Legal Lynching In America

Rodney Hamilton

HIST212

American Military University
Latrese Adkins
3/23/2014

This paper will prove that in the late 1800s until the 1960s, white people used lynching as a form or terrorism designed to oppress Negros. These violent acts left Negros paralyzed in fear with hopes of preserving the white man as the dominant and superior ethnic group. Lynching kept black people terrorized and allowed white supremacy to flourish.

During the reconstruction period, black people had to render the proper respect to white people or suffer severe consequences. ‘‘It was a common custom down in that country…that the Negro people more or less come to the back door when they went to see you, and take off their hat when they meet you on the street, and say, ‘Yesum, Mister…. Yes, Ma’am”. (M. A. Jackson, 1 Dec, 2005, #665) Many victims of lynching were accused of crimes that usually stemmed from false accusations and the belief that all black men fantasized about being with a white woman. This controversy led to countless rape accusations that resulted in the lynching of innocent black men. These accusations were the product of the curiosity of white women about black men and the realization that white men had been rapping black women for years. White men feared that the now free black man would take an interest in white women and white women act on their fantasies about black men.

Lynching was a horrible atrocity that usually took the form of hangings, shootings or both. On some occasions, these crimes would take the form of burning, maiming, castration or physical torture. Lynching was effective and kept blacks afraid and paralyzed in fear. Very few people dared to oppose an angry mob of white people ready to commit unspeakable crimes. Those who did, were usually never heard from or they would be made a public example.

Lynching would take place in public areas or right on the accused’s property. These acts of violence went on and usually no one stepped in to put an end to the mob. The only common factor in lynching was that they would rarely be carried out by one individual. Instead, it would be an angry mob or organization called the Ku Klux Klan. These individuals were ruthless and bent on white supremacy. “Most Americans are familiar with the Ku Klux Klan as a secret and exclusively white order of Southern vigilantes that terrorized former African American slaves and their Northern allies following the Civil War”. (D. A. Horowitz, 1998, #71) These acts further outline the cowardly nature of white men during this time period. When a black man was accused of a crime by a white person, this usually would not end well. Even if the accused made it to the local jail, he or she would be met with an angry mob. Klan members covered in all white attire with a matching hood to hide their face would drag the accused from their cell and hang them on the spot without a trial. Law enforcement did little to nothing to prevent lynching or protect black people instead; they were some of the main conspirators.

Despite all the violence towards black people, they still persevered and some even strived for a

seat in public office. These moves would be totally unacceptable and the white man, armed with

the powers of Jim Crow Laws and the Klu Klux Klan would make sure of that. “If the presence

of black men in politics was illegitimate—in the eyes of white southerners—then it was

acceptable to use violence to remove them. (Hine, 2011, #332) Most Klan members would

never show up around a majority of black people but if the black vote mattered, you were

sure to find the Klan lurking somewhere in the shadows waiting to strike fear by lynching or

public humiliation of some sort.

Lynching did its job; it struck fear in black people and kept them in line. It also instilled fear into those who did not agree with the ideological belief that white is right and nothing else matters. “An Irish-American teacher and four black men were lynched in Cross Plains, Alabama, in 1870”. (Hine, 2011, #332) The use of fear to persuade a person has been around since the dawn of time. White people in the early 19th century used this concept and it worked for quite some time. They were able to reduced support for the Republican Party, which tried to help the former slaves and those who challenged white supremacy were met with unthinkable violence or publicly humiliation.

These behaviors by white people were a direct reflection of their fear of former slaves becoming successful. Newly freed men were now becoming the white man’s competitor in business and society as a whole. Lynching kept people afraid of what would happen to them if they opposed the white power movement. Becoming successful could mean that you would be paid a visit by men in hooded sheets protecting their faces like cowards. Americans in general have always been afraid of the unknown. During reconstruction, white people only knew that black people could take orders and work in a field. There is no way a black man could hold office or be considered a white man’s equal. Lynching controlled the black man’s urge to rise up and better himself. These terroristic acts punished men, women and even white people who tried to help freed men.

Bibliography

Hine, Darlene, William Hine, and Stanley Harrold. The African American Odyssey. Pearson Education, 2011.

Horowitz D. “The normality of extremism: The Ku Klux Klan revisited” Society 35 no. 6 (September 1998): 71-77

Jackson, M. “Dark Memory: A Look at Lynching in America through the Life, Times, and Songs of Woody Guthrie” Popular Music & Society, 28 no.5 (2005): 663-675