2003 assault case in Cleveland, Ohio
On May 1, 2003, Melissa King, a thirteen-year-old student at Wilbur Wright Middle School in Cleveland, Ohio, was assaulted by eighteen youths aged between eight and fifteen. Although King was targeted following a personal feud with another student at the school, it was determined that the attack was also racially motivated, having occurred on "May Day" (unrelated to the solstice celebration of the same name or Labor Day), an informal commemorative day observed by some African American communities in Cleveland, on which black children hold a custom of "Beat up a White Kid" day, although the spread of this practice has been disputed.[1] At juvenile court, six of the attackers were convicted on assault charges. Defense lawyers contended and prosecutors acknowledged that the attack sprang primarily from a personal vendetta between King and one girl, the judge ruled that May Day did exist, that the victim was attacked because she was white, and that the attack was done to uphold the May Day tradition.[2]
