JULY 26, 1865:
Samuel Curly, a Virginia Freedman, attempted to
claim his son from his former Master, who was still holding the boy in bondage.
For his impertinence Curly was whipped and his life was threatened.
Slavery
did not end as quickly and completely as the history books would have us
believe. Documented cases in which white private citizens engaged in wrongful
detention and forced labor of blacks --- per
se enslavement --- were officially recorded as late as July 1867. In many
areas of the postwar South slavery did not end until Emancipation was enforced
at gunpoint by garrisoned Federal troops. Even after all the slaves were freed,
black agricultural workers, most often sharecroppers, were subject to abuse,
beatings, and forced labor by their landlords.
Killings
and beatings --- lynchings --- of blacks were a daily occurrence in the early
postwar period. There is no real estimate of the number of African Americans
killed in the immediate postwar period, but one study speculates that at least one former slave --- man,
woman, or child --- was killed every day in the Confederate and Border States in
the Reconstruction period --- 4,380 black
lives lost to violence between 1865 and 1877.**
Lynchings
continued unabated after Reconstruction. 4,743 recorded lynchings took place in
America between 1882 and 1968. Many of these lynchings were mass
entertainments, the dates and times of which were advertised in the newspapers. The lynching of John Hartfield, suspected (but never accused, tried, or convicted) of murder took place in Ellisville, Mississippi, in 1919, sixty years after Ellisville had served as the capital of the pro-Union, pro-Abolition "Kingdom of Jones" during the Civil War. Hartsfield's gruesome death was accompanied by speechmaking, flag-waving, and brass bands. Over 10,000 whites came to watch a black man burn.
The
lynching of accused murderer Henry Smith, in Paris, Texas on February 1, 1893,
is considered the first “event” lynching. 10,000 spectators took part. The
photograph is reminiscent of an outdoor rock festival of the 1960s.
In
Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, Jesse Washington, a cognitively-challenged field
hand was convicted by an all-white jury of murdering a white woman. They
deliberated for four minutes before finding him guilty and recommending death.
It is not known if Washington was actually guilty.
After
sentence was pronounced, the courthouse spectators dragged Washington outside,
where he was lynched right on the courthouse steps. After being castrated, he
was strung up on a chain around his neck from which he was raised and lowered
repeatedly into a large bonfire built beneath him. When he tried to climb the
chain to escape the flames his fingers were hacked off. He suffered alternate
bouts of asphyxia and burning for four hours before dying.
A
crowd of 16,000 gathered to watch the lynching, including the Judge, the Police
Chief, and children released early from school for that purpose. A photographer
took a series of photographs of the killing. These (along with Washington’s
body parts) were sold as souvenirs of the event. They also reached the national
papers under the rubric of “The Waco Horror.”
In
this picture, Jesse Washington’s head can clearly be seen amidst the ashes of
his pyre.
Before
Washington was burned alive he had coal oil poured over him. It is most likely
he was still alive when this photograph was taken.
The
photos of Washington’s burnt, mutilated body were sold as souvenir postcards
both to those who were present and to collectors throughout the nation. The
back of this postcard reads:
“This is the barbecue we
had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it.
Your son,
Joe”
The
“cross” in Joe’s photo has turned to a smeared blob of ink with the passage of
time, but Joe can clearly be seen, a hat-wearing young man in the front row
with a face nearly devoid of expression.
In
this shot, the immense crowd at Waco is seen from above. Jesse Washington’s
body is still smoking.
Although
many decent citizens were shocked, the outcry was rather muted overall for
although the practice of lynching was concentrated in the deep South, lynchings
were not unknown in the North.
The
lynching of Thomas Shipp (L) and Abram Smith (R) took place in Marion, Indiana on August 30, 1930. It was the last recorded lynching in the northern United States. The two men were
accused of raping a 16 year old white girl, Mary Ball, who insisted publicly
that she had not been raped at all.
Duluth
Minnesota saw its first lynching during World War I. Olli Kinkkonen, a Finnish
immigrant was tarred, feathered and burned for evading the Draft. His death was
listed as a suicide.
Elias
Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie were seized on the night of June 15,
1920, and lynched in Duluth for the rape of Irene Tusken. The three men were
simply grabbed at random from a crowd of African-American workers and were
killed. Tusken later admitted she had invented the story to cover up sex out of wedlock with her boyfriend.
An angry crowd watches the
lynching of William Brown in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 25, 1919. Brown,
severely disabled by arthritis, was lynched on the courthouse steps for being a
suspect in the assault of Agnes Loeback. A young Henry Fonda, though not in the
picture, watched the burning of Brown’s body from across the Courthouse Square,
and was deeply traumatized by the event. In his long acting career, his characters
always championed social justice.
James
Sullivan, William Howard, and Benjamin Payne were lynched in Seattle,
Washington on January 18, 1882. Sullivan and Howard had been convicted of
murder, but Payne was in jail on a minor charge. Although photographers were
present, pictures were not taken, possibly because the men were white. Nobody was prosecuted for these deaths. Most
lynchings went unpunished.
In
1944, at Fort Lawton in Seattle, an Italian P.O.W., Gugliemo Olivotto, was
found hanged in his cell. Military Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who later became
the famed Prosecutor of the Watergate scandal, sought convictions against the
prison guards (all of whom were blacks) on the basis that they had lynched
Olivotto. Although Jaworski managed to convict 28 of 44 Defendants, President
Harry S. Truman pardoned them all in 1945. Jaworski was found to have made
“egregious errors” in handling his prosecution of the African-American
soldiers. No one remarked on the irony of the charges.
Roughly
25% of all lynchings (1,297) were of white people (including females), most of
whom were considered too friendly to blacks. Interracial love affairs were a
prime cause for the lynching of white women.
In
1889, news-hungry Americans were suddenly titillated by lurid tales coming out
of Wyoming about a notorious Outlaw Queen by the name of Cattle Kate. Kate was
said to be a thief, a shameless prostitute, and, worst of all, a cattle
rustler. Her deeds were so despicable, so the stories went, that a crowd of her
God-fearing neighbors took it upon themselves to lynch her in order to save
every soul in Christendom. Everybody who read about Cattle Kate agreed --- she
had it coming.
There
was only one problem. Cattle Kate never existed. The woman who died, Ella Watson, was a
businesswoman, a landowner, and a rancher. She was also decently married, at
least in the eyes of God since Wyoming did not allow married women to hold land
titles. Her successful independent ranch
drew the attention of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association who first tried to
buy Watson out, and when she refused, to force her to sell. Watson resisted.
Rather
than argue with a woman, the WSGA had her lynched along with her husband, Jim
Averell. Realizing after the fact that the lynching of a well-placed white
woman might be looked upon in certain squeamish quarters as cold-blooded
murder, the WSGA spent thousands of dollars buying type in newspapers near and
far in order to create the myth of the irredeemable Cattle Kate, a name Ella
Watson probably never heard in her lifetime.
The
WSGA plan ultimately backfired. Though the WSGA seized Ella Watson’s lands and
herds, enough people in Wyoming knew the truth of the story to spur the passage
of a gender-equality Act in 1890 that also granted women the unprecedented
right of suffrage. Ella Watson, fiercely independent and smart, sadly comes
down to us through history as a feminine denizen of evil, but her death began
the process that won women the vote.
The
lynching of Mary Turner, eight months pregnant and African-American, is of particular
note. Turner’s husband had been lynched on May 18, 1918 as part of a cycle of
violence surrounding the death of Hampton Smith, a plantation owner notorious
for his abuse of blacks, who was killed by a black farmhand. When Mary spoke
out against her husband’s random and meaningless killing, Mary was hanged. As
she slowly strangled to death, her abdomen was cut open. The baby dropped to
the ground, cried once, and was stomped to death by the mob. Her child’s death
was the last thing Mary Turner ever saw. Her hanging body was riddled with
gunfire and she was buried with her child at the roots of the hanging tree with
a whiskey bottle as a grave marker.
Immigrants
and Jews were also lynched by enraged mobs.***
Of
Jewish lynchings, the killing of Leo Frank in 1915 is the most well-known. Frank, Texas-born but Brooklyn-raised, was the
manager of an Atlanta pencil factory, and was accused by James Conley, a black
employee, of raping and murdering Mary Phagan, a fourteen year old girl who
likewise worked for Frank. It is telling that Conley was the State’s chief
witness, as blacks were not allowed to testify against whites at the time
(Frank, being Jewish, was not considered white).
This
angelic photograph of pretty Mary Phagan, the rape-murder victim, was widely circulated
to raise white Southern ire. Frank was convicted of the crime and sentenced to
death, but the evidence pointed toward Conley being the perpetrator, and the
Governor of Georgia commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison. Two months
after the commutation, Frank was seized from the prison (with the connivance of
the staff) and was hanged by a cheering crowd that included the Judge who had
convicted him. The ringleader of Frank’s lynching was Joseph Mackey Brown, a
past two-term Governor of Georgia. Frank’s death led to a massive Jewish exodus from
Georgia.****
Though
they are not called lynchings such killings continue even today.
Trayvon
Martin, carrying candy and soda, died on February 26, 2012 after an
unauthorized pursuit by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, who shot him
claiming self-defense. Zimmerman was not convicted of murder.
Eric
Garner (d. July 17, 2014) was selling loose cigarettes on a New York City
streetcorner when he was approached by police officers. One officer placed
Garner in an unauthorized chokehold. He suffocated. Although the entire
incident was captured on video, the officer using the excessive force was not
indicted.
The
unarmed Michael Brown (d. August 9, 2014) was gunned down by a police officer in
Ferguson, Missouri who claimed self-defense. Brown’s body remained lying in the
street for four hours before it was taken to the morgue. His death led to weeks
of protests in Ferguson and other cities. The media decried “street violence” and
“thugs,” but the officer involved in the incident was not prosecuted.
Walter
Scott (d. April 4, 2015) was fatally shot in the back by a police officer after
being pulled over for a broken taillight. The officer, who had had excessive
force complaints levied against him in the past, was indicted for murder.
Freddie Gray (d. April 19, 2015) died under
suspicious circumstances while in police custody for carrying a switchblade. Baltimore
police later stated it was an illegal weapon, but Maryland State authorities
disagreed. Within twenty minutes of being placed in a police van Gray’s spine
was broken and he was paralyzed. The arresting officers were subsequently indicted
for manslaughter and depraved-heart murder.
On
June 9, 2015, police were called to a gated community in Kinney, Texas. Upon their arrival, they discovered that a
large number of young African-American guests were using the predominantly
white subdivision’s pool. Although the youngsters explained that they were
present for a pool party, one officer became exceptionally bellicose, cursing
at the children, and ordering them onto the ground. He sat on one young lady,
forcing her face into the dirt. He also pulled his gun, but was hustled away by
other officers before he could fire. The entire incident was captured on video.
No one was killed, fortunately, but the officer’s abusive behavior led to an
investigation which, as of this writing, is ongoing.
On
June 17, 2015, a self-described white supremacist named Dylann Storm Roof
entered “Mama” Emmanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the
oldest black churches in the nation dating back to 1816, and shot ten
parishioners at Bible study, nine of whom (Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie
Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Clementa C. Pinckney, Tywanza
Sanders, Daniel Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson) were
killed.
Roof
escaped, but was captured in North Carolina. Some news outlets reported that
Roof was provided with restaurant food by the police after his arrest.
Roof’s
racist manifesto and his embrace of the Confederate flag have sparked a debate,
long overdue, on the appropriate use and display of Confederate symbols in the
United States.
While no one today condones
“lynchings,” these shootings and killings (often by police) are usually
explained away as being perpetrated against “thugs.” It is astounding how many
young black men (in particular) fit this convenient description. Few of those
responsible for such killings are called to account in any way. Race-based
violence remains a staple of American society.
*The
title of this post is taken from a 1911 article W.E.B. DuBois’ periodical The Crisis. DuBois writes: “If we are to
die, in God’s name, let us perish like men and not like bales of hay.”
**The
number of people lynched in the United States can never be known with
certainty. In the early 19th Century, lynching was used as a form of
rough frontier justice against people who had committed antisocial acts,
whether criminal or not. Adulterous women were frequently lynched, as were
runaway slaves, “uppity” free blacks, horse thieves, and shopkeepers (often Jewish) suspected
of “fixing” their scales. After the Civil War, militarily defeated and socially
marginalized southern whites used the lynching of blacks to vent their impotent
rage at the larger society. The usual rationale that underlay many a lynching
included a sex crime against a white woman, whether true or not. However, lynchings were perpetrated for minor incidents as well. One recorded lynching took place when a black man purchased the last Nehi Cola at a country store. Lynching
statistics were first kept in 1882, but lynching was clearly a large enough
issue to warrant recordkeeping prior to that date. Most Reconstruction Era
lynchings are calculated through anecdotal evidence. Between the formal end of
Reconstruction in 1877 and the final withdrawal of Federal troops from the
South in 1882, figures for lynchings do not seem to exist, but the four year
period mentioned likely saw several hundred lynchings. Of course, these figures
do not include one-on-one murders of blacks by whites.
***Most lynchings of whites (or races other than blacks) were perpetrated against new immigrants or against foreign nationals visiting the United States. 1892, the peak year for lynchings (230) in the U.S., saw the Federal Government pay out over $480,000.00 in hard currency to the governments of the United Kingdom, France, China, Japan, Russia, and other nations as indemnification for the wrongful deaths of their citizens in that year alone. In the last decade of the 19th Century, most overseas countries issued travel advisories regarding the dangers of being a foreigner in the United States.
****Like
most thinking Americans this blogger had presumed that lynchings occurred under
cover of darkness and in remote and isolated areas, perpetrated by drunken mobs
of ne’er-do-wells. This self-deception also allowed me to believe that while privately
tolerated, lynchings and lynchers were publicly disdained. That vast crowds of responsible
citizens and civic leaders would openly embrace and even lead these vigilante
mobs, participating happily in the riotous carnival atmosphere and ghoulish
souvenir-collecting of lynchings was a horrifying discovery for me. The images
in this post are shocking, and they should shock. If you take away any lesson
from this post, I hope it is that black lives, white lives, yellow, red, and
brown lives matter; that all lives
matter. As Americans, as members of the human
race we can, and must, do better.
Lynchings, by Year
and Race,
1882-1968*
|
Year
|
Whites
|
Blacks
|
Total
|
|
1882
|
64
|
49
|
113
|
1883
|
77
|
53
|
130
|
1884
|
160
|
51
|
211
|
1885
|
110
|
74
|
184
|
1886
|
64
|
74
|
138
|
1887
|
50
|
70
|
120
|
1888
|
68
|
69
|
137
|
1889
|
76
|
94
|
170
|
1890
|
11
|
85
|
96
|
1891
|
71
|
113
|
184
|
1892
|
69
|
161
|
230
|
1893
|
34
|
118
|
152
|
1894
|
58
|
134
|
192
|
1895
|
66
|
113
|
179
|
1896
|
45
|
78
|
123
|
1897
|
35
|
123
|
158
|
1898
|
19
|
101
|
120
|
1899
|
21
|
85
|
106
|
1900
|
9
|
106
|
115
|
1901
|
25
|
105
|
130
|
1902
|
7
|
85
|
92
|
1903
|
15
|
84
|
99
|
1904
|
7
|
76
|
83
|
1905
|
5
|
57
|
62
|
1906
|
3
|
62
|
65
|
1907
|
3
|
58
|
61
|
1908
|
8
|
89
|
97
|
1909
|
13
|
69
|
82
|
1910
|
9
|
67
|
76
|
1911
|
7
|
60
|
67
|
1912
|
2
|
62
|
64
|
1913
|
1
|
51
|
52
|
1914
|
4
|
51
|
55
|
1915
|
13
|
56
|
69
|
1916
|
4
|
50
|
54
|
1917
|
2
|
36
|
38
|
1918
|
4
|
60
|
64
|
1919
|
7
|
76
|
83
|
1920
|
8
|
53
|
61
|
1921
|
5
|
59
|
64
|
1922
|
6
|
51
|
57
|
1923
|
4
|
29
|
33
|
1924
|
0
|
16
|
16
|
1925
|
0
|
17
|
17
|
1926
|
7
|
23
|
30
|
1927
|
0
|
16
|
16
|
1928
|
1
|
10
|
11
|
1929
|
3
|
7
|
10
|
1930
|
1
|
20
|
21
|
1931
|
1
|
12
|
13
|
1932
|
2
|
6
|
8
|
1933
|
2
|
24
|
28
|
1934
|
0
|
15
|
15
|
1935
|
2
|
18
|
20
|
1936
|
0
|
8
|
8
|
1937
|
0
|
8
|
8
|
1938
|
0
|
6
|
6
|
1939
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
1940
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
1941
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
1942
|
0
|
6
|
6
|
1943
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
1944
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
1945
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1946
|
0
|
6
|
6
|
1947
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1948
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1949
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
1950
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1951
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1952
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1953
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1954
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1955
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
1956
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1957
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1958
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1959
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1960
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1961
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1962
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1963
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1964
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
1965
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1966
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1967
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1968
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Total
|
1,297
|
3,445
|
4,742
|
|
|
|
|
