Wednesday, May 13, 2020

The Complexity of Lynching

We all have a certain image of a lynching in the South: white mob inflamed with racist rage drags away black person accused of a crime, and without any delay burn or hang the persons accused of the crime.  But on my current research project, I have run into black lynch mobs killing blacks accused of horrible crimes; armed black mobs protecting the jail from a traditional lynch mob; a white lynch mob who lynched several blacks and a white.  Today's variation:

Henderson, Tex. (1905)

11/12/1905: A lynch mob removed five blacks accused of murder from the jail.  They “tried” them, returned two to the jail, and hung the other three.  “Not a shot was fired or a loud word spoken at the lynching.  The mob performed its work so quietly that persons living less than a block from the jail were not awakened.”

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: lynching

Weapon: hung[1]



[1] "Three Strung Up," Rock Island [Ill.] Argus, Nov. 13, 1905, 1.

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