Question

Discuss the development and use of lynching as a tool of social order. (History after 1877)

Answer 1

• Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, white people frequently used violence as a means of controlling African Americans. For example, lynching was a popular way of punishing African Americans who were believed to have committed a crime.
• Lynching is an informal punishment enforced by a group who do not have the legal authority to do so. In many cases, lynching occurs when a group believes a person has committed a crime, even though they have not been tried or convicted. Economic resentment and attempts to prevent black citizens from participating in the political process were also factors in lynching. Examples of lynching include public hangings, tarring and feathering, or other forms of extreme punishment or execution performed in public.
• Although the origins of the word 'lynching' are not very clear, it's widely attributed to a late 18th century Virginia court judge named Charles Lynch, who was known to have regularly imprisoned British loyalists without a trial. Because they were never given a trial, and he didn't have the authority to imprison them, the practice became known as 'lynching'.
• Although lynching was never a legal practice, many Southern judges often looked the other way, and few people were ever tried or convicted for their participation in lynching. As a result, the practice continued into the 20th century.
• For example, the last confirmed case of lynching in the Northern United States occurred in Indiana in 1930, when two African American men were arrested in connection with the murder of a factory worker. The men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were accused of killing a white man and raping his girlfriend. Before they could be tried, a white mob, which included police officers, broke into the jail and dragged the men out of the jailhouse, after which, they were hanged.
• In what is most likely the last documented lynching in the United States, 19-year-old Michael Donald was killed by members of the KKK in Mobile, AL, after which they hung him from a tree outside his family's home.
• Lynchings became less frequent as the 20th century proceeded, having dropped sharply by the late 1930`s, by which time they were almost entirely confined to the South. Since local laws regarding lynchings were ineffective and 99% of lynchings resulted in no arrests, the federal government passed anti-lynching laws. Since World War II, lynching has died out in the United States.