1. Lynching in
America

2. What were the primary motivations behind in the early half of the 20th century?
lynching

3. 90% of the victims were Southern 73% of the victims were black
According to the Tuskegee Institute, 4,742 lynchings occurred between
90% of the victims were Southern
73% of the victims were black
27% of the victims were white
< Tuskegee Institute statistics

4. Perspectives… “mobocratic spirit” Abraham Lincoln
“…it is impossible for a Negro accused of a crime, or even suspected of a crime, to escape a white man's vengeance or his justice.” (Editorial in The Charleston (1918) )
“Easy people imagine that, having hanged a Negro, the mob goes quietly about its business; but that is never the way of the mob. Once released, the spirit of anarchy spreads and spreads, not subsiding until it has accomplished its full measure of evil. “ (Ray Stannard Baker, What is a Lynching?, McClure’s Magazine. (February, 1905) )
“When his own suffering was more than he could stand, he could live only by witnessing the suffering of others.” (Erskine Caldwell, You Have Seen Their Faces (1937))
“When the Negro's corpse fell, the pieces of rope were hotly contended for.” (Vicksburg Evening Post (4th May, 1919) )
Six out of ten people in the South thought lynchings were justified in cases of sexual assault
“mobocratic spirit” Abraham Lincoln
Nation with "mobocratic spirit," Lincoln was scared that one person could rise above the people, someone who might destroy our constitutional liberties so he could achieve his own goals

5. 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

6. For which crime was someone lynched?
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.
Cut off body parts as souvenirs often committed with participation by law enforcement
Thousands of spectators Waco-Jesse Washington)

7. 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
Scary, no?

8. Lynching of John Carter
Spectators at the lynching of Jesse Washington (1916)
“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) )
1. Digital image. [The lynching of Rubin Stacy. Onlookers, including four young girls] June 2006 <
2. Digital image. [The lynching of Virgil Jones, Robert Jones, Thomas Jones, and Joseph Riley, warning note. Black onlookers.] June 2006 <
3. Digital image. [Spectators at the lynching of Jesse Washington, one ma raised for a better view] June 2006 <

9. 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)
“The negro has confessed says he is ready to die, and nobody can keep the inevitable from happening.” (Theodore Bilbo) At the Hands of Persons Unknown p. 257
W.E.B. Du Bois’ poster: “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday” on Fifth Avenue

10. Anti-Lynching Legislation
Dyer Bill (1921) Provisions:
Lynching: “murder of a U.S. citizen by a mob of 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
Leonidas Dyer- St. Louis community, outraged by the East St. Louis riot of 1917, estimated greater amount of black casualties than ever before recorded in Tuskegee records When the Dyer Bill is reviewed in Congress, Southern Congressman Hatton Sumners maintains argument:
Southern women need to be protected blacks who inhabit the South are a burden to the entire Southern community- must be dealt with in some way lynching is a racial instinct
MO Congressman Edgar Ellis dismisses Sumners’ argument nat’l gov’t has the right to protect citizens from mobs Southern opponents of the bill fear that the bill would ‘deprive southern communities of a recognized and tolerated instrumentality for dealing with their Negro population” (The Hands of Persons Unknown, 265)
Walter White, NAACP secretary + relationship with FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt FDR didn’t want to directly support Wagner-Costigan, because he was intimidated by losing Southern support for New Deal legislation FDR doesn’t mention Wagner-Costigan Bill or lynching in 1935 address to Congress—Eleanor defends him and says that lynching is a state-bound concern, and local officials are responsible for eliminating it

11. 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
Leonidas Dyer- St. Louis community, outraged by the East St. Louis riot of 1917, estimated greater amount of black casualties than ever before recorded in Tuskegee records When the Dyer Bill is reviewed in Congress, Southern Congressman Hatton Sumners maintains argument:
Southern women need to be protected blacks who inhabit the South are a burden to the entire Southern community- must be dealt with in some way lynching is a racial instinct
MO Congressman Edgar Ellis dismisses Sumners’ argument nat’l gov’t has the right to protect citizens from mobs Southern opponents of the bill fear that the bill would ‘deprive southern communities of a recognized and tolerated instrumentality for dealing with their Negro population” (The Hands of Persons Unknown, 265)
Walter White, NAACP secretary + relationship with FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt FDR didn’t want to directly support Wagner-Costigan, because he was intimidated by losing Southern support for New Deal legislation FDR doesn’t mention Wagner-Costigan Bill or lynching in 1935 address to Congress—Eleanor defends him and says that lynching is a state-bound concern, and local officials are responsible for eliminating it

12. 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
Joseph A. Gavagan (NY Representative) proposed his bill at the same time as horrible double lynching in Duck Hill, Mississippi- fueled more public support

13. 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
At the Hands of Persons Unknown, p161 At the Hands of Persons Unknown p. 254
At the Hands of Persons Unknown p. 259
Passive actions by Presidents (like FDR) despite obvious anti-lynching sentiment- wanted to secure Southern voters/support
To class: How does lynching relate to civilization as a whole?
Lynching as a stain, the American crime (shoved under the rug).

14. Strange Fruit, (1939), written by Abel Meeropol
John Carter, a mentally retarded black man lynched in Little Rock, AK.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Billie Holiday, performing live
Beitler’s photograph was an inspiration for Meeropol to write “Strange Fruit”
Digital image. [Billie Holiday]. 25 May 2006 <
Digital image. [John Carter]. 28 May 2006 <
Beitler, Lawrence Marion, Indiana. 29 May 2006 <
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop, Here is a strange
Observers of the lynching of Thomas Shipp, Abram Smith, and James Cameron in Marion, Indiana.
At 7:00 in the evening, May 4, 1927, they dragged Carter's body from City Hall down Broadway to the intersection of 9th and Broadway...and they set a huge bonfire in the middle of the streetcar tracks at that intersection and burnt Carter's body and one of the arms was ripped off and used to direct traffic."
and bitter
crop.

15. “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
Billie usually chose not to look the audience in the eye during “Strange Fruit” Billie was able to “humanize” lynching
Holiday was once threatened after a performance of “Strange Fruit” in Café Society To class: What did the song illicit in you?