Uncovering the Truth Behind Lynchings in the U.S.

Lynching remains to be a very controversial and important subject matter in African American history. The topic of lynching is a key aspect of African American studies not only because it reveals the hypocrisy of White supremacist ideologies of equality in the United States, but it also can be used as a tool to help transform the entire social and political structure of American society. In a Christian nation that advocates equal rights for its citizens, how are acts such as lynching and other radical acts of violence be supported by most people of the White community? It was not only mob groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who were eliciting such cruel behavior, but everyday citizens like you and I. Families, couples, politicians, or anyone who wanted to be a part of this murderous spectacle were easily permitted to watch or participate in the lynchings. The murders of innocent African American citizens were becoming more of an extravaganza for the White community and many people travelled to come watch the “show.” American institutionalized racism has continually allowed this perception of the Black community as inferior to Whites. It is through the study of lynching can we discover that lynching is caused solely by the problem of the color-line and that the justifications used by white supremacists were untrue. African American studies helps find the real truth about lynching and not a fabricated story by white academic institutions. It has always been the American frontier that had promised freedom and prosperity. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” This quote taken from the Declaration of Independence commends the idea that all men, regardless of color, should have equal rights. Somehow it became socially and politically acceptable to publicly torture and