Racial Violence in the United States, 1863 to Present


The Lynching Era (1878-1939)

The lynchings of this era in the Southern states, especially against African-American males have been amply documented in many places. We will not try to reduplicate that here. This table will focus on areas that have not been focused on as much. Examples would include lynchings outside of the South, and those against other racial groups especially Mexican-Americans, Chinese-Americans, and Native Americans. Also listed will be some of the larger spectacle lynchings which had up to thousands of spectators, the less common lynchings against African-American women, and any other examples that stand out as apart from the "norm" for lynchings that happened in the South, including lynchings for extremely frivolous reasons.

Table I. Racial Violence during the Lynching Era

* - As should be noted with all "lynchings," in the vast majority of cases there was no proper legal proceeding before the executions involved, therefore offenses listed should be thought of as alleged offenses. They were most certainly not all guilty of the crimes they were killed for given the racism of the time period, though it is also probably untrue that they were all innocent. Nonetheless, our constitutional and legal system's normal procedures were shoved aside in favor of vigilantism even in those cases.

1 - Technically this case does not strictly fall into the area of racial violence. It is possible though that fear of even greater reprisals from the white community led blacks to take the matter of "justice" into their own hands to forestall white action.

Sources:

1) Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

2) "'Who Dares to Style this Female a Woman?': Lynching, Gender, and Culture in the Nineteenth-Century U.S. West" by Helen McLure in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

3) "'Light is Bursting Upon the World!': White Supremacy and Racist Violence against Blacks in Reconstruction Kansas" by Brent M.S. Campney in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

4) "The Rise and Fall of Mob Violence gainst Mexicans in Arizona, 1859-1915" by William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

5) "Making Utah History: Press Coverage of the Robert Marshall Lynching, June 1925" by Kimberley Mangun and Larry R. Gerlach in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

6) "Race, Sex, and Riot: The Springfield, Ohio, Race Riots of 1904 and 1906 and the Sources of Antiblack Violence in the Lower Midwest" by Jack S. Blocker Jr. in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

7) "Lynching in Late-Nineteenth-Century Michigan" by Michael J. Pfeifer in Lynching Beyond Dixie: American Mob Violence Outside the South. Edited by Michael J. Pfeifer. University of Illinois Press. 2013.

8) A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930. Stewart E. Tolnay and E.M. Beck. University of Illinois Press. 1995.

9) Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Vintage Books. 1998.

10) Lynching in America: A History in Documents. Edited by Christopher Waldrep. New York University Press. 2006.

11) The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas. E.R. Bills. The History Press. 2014.

12) Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Douglas A. Blackmon. Doubleday. 2008.

13) The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South, 1901-1969. Pete Daniel. University of Illinois Press. 1972.

14) 100 Years of Lynchings. Ralph Ginzburg. Black Classic Press. 1988.

15) Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Edited by Walter Rucker and James Nathaniel Upton. Greenwood Press. 2007.

16) Cultures of Violence: Racial Violence and the Origins of Segregation in South Africa and the American South. Ivan Evans. Manchester University Press. 2009.

17) Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. Jean Pfaelzer. University of California Press. 2007.