Lily Hoyle is 12. She's a sweet, smart little girl from Mobile, with blonde hair and braces.

She's also the director, producer and star of a powerful documentary, "The Lynching That Brought Down the Klan in Alabama."

The 10-minute video, researched and produced for National History Day, isn't fluff. It takes on the most controversial of controversial subjects head-on. It has pictures of 19-year-old lynching victim Michael Donald on a morgue table with a noose around his neck, then lying in his coffin, his mother grieving at his funeral.

It shows Klansmen marching, and African Americans looking on with anger and disdain.

The contrast of these powerful images and the narration by a young girl in a prep school uniform is stark.

And perhaps that's why Lily's documentary was chosen to be screened at the Oprah Winfrey Theater at the National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of the National History Day observances last month.

Sometimes it takes the untainted perception of a child to bring things into perspective.

"I believe in fairness and justice and I just really wanted to share someone's powerful story with the world," said Lily, a student at Phillips Preparatory School in Mobile and daughter of John Hoyle, interim president of the Alabama School of Math and Science.

Michael Donald 2 from John Hoyle on Vimeo.

Her documentary tells the story of Donald, who was lynched by Klansmen in Mobile in 1981. It's sometimes referred to as the last documented lynching in America.

Through multiple interviews and extensive research, Lily tells the story of the successful prosecution of the Klansmen, and the groundbreaking civil lawsuit that resulted in a $7 million verdict for Donald's mother, Beulah Mae Donald.

The verdict bankrupted the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama and set a precedent for civil actions against hate groups nationwide.

It also was a turning point for the state of Alabama, Chris Galanos, who was Mobile County's district attorney at the time, told Lily in her video interview with him.

"We in Alabama had a tainted history when it came to race relations, and it was critical that officials of the state of Alabama, not the United States government, take a proactive role in prosecuting these cases," he told Lily in the documentary.

Lily's documentary was nominated for screening at the national level by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, which sponsors National History Day with help from Auburn University-Montgomery.

This year 120 students entered projects in the National History Day competition, with 36 moving on to the national level in College Park, Maryland, including middle- and high school students from Mobile, Harvest,Madison, Huntsville and Montgomery. Some filmed documentaries like Lily's, others wrote papers, built websites or exhibits and even did performances.

It's no quick project done during school time. These deep dives into history take months of research and preparation, and it takes a dedicated young historian to pull it off, said T.C. McLemore, outgoing executive director of the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

"Local students uncover local history and they tell the stories of their community," McLemore said. "I'm excited that our students in Alabama are telling these stories and are learning about their history."

Indeed, Lily's work on her documentary brought Alabama history home for her.

The documentary opens with her standing in front of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which memorializes more than 4,000 lynchings that took place from 1877 through 1950 in America.

"Although most of the lynchings took place a long time ago, there was one that occurred in 1981 my hometown of Mobile, Alabama, only two blocks away from where I attend church," Lily said.

That's the point of these National History Day projects, said Debby Hester, a former Huntsville middle school teacher who has sponsored the program for years. Last year, one of her students, Jillian Boles, had her video documentary about the desegregation of Huntsville City Schools featured in Washington just like Lily's was this year.

In a time when schools emphasize STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), programs such as National History Day seek to show them that history is just as important.

"Schools aren't as much in your face with history," Hester said. "The thing that I love about National History Day, is it just embodies everything that I believe about good history instruction. It's inquiry based.

"It's much more important to me that you leave my class with good questions as opposed to just being fed answers," she said. "The kids that really apply themselves to the project, they end up with a work product that I don't think I did in college."

As part of Alabama's Bicentennial celebration, which runs through 2019, the Alabama Humanities Foundation is sending a traveling exhibit, "Making Alabama," across the state.

"Our hope and intent is that we can spread the news of Alabama History Day and connect to teachers and get them excited about doing this at their school," McLemore said.

Haskins writes about points of pride statewide. Email your suggestions to shaskins@al.com, or tweet them to @Shelly_Haskins using #AlabamaProud





Want more?

Learn about National History Day: www.nhd.org

Alabama Humanities Foundation: www.alabamahumanities.org



