Transcript Lynching in America - Powerpoint Palooza

Lynching
in
America
Robbie G.
Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY.
What were the
primary
motivations
behind
lynching
in the early half of
th
the 20 century?
According to the Tuskegee Institute,
4,742 lynchings
occurred between 1882-1968.
90% of the victims were Southern
black
27% of the victims were white
73% of the victims were
Perspectives…
“Easy
people
imagine
having
“…it
is his
impossible
for ahanged
Negro
“When
ownthat,
suffering
was a Negro,
the mob goes quietly about its business; but that is
accused
ofhea could
crime,stand,
or even
more
than
he the spirit
never the way of the mob. Once released,
outspreads
of ten
people
insubsiding
the South
suspected
ofandaby
crime,
to
escape
a
ofSix
anarchy
spreads,
not
until
could
live
only
witnessing
the
thought
lynchings
were
justified
it has accomplished
its full
measure
of
evil. “ in
white
man's
vengeance
or
his
suffering
ofof
others.”
(Erskine
sexual
(Ray cases
Stannard
Baker,
What
isassault
a Lynching?,
justice.”
McClure’sYou
Magazine.
1905) )
Caldwell,
Have(February,
Seen Their
“When the Negro's corpse fell,
“mobocratic
spirit”
the pieces
of rope were
hotly
contended
for.” (Vicksburg
Abraham
Lincoln
(Editorial
in The
Charleston
(1918)) )
Evening
Post
(4th
May,
1919)
Faces (1937))
What is Lynching?
Nonlethal punishment- tar and feathering
Execution by a mob of one individual who committed
crimes/broke unwritten social laws
Five or more persons taking the law into their own
hands
Mob assemblage without legal right acting to kill or
injure people, depriving them the right to due process or
equal protection
Expression of the community’s will
→ tacit compliance with lynching= participation
Lynching took the place of “the
merry-go-round, the theatre,
symphony orchestra” (H.L. Mencken)
For which crime was someone lynched?
For illegal crimes, such as murder, rape, or theft
But also, people were lynched for insulting a white person,
buying a car…
Or even, especially if it was a black lynching, for no crime
at all. Just to remind blacks to stay in their place.
Origins of Lynching
American frontier mentality
Needed to take due process in their own hands
Revolutionary era- popular sovereignty is won after
long, vicious battle
“enshrined” privilege in American life
*localism*
*instrumentalism*
Lynch Law and Early Forms of Lynching
Charles Lynch established informal courts to try
horse thieves, suspected Tories tied convicted
to trees and gave them multiple lashes
Lynch was tried in Virginia court but it was
declared that the “Lynch Law” had been
appropriate because of the hysterical conditions
of war
Early 19th century: “The Regulators” (White
Caps) - bands of citizens who punished criminals
nonlethally (tar + feathering)
Vigilance committees
1835 lynching
slave revolts needed to be repressed
“patrollers”- armed committees of planters/thugs to restrict slave
movement/meetings
1880s- KKK began“night-riding”
Why Did the Community Approve of Lynchings?
Lynching became a fast alternative to due process
outcome is the same as a trial, simply expedited
Bonds within the community are strengthened
Exciting, spontaneous activity with the entire
town
Criminals were getting what they deserved
The greater (white) community, especially white
women, needs to be protected, despite some
minor brutality
World War I
American concerns over WWI in Europe impeded
the social reform characterized of the late 19th
century
After the Treaty of Versailles concluded the war,
Americans became extremely disillusioned with
international relations
New conservatism
Anti-immigrants
Rise of KKK (Atlanta)--->
millions of members by 1920
Birth of a Nation (1915)
“Look first at Stacy, then
turn to the little girl in
the summer dress,
looking at Stacy, and then
to the man behind her,
perhaps her father, in the
spotless white shirt and
slacks and the clean white
skimmer. They will stand
there forever, admiring
the proof of their
civilization.” (Roger
Rosenblatt, Confronting
the Past (17th February,
2000) )
Lynching of John
Carter
Spectators at the
lynching of Jesse
Washington (1916)
Marion, Indiana -- 1930
Our Town:
How Lynching is Reflected through Family History
In Our Town, Cynthia Carr describes her own investigations in her family’s
dark past, one OF which she was not aware until recently. As she discovers
the implications of her grandfather’s involvement in the Ku Klux Klan, and
especially in the Marion lynchings of 1930, she realizes the tacit
compliance of her father, and thousands of other observers in Marion,
Indiana. After speaking with James Cameron, a survivor of the Marion
lynchings, she amounts to the shameful nature of her family’s story. In
addition to her efforts to solve her grandfather’s mystery, Carr explores the
observers of the lynching in Beitler’s photograph. Some seem to be on a
date, some seem angry, some seem enthralled by the prospect of a lynching,
and some seem to be passively watching the hanging of two innocent men,
Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp. Even thought the Marion spectators might
not be throwing rocks or tying the noose, every word, or every second that
they watch, they are in some way participating in the utmost injustice.
The Lynching of Leo Frank (1913)
“The lynching of Leo Frank was a
damnable outrage. There was no
excuse, no mitigating circumstances to
justify the actions of the Georgia mob.
An action like that makes a decent
man sick.” (Pres. William Howard
Taft)
Response of Atlanta’s Jews mirrored response of black
communities to black lynchings
 Became Introverted
 Immersed themselves with other Gentiles
 Rabbi Marx thought it was better to assimilate, forbid
singing of Hatikvah (reformed the Jewish temple)
The Anti-Lynching Campaign
“No torture of helpless victims by heathen
savages or cruel red Indians ever exceeded
the cold-blooded savagery of white devils
under lynch law. This was done by white men
who controlled all the forces of law and order
in their communities and who could have
legally punished rapists and murderers,
especially black men who had neither political
power nor financial strength with which to
evade any justly deserved fate…the
Southerner ha[s] never gotten over his
resentment that the Negro was no longer his
plaything, his servant, and his source of
income.”
(Crusade for Justice, 1928)
Ida B. Wells
Efforts of the NAACP
Founded in 1909
Main Platform:
Blacks have been denied of their natural rights
Action must be taken against this injustice
Lynching is not the most efficient way to instill justice in
a community; there are more expedient forms of
judgment
State governments are unwilling to prevent lynch mobs
from striking (inspired by comments from Theodore
Bilbo, MI governor in 1919)
Anti-Lynching Legislation
Dyer Bill (1921) Provisions:
 Lynching: “murder of a U.S. citizen by a mob of
3+ people
 Sheriff/official who fails to protect prisoner is
guilt of felony
 U.S. government can prosecute lynchers if state
government does not
 County in which lynching occurs must pay
$10,000 to victim’s family
Passed in H.O.R./Filibuster in Senate
Anti-Lynching Legislation
Wagner-Costigan Bill (1934) Provisions:
 mob: 3+ persons
 State officer’s neglect--->5 yr prison sentence and
$5,000 fine
 Conspirators-->5-25 yr prison sentence
 County where lynching occurs: $2,000-$10,000 fine (to
family, or to federal government if there is no family)
 To prove that summary execution does not save the
public money
Does not openly condemn lynching- criminalizes
negligence by officials
Was also defeated by Southern Senators in a filibuster
Anti-Lynching Legislation
Wagner-Van Nuys Bill + Gavagan Bill (1937)
 Pro-legislation senators willing to protest the
filibuster, but faced strong dissent from Southern
senators
 FDR decided not to speak out against the filibuster
 The anti-lynching movement had seventy senators and
therefore, had the opportunity to challenge the
filibuster and force a vote. But not all seventy were
willing to challenge FDR’s decision nor stir resentment
in Southern senators because of their control over
several committees
Presidential Reactions to Lynching
“loosening of the bonds of civilization”
black man’s runaway sexual appetite
educated blacks could help eliminate the practice of lynching if they
turned in fellow colored criminals to the state
Teddy Roosevelt
Any American “who takes part in the action of a mob…is no true son
of this great democracy, but its betrayer”
Woodrow Wilson, as motivated by the NAACP
Lynching is a “very sore spot on our boast of civilization”
Congress ought to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching from the
banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy” (1921)
Warren Harding
Strange Fruit, (1939),
written by Abel Meeropol
John Carter, a mentally retarded black man lynched in Little Rock, AK.
a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Southern trees bear
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,Billie Holiday,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
performing live
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
ForAt
the
rain
to evening,
gather, May
for 4,
the
wind
to suck
,
7:00
in the
1927,
they dragged
Carter's
body from
Hallto
down
the to
intersection
For theCity
sun
rotBroadway
, for theto
tree
drop, of 9th and
Observers of the lynching of Thomas Shipp, Abram
Smith,
and James
ininMarion,
Broadway...and
they set aCameron
huge bonfire
the middle Indiana.
of the streetcar
tracks at that intersection and burnt Carter's body and one of the
bitter
Here is a strange and
cropoff. and used to direct traffic."
arms
was ripped
“Strange Fruit” and Billie Holiday
Billie was singing to herself- as if she was being lynched herself
 Lynching of the spirit
“Strange Fruit” was an opportunity to put into words what so
many people had seen and lived through
“resigned bitterness” (Benny Green)
Larger impact on white liberals (in North) than the impact
among black intelligentsia (Albert Murrows)
Black Response
 Blacks as victims (did not approve)
 Feared the song would start new tensions
 Held “Strange Fruit” as sacred
The Murder of Emmett Till (1955)
August, 1955, a fourteen year old
boy visiting his cousin in Money,
Mississippi had whistled at a white
woman, Carolyn Bryant in a
grocery store. Emmett Till was
murdered, lynched, by two white
men, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant,
that evening.
Despite their arrests, the two men
were eventually acquitted by an all
white jury.
New developments in 2004
allowed for the trial to be
reopened, based on new evidence
that suggested more people may
have been involved.
How did the
lynching mentality
transcend to modern
hate crimes?
Modern Definition of Lynching
& Hate Crimes
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994)
Hate Crimes Act (2000)
"Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all
citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional
damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Crimes motivated
by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual
victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and
discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim
belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire
communities… In a democratic society, citizens cannot be
required to approve of the beliefs and practices of others, but
must never commit criminal acts on account of them.”
Matthew Shepard
Laramie, Wyoming
Matthew Shepard, homosexual
student at the University of
Wyoming, was brutally killed by two
Laramie citizens, Russell Henderson
and Aaron McKinley.
October 7, 1998
Shepard never regained consciousness
after the severe lacerations on which
surgeons couldn’t operate, and the
brain stem damage which he suffered.
Henderson and McKinley claimed the
“gay-panic defense”.
President Clinton was motivated by the
innocent lynching of Matthew Shepard
to pass hate crime legislation that
included bias about sexual orientation.
His efforts were refuted in Congress,
however.
Tacit compliance is participation.
“Hate Crime” Incidents
Victim Type by Bias Motivation, 2004
Bias
motivation
Total
incidents
Individual
Business
Government
Society/
public
Other/
unknown
/
multiple
Total
7,649
5,991
332
253
52
780
SingleBias
Incidents
7,642
5,985
332
253
52
779
Race
4,042
3,338
161
150
39
321
Religion
1,374
640
119
72
2
351
Sexual
Orientation
1,197
1,089
24
20
6
53
Ethnicity/
National
Origin
972
869
24
10
4
52
Disability
57
49
4
1
1
2
MultipleBias
Incidents1
7
6
0
0
0
1
1In
a multiple-bias incident two conditions must be met: 1) more than one offense type
must occur in the incident and 2) at least two offense types must be motivated by
different biases.
On Monday, June 12, 2005, the Senate passed a non-binding
resolution apologizing for not enacting anti-lynching legislation.
“It’Senate
s a resolution,
a law…
The
"expresses thenot
deepest
sympathies
solemnsay
regrets
I'm afraid and
we most
still can't
with of the
Senate
to the
of victimshas
of
certainty
thatdescendants
the last lynching
lynching,
the
ancestors
of
whom
were
occurred.” (Nell Irvin Painter, Professor of American History
deprived
of life, human dignity and the
at Princeton University)
constitutional protections accorded all citizens
of the United States."
Works Cited
Allen, James. Without Sanctuary Lynching Photography in America. Santa Fe, N.M: Twin Palms, 2000.
Beitler, Lawrence. 1930. Marion, Indiana. 29 May 2006 <http://members.aol.com/Wdwylie4/Thomas-Shipp-Abram-Smith-8-7-1930-Marion-IN-1.jpg>.
Blumenthal, Ralph. "Fresh Outrage in Waco At Grisly Lynching of 1916." New York Times 1 May 2005. EBSCO. EDWARD J. HART LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER,
Chappaqua, NY. 06 Jan. 2006.
Carr, Cynthia. Our Town. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2006.
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Dawe, P. The Bostonians Paying the Excise Man. 1774. Wikipedia. 01 June 2006 <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/Tarfeather.jpg>.
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Oney, Steve. And the Dead Shall Rise the Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.
Pearson, Andy. "The Racial Divide in Arkansas." Today's THV KTHV Little Rock. 26 Feb. 2004. KTHV and KTHV-DT, Little Rock. 06 June 2006
<http://www.kthv.com/printfullstory.aspx?storyid=8812>.
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