary legal battle that followed when the criminal justice system failed them.

When an all-white jury acquitted or lightly sentenced the attackers, civil rights attorney Randolph McLaughlin and the Center for Constitutional Rights turned to a long-dormant Reconstruction-era statute: the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act. The resulting federal civil case not only secured the women the equivalent of over $1.5 million in damages, but also led to a sweeping injunction that permanently drove the Klan out of Chattanooga. The precedent set by the Chattanooga Five reshaped civil rights litigation nationwide, providing a vital legal tool still used today to combat racial violence and extremist groups.

Awarded Best Short Documentary at the 2024 Harlem International Film Festival, How to Sue the Klan qualified for the 97th Academy Awards and is a 2025 NAACP Image Awards nominee.

2024. 35 min.