OURstory: Lynching in America

Some of the most graphic photographs that I've ever seen in my life contained the images of Black men people being lynched. Collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. He published these photographs in his book Without Sanctuary. You can experience the images as a flash movie with narrative comments by James Allen, or as a gallery of photos. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very graphic and very disturbing.

African Americans suffered grievously under lynch law. With the close of Reconstruction in the late 1870s, southern whites were determined to end northern and Black participation in the region's affairs, and northerners exhibited a growing indifference toward the civil rights of Black Americans. Taking its cue from this inter-sectional white harmony, the federal government abandoned its oversight of constitutional protections. Southern and border states responded with the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s, and white mobs flourished.

With Blacks barred from voting, public office, and jury service, officials felt no obligation to respect minority interests or safeguard minority lives. In addition to lynchings of individuals, dozens of race riots--with Blacks as victims--scarred the national landscape from Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.

Between 1882 (when reliable statistics were first collected) and 1968 (when the classic forms of lynching had disappeared), 4,743 persons died of lynching, 3,446 of them Black men and women. Mississippi (539 Black victims, 42 white) led this grim parade of death, followed by Georgia (492, 39), Texas (352, 141), Louisiana (335, 56), and Alabama (299, 48). From 1882 to 1901, the annual number nationally usually exceeded 100; 1892 had a record 230 deaths (161 Black, 69 white).

Although lynchings declined somewhat in the twentieth century, there were still 97 in 1908 (89 Black, 8 white), 83 in the racially troubled postwar year of 1919 (76, 7, plus some 25 race riots), 30 in 1926 (23, 7), and 28 in 1933 (24, 4). Sadly, we still see signs that racial demons can reared their head in 2007.

Statistics do not tell the entire story. These were recorded lynchings; others were never reported beyond the community involved. Furthermore, mobs used especially sadistic tactics when Blacks were the prime targets. By the 1890s lynchers increasingly employed burning, torture, and dismemberment to prolong suffering and excite a "festive atmosphere" among the killers and onlookers. White families brought small children to watch, newspapers sometimes carried advance notices, railroad agents sold excursion tickets to announced lynching sites, and mobs cut off Black victims' fingers, toes, ears, or genitalia as souvenirs.

Nor was it necessarily the handiwork of a local rabble; not infrequently, the mob was encouraged or led by people prominent in the area's political and business circles. Lynching had become a ritual of interracial social control and recreation rather than simply a punishment for crime.

Recently lynching has come to have a contemporary informal use as a label for social vilification, particularly in the media, and particularly of African Americans. However, I recall that even the Don Imus situation resulted in headlines using the word 'lynching'.

I hope that we never use the terminology as loosely here in the Afrosphere.

NOTE:  This was originally posted on this blog in May 2007.

Related articles

• OURstory: Underground Railroad (1780-1862)
• Florida State House Candidate Wants Obama Lynched

George Lambus is a Black Republican Who Wants to Lynch Criminals in Jackson, Mississippi

The Republican Party is deeply in trouble. We shared the top ten blunders of GOP leader Michael Steele earlier this month. Now we have a member of Steele's Republican Party who wants to bring back the hanging noose. [SOURCE]

George Lambus a 62-year-old, Black Republican mayoral candidate has released campaign flyers that note 'crime can only be alleviated by a noose and a stout tree limb.'

This jerk is someone's grandfather ... but, we are glad to note that his chances of winning the June election are slim: the majority-Black city of about 180,000 is so heavily Democratic that no Republican has won the mayor's race in modern history. Yet, Lambus hopes to stand out in a crowded field by packing a silver pistol and talking bluntly about crime.

"Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished," Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Blacks went on a crime spree. Other blacks got tired of it ... and they formed vigilantes and they killed people. It brought the crime down."

His pistol nearby as he peered out a window at his decaying Jackson neighborhood, Lambus added: "When you cut your yard, carry a gun. When you go to church, carry a gun. When you go to school, carry a gun."

It is truly a sad state of affairs for the Republican Party that they have a candidate who fails to understand the evil history of lynching in our country.

The fact that this is a Black man is all the more tragic. All the more reason that Black Republicans are so lonely.

African American Wins Lynching Lawsuit

Do y'all remember when there were so many noose incidents around the nation that interactive maps were needed to keep track? It sickened me to see so many nooses unleashed in our nation ... it was as if people didn't know the evil of lynching. I imagine that the folks at Farrell Log Structures are more aware of the issue.

A federal jury awarded $50,000 to an African American construction worker who says he endured racial slurs from his Farrell Log Structures co-workers who once placed a rope around his neck.

Michael A. Kitchen, age 29, sued Farrell Log Homes on a hostile workplace theory under Civil Rights Act of 1866 claiming that his co-workers hurled racial epithets at him, shot nails toward him and even tried to hang him on a job site. Kitchen claimed that the abuse started when his client began working for Farrell Log Homes in early 2004 and lasted until he ran from a job site that summer after employees put a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him. Kitchen eventually quit because he feared for his well being.

Kitchen, 29, made audio recordings of the slurs and those were played during trial. We salute Kitchen for taking this matter to court. Nooses and attempted lynching are not joking matters.

Racist McCain Supporter Hangs Obama in Effigy in Ohio Neighborhood

It turns out that I'm living a few miles away from a racist guy in Fairfield (Ohio) who decided that it would be a wonderful sight for children on Halloween night to see an effigy of Barack Obama hanging from his tree.

Mike Lunsford is the racist fool who decided to hang this display at his home over on Symmes and Hicks Road in Fairfield.

A local reporter spoke with Mr. Lunsford. He isn't shy about what the make-shift ghost, hanging from a noose above the 'McCain-Palin' sign. A Barack Obama sign attached upside down. Obama's middle name: "Hussein" spray painted and misspelled.


Mike Lunsford hung the ghost in his yard. He says make no mistake: He doesn't want an African American running the country.

Lunsford says he believes Barack Obama is not a "full blooded American." And he says the United States is a white, Christian nation - and only with white Christians should be in power.

Villagers, do we not remember what it means for the spectre of lynching to be raised? Can we afford to fan these flames of racial hatred in the 21st century?

When will we learn?

Oregon Campus Lynches Life-Size Figure of Barack Obama

We still have some in America who think that lynchings are a legitimate form of expression. Officials of a small Christian university say a life-size cardboard reproduction of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was hung from a tree on the campus, an act with racial undertones that outraged students and school leaders.

George Fox University President Robin Baker said a custodian discovered the effigy early Tuesday and removed it. University spokesman Rob Felton said that the commercially produced reproduction had been suspended from the branch of a tree with fishing line around the neck. In other words, someone on this campus thought it a good idea to lynch the Black man running for President.

Taped to the cardboard cutout of the Black senator from Illinois was a message targeting participants in Act Six, a scholarship program geared toward increasing the number of minority and low-income students at several Christian colleges, mostly in the Northwest.

The message read, "Act Six reject."

About 1,800 students are enrolled at the campus in Newberg, southwest of Portland. It also has centers in Portland, Salem and Boise.

The odd thing is that law enforcement says that even if they find the ones who did this ... it may not even be a crime. It seems that intimidation of voters and students should be a crime of some sort ... perhaps even a hate crime.

What say u?

Jena 6 Hater Gets 4-Month Prison Sentence for Playing With Nooses

Villagers may recall the arrest of Jeremiah Munsen on the night of Sept. 20, after the civil rights rally in Jena. Munsen had been drinking when he and a juvenile accomplice decided to fashion nooses from electrical extension cords, hang them from the truck and buzz past protesters.

Munsen had pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor federal hate crime of interrupting protesters' federal rights to travel for driving with the nooses draped from the back of a pickup truck.

U.S. District Judge Dee Drell sentenced Munsen to four months in prison. [SOURCE]

"It's a shame that there is not a federal statute for terminal stupidity, because this was a stupid, stupid thing to do," Drell told Munsen as he handed down the sentence.

Six Florida Students Suspended for Joking Around with Lynching Noose

We want our national leaders to engage in words and deeds that uplift our country. We want to move away from the evil racism that dominated our country over the past 300 years. Keith Olbermann had it right. It is a shame that Hillary Clinton didn't seize on the moment earlier this week to put racist words and deeds into a box and out of her campaign.

Young people take their cues from these national discussions. As such we shouldn't be surprised that at least six students at the Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines, FL were caught hanging a noose on cmapus. [SOURCE]

Cindy Guerra, the South Florida regional deputy for the Attorney General’s Office noted, “A situation involving children and hate symbols is something we take seriously.”

The school’s assistant principal, Donyale McGhee said the students involved in the noose hanging were cited for “disorderly behavior, misrepresentation of information, defiance and withholding information from administration.”

Somerset freshman Moremi Akinde wrote a column for the South Florida Times titled, “Banning Black History Month,” in which she expressed her view that relegating black history to the shortest month of the year marginalizes the contributions of the race. The column was distributed at the school, and some students were asked to write responses to it.

Later, on Feb. 14, Moremi and several of her friends sat at a lunch table in the outdoor eating area of the school’s campus. Shortly after they were seated, one of the young ladies spotted a rope fashioned into a noose, dangling from an umbrella affixed to the lunch table directly behind them. The noose recalled the lynchings of Black people by white supremacists in the Jim Crow South.

Six male students of various ethnicities were sitting at the table where the noose was hanging. When Moremi and her friends approached the young men, the boys dismissed the offensive symbol as “just a joke.” Their response prompted Moremi and one of her friends to approach and complain about the noose to school officials.

Moremi said in a previous interview that there is an undercurrent of racial insensitivity at the school, where she has heard this joke from other students: “What do an apple and a black person have in common? Answer: Both look good hanging from a tree.’’

It is time that Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, Ed Rendell and others do some soul-searching about the careless way that they are dealing with race relations in our country. Noose incidents like the one at Somerset will continue to plague us all over the United States if our national leaders don't do better.

George Bush Denounces Nooses and Lynching as Symbols of Hate

Hail to the Chief! Rarely have I been proud of George W. Bush. He may be one of the worst presidents in the history of our nation. However, I give him props today for the strong condemnation that he gave to those who bring nooses into the workplace or those that joke about lynching. President Bush noted that some Americans may be losing sight of the suffering that Blacks have endured across the nation as a result of nooses and lynching.

"The era of rampant lynching is a shameful chapter in American history," Bush said in an event marking Black history month. "The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice," the president said. "Displaying one is not a harmless prank, and lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest."

As a civil society, Americans should agree that noose displays and lynching jokes are "deeply offensive," Bush said. "They are wrong. And they have no place in America today."

For decades, the noose was a symbolic part of a campaign of violence, fear and intimidation against Blacks, the president said. Sometimes, he added, it was orchestrated by the law enforcement officers charged with protecting them. Bush also said the noose was a tool for intimidation and killing that conveyed a sense of powerlessness to millions of Blacks throughout the country.

"Fathers were dragged from their homes in the dark of night before the eyes of their terrified children," he said. "Summary executions were held by torchlight in front of hateful crowds. In many cases, law enforcement officers responsible for protecting the victims were complicit in their deaths."

George Bush showed me today that he had the potential to be a compassionate conservative. I'm sorry that the type of insight and compassion that he showed in his remarks today have been absent over the past seven years of his presidency.

Today, the drumbeats are for President Bush. What say u?

Three Suspended for Bringing Noose to Work

I'm happy to see that the Town of North Hempstead suspended three highway department workers in connection with an incident involving rope made into a hangman's noose that was used to tie equipment together. Two of the workers are supervisors. The worker who tied the noose, a symbol of bigotry, was suspended for five days without pay, North Hempstead officials said. The other two, both foremen in the highway department, were suspended without pay, one for two days, the other for one day.

I'm glad to see employers taking immediate action when these fools bring nooses into the workplace. Perhaps the epidemic of noose sightings is truly going away in the post-Jena world. What say u?

Noose Jerks Get Fired

I am pleased to see that employers are doing the right thing whenever someone in the workplace plays around with nooses. Did you see where two jerks got fired in Washington DC for playing around with a noose?

Click here for the full story.

Don't these fools know the history of nooses and lynchings here in America?

TaylorMade Forces Golfweek to Fire Noose Editor

The fall-out continues from Kelly Tilghman's poorly chosen words. Her ignorant comments resulted in a cover story for the January 19 issue of Golfweek magazine. Editor Dave Seanor made the decision to put a picture of a noose on the cover of the weekly magazine.

Even more remarkable is the revelation that Seanor considered adding photo of Tilghman's head inside of the noose!

Drumbeats from Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels provide the inside story. Seanor was fired from his job on Goldweek magazine after TaylorMade, the giant golf manufacturer and one of Golfweek’s biggest advertisers, told magazine executives it would yank its $1.5 million advertising from the publication.

Villagers, this is an example of working through corporate sponsors to influence the editorial decision-making of media outlets. Golfweek caved to their sponsor/advertiser. Don't we think that BET and others that push nonsense into our homes would cave in as well?

If It is OK to 'Lynch' Tiger Woods ... Is It OK to 'Gas' a Jewish Golfer?

Drumbeats from SerenityLife told us about recent comments from broadcaster Kelly Tilghman who said young golfers challenging Tiger Woods should "lynch" him. Tilghman uttered the remark during coverage of Hawaii's Mercedes-Benz Championship on Friday, while she and and co-host Nick Faldo were bantering about how young golfers might challenge ever-dominant Woods.

Faldo said, "To take Tiger on, well yeah, they should just gang up for a while until ..."

"Lynch him in a back alley," Tilghman interrupted with a chuckle.

Woods says he considers Tilghman a friend, saw no malicious intent in remark. Villagers, at what point do we hold people accountable for hate-speech. I disagree with Tiger Woods. It is very malicious to indicate on public television that there is something to 'chuckle' about when you indicate that a Black man should be 'lynched'.

I'm confident that Ms. Tighman would not have chuckled in talking about a Jewish golfer and indicating that his opponents should 'gas him in a back alley'. She would know from her upbringing and from societial pressures that talking about gassing a Jewish person is beyond the pale. Just like talking about lynching a Black man is beyond the pale as well.

Brothers and sisters ... enough is enough! I agree with Al Sharpton on this one. Tilghman should be fired. Just like Imus. Just like Al Campanis. Just like any public figure that publically chuckles about lynching of a Black man. It is unacceptable in America and Tilghman should be called on the carpet about it. I'm uncertain if a two-week suspension is enough.

The Golf Channel, founded in 1991 by media entrepreneur Joseph Gibbs, employs 300+ people at their corporate headquarters in Orlando FL. Does anyone have contact information for Mr. Gibbs? If not, then I encourage you to express your feelings on Ms. Tilghman's racist comments directly to the The Golf Channel website.

I don't consider myself a "politically correct vigilante". I simply realize that the history of lynching is such in our country that it should never be a joking matter.

What say u?

White Employees Suspended for Hanging Noose in Workplace

Two white employees of the Riverdale Park (Maryland) Department of Public Works suspended because they hung a noose in the workplace on December 7th. The man and woman involved in the incident claim it was a joke.

One former DPW employee says that racist attitudes and actions are common. In fact, this former employee would like to see the two jokers fired from the job and prosecuted for a hate crime. Click here to see videotaped report on this noose incident.

Villagers, I'm still at a loss how anyone in America can think that it is a joke to use hangman noose in conjunction with any African American? Do they not understand the history of the noose in our country?

Blue Uniforms and White Hoods Ain't a Good Combination

UPDATE (12/15/07): Federal subpoenas issued in Hempstead Police Dept noose case.

UPDATE (10/15/07): Local NAACP Leaders speak out on noose incidents in New York.

UPDATE (10/6/07): Hempstead Police Department noose incident prompts new training.

How arrogant do you have to be in your whiteness to hang a noose in a police locker room to intimidate the African American deputy chief of police and other officers of African descent in the department? I guess we will find out as they investigate the latest noose incident ... this time in Long Island NY. The noose was found in the locker room of the Hempstead Police Department. Check out the video report of the incident.

Is there any benign connotation when a noose is hung at your schoolyard or your workplace or your home? Only horse thieves and Black men ever had to fear a noose. And it appears that this strange fruit is being grown again in our land.

One day you have empty nooses. The next day some fool tries to place an innocent Black neck in one.

Villagers, those three young 'pranksters' in Jena, LA appear to have started a whole new fad amongst some white folks in America. All of a sudden, it is difficult to go a week without another noose being hung in some public place as a not-so-subtle reminder of the danger that lurks beneath the surface for every African American in this country.

Racist thoughts being publically displayed in the form of nooses is something that needs to be addressed with quickness before this place explodes.

300-pound security guards are breaking the wrists of 16-year old teenage girls. White family having a good ol' fashioned picnic complete with rape and torture of a neighboring Black woman. Nooses flying high in high schools, colleges and now police stations.


Here a Jena, there a Jena, everywhere a Jena Jena.
Villagers, this is getting a little out of hand if you ask me. I wonder when President Bush or any of the candidates (either party) will recognize that this issue cannot be allowed to fester and grow as it currently appears to be doing?

What do you think villagers ... am I being too sensitive? Or is this some deep doo-doo in your view?

What do Butterbean, Mike Tyson and a Hanging Noose Have in Common?

There is never anything funny about the hateful imagery of a noose. However, I have to admit that I smiled a little when I heard that Mitch Green reported that a noose was hanging in front of his New York home earlier this week.

Do y'all remember Mitch Green?

He is best known for (a) beating a huge boxer named Butterbean and (b) getting beat down by Mike Tyson out in the streets one night (ala Rocky V).

Villagers, I have to admit that there is a small piece of me that thought Green might have planted the noose just to get his name in the paper. What say u? Legit or publicity stunt?

The Noose: An American Nightmare

UPDATE: This special report has been upstaged in the past week by the California wild fires. The Electronic Village learned today that the show will be broadcast in its entirety on November 1 @ 8 pm (ET).

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Since July, there have been more than a dozen reported incidents of nooses being displayed around the nation apparently intended to intimidate Black people. CNN investigates whether the upsurge in these acts are associated with the events surrounding "The Jena 6" in Louisiana or part of a growing, more widespread racial intolerance. CNN’s Kyra Phillips will anchor a special one-hour report, CNN: Special Investigations Unit – The Noose: An American Nightmare, on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. (ET). It will re-air on Saturday, Nov. 3 and Sunday, Nov. 4 at 8pm ET/PT.

Nooses have been found in small towns like Winchester, Ky. and Elgin, Ill., as well as in cities like Philadelphia and New York, where a noose was hung on the door of a Columbia University professor’s office. The Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Conn., is also investigating two separate noose incidents.

Through interviews with historian James Allan and Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Phillips will trace America’s history of lynchings – an atrocity that gives the noose its horrifying meaning. Phillips also examines law enforcement efforts led by the bias crimes coordinator with Nassau County (N.Y.) Police, which tracks downs those who commit hate crimes. She also talks to educators in Philadelphia about what young people are being taught about the nation’s history of racial hatred.

Kyra Phillips was excellent in her in-depth investigation, Judgment in Jena, that aired on the day of the Jena March. I encourage villagers to check out her new investigative show on nooses. Let us know what you think about the show. OK?

More Nooses? Or Do We Just See Them More?

There are 37 reported noose incidents around the country in recent months. A number of the recent incidents were occurring in the Nassau County (New York) area.

As such, I am pleased to see that Nassau County authorities plan to spend the next month scrutinizing county crime statistics to figure out whether there has been an actual spike in the bias crimes or whether the incidents are just getting extra publicity. Nassau's analysis will look at characteristics such as age and neighborhood to find any patterns in the bias attacks among particular groups, the accused and the victims.

"I don't know, are people more hateful today than they've been historically? I hope that's not the case," County Executive Thomas Suozzi said.

Recent noose discoveries on a forklift in the Hempstead Town garage, in a locker room at the Hempstead village police station, and in Roosevelt, where one included a stuffed animal with its fur blackened -- have garnered prominent newspaper and television coverage including on this blog.

"We've seen a lot more media reports about these type of incidents over the past two months," Suozzi said. "So is that because the media's more interested than usual or is it because there's a lot more events going on?"

One African American lawmaker, Roger Corbin (D-Westbury), deputy presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, held up a book with graphic depictions of Jim Crow-era lynchings. "This is what this means when Black folks in this country were lynched in every state in this union and the law protected the perpetrators. Shame on us if we tolerate this", said Corbin.

Perhaps it is time to change the law so that horrific symbols representing hate, discrimination, violence and murder can have harsher penalites. Villagers were glad to see the New York State Senate unanimously pass a bill that would more harshly punish people who draw, paint or place nooses on public and private property. This follows an amendment to NY state law enacted last year that made the use of swastikas and burning crosses a felony.

Let's keep our eyes out for the results of the Nassau County study ... and let's hope that similiar studies are being conducted in other places around the league.

More Hate Hanging in Noose York and Noose Jersey

Villagers, this is becoming a recurring nightmare. A 3rd noose incident in Hempstead, NY ... and nooses found hanging in a New Jersey Home Depot.

The Noose Watch continues to grow and multiply.

Finally ... Punishment for Noose Prankster!

Did you see where a Muncie, IN sanitation worker was suspended 30 days for hanging a noose on his trash truck as he went out into the community? The suspension is the longest suspension handed out to a Muncie sanitary worker. Click here to see the full story.

Some of his co-workers think that the penalty was too harsh. Personally, I think that it is about time that we send messages to these punks and pranksters so that they realize that bringing a noose into the workplace is unacceptable. There is nothing funny about this symbol of death, hatred and racism.

I wish that the guy had been fired. More to the point, I applaud the management in Muncie for taking decisive action to nip this deplorable behavior in the bud.

What do you think of the punishment?

Two More Nooses Found in Long Island

Villagers, two more nooses have been found in the Long Island, NY area. The number of incidents continues to grow. The number of perpetrators being caught for these hate crimes is not growing fast enough.

Darren Bryant reported the nooses dangling from the back of a yellow forklift - one with a tarred stuffed animal hanging from the end - said it didn't register as a mere prank.

"I was shocked. I couldn't believe it was happening here in my own community. I don't know what message they were trying to send, but I felt it personally."

Click here for the full story as reported in Long Island newspaper.