Between April 1949 and February 1950 multiple crimes were committed by members of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. Groups of white hooded masked men arrived by car at the home of Charlie Lee Hurst, a shopkeeper who lived near rural Pell City. Hurst was killed and his nephew wounded by gunmen who called them out of their house on the night of February 22nd. In the spring of 1949 a string of floggings resulted in trials of more than one Klansman in Birmingham. At issue was a new anti-mask law that had been passed by the Alabama Senate.By mid 1950 the bill's passage was being debated by members of the state legislature.