Lynching

Lynching is the extrajudicial killing of an individual by a mob. It can include hanging, castration, burning, and other forms of torture. Lynching has been employed throughout American history as far back as the colonial period—primarily, although not exclusively, as a form of racial control. The extreme violence of the act, combined with its [Page 368]deliberate use to inspire fear among a wider populace, qualifies lynching as an act of terrorism.

Until the birth of the anti-lynching movement in the early twentieth century, lynching was used as a common way of intimidating African Americans and other minorities. The word lynch is derived from a Quaker judge from Virginia named Charles Lynch, who imprisoned British loyalists during the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. During that period, the practice was a widely accepted precursor to the establishment of courts and proper law enforcement agencies.

In time, lynching was increasingly used by whites against blacks for purposes of racial intimidation and control. A sort of mythology was created in order to justify the violence, in which any successful black landowners, businessmen, or professionals who were perceived as a threat to white supremacy were killed and made into an “example.” The organization most widely credited for its frequent use of lynching as a means of control is the Ku Klux Klan, an ultra-racist white supremacist group that came to power during the Reconstruction era.

In 1979 the Tuskegee Institute determined that during the 86-year period between 1882 and 1968, 4,742 blacks were lynched. During the late nineteenth century, an average of 139 lives were taken each year, and 75 percent of the victims were black. White mobs assumed the role of judge, jury, and executioner, often with the support of local law enforcement officials. Newspapers described the events in graphic detail, using divisive language that reinforced the idea that blacks were less than human, making the actions of lynch mobs seem less reprehensible. The practice of lynching lasted well into the twentieth century as a commonplace tool for white control, with a brief upsurge in the 1960s in opposition to the civil rights movement.

Some incidents of lynching were not racially motivated; for example, lynching was a common practice by both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War as a form of military reaction to dissenters on both sides. During the conflict, when a man or a boy was hanged, it was almost always because of a war-related offense, as executioners were often members of county militias. White men and boys were also lynched in the years following the Civil War, with the greatest contributing factor being the lingering suspicions of perceived Confederate or Union opponents. Immediately following the war, the majority of people lynched were southern blacks, who were seen as becoming increasingly “uppity,” with their newfound freedom from the bonds of slavery. Julius E. Thompson, the author of Lynchings in Mississippi: A History, 1865–1965 (2006), has estimated that in the late 1860s in Mississippi, perhaps two or three blacks a week were killed, resulting in between 400 and 600 blacks killed during a four-year period.

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