Feeny 1 Thomas Feeny Professor Clark SOC 400 4 April 2011 Lynching in America: A Tool of Racism .

Violence against African Americans rose significantly after the end of the Civil War. Its use was prevalent after the abolishment of slavery and the passing of laws that gave freed black men the right to vote. Lynching has been used as a tool of racism for over one hundred years. White men have used lynching as a means of punishment and intimidation against African American populations. Ida Wells-Barnett fought the practice of lynching after a close friend of hers was lynched in Memphis. James Allens flash movie Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America shows a collection of photographs and postcards from lynchings in America. Although lynchings are rare in the present day, their role in American history should not be forgotten. The lynching of three black men in Memphis in 1892 led Ida Well-Barnett to pursue her crusade for justice. The three black men, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stuart were running an enterprise called the Peoples Grocery Company. Moss was a close friend of Well-Barnett. The success of their enterprise led to an argument with a white grocer across the street and a confrontation with three white men in the dark. The white newspaper distorted the event by referring to the black men as the leaders of the conspiracy and said they were taken from jail and lynched. Wells-Barnett began a campaign against lynching by writing at the Free Speech. She used part of this campaign to persuade African Americans to move to the western United States

Feeny 2 as requested by Thomas Mosss last words Tell my people to go West there is no justice for them here. On May 21, 1892, Wells-Barnett confronted the increasing number of allegations of black men raping white women. The crime had become the Souths new excuse for lynching. When she suggested that white women were actually attracted to black men, white citizens of Memphis burned the Free Speech offices to the ground. Wells-Barnett was banished from Memphis and wrote for black publisher Thomas Fortunes paper, the New York Age. WellsBarnetts first anti-lynching pamphlet, Southern Horrors, spoke of an unwritten law that called for the execution of an African-American for injuring a white man. While speaking in Philadelphia, she met Catherine Impey, a British reformer who offered to help Wells-Barnett campaign against lynching in Britain. Her lectures in Britain got her enormous attention in the United States white press and kept the issue of lynching in the public view for both countries. James Allens collection of photographs and postcards help to uncover the visual legacy of lynchings in America. Without Sanctuary shows the unfiltered reality of Americas racist history and hopes to educate visitors on the brutal acts of violence that occurred across in the south as well as the rest of the country. The grisly photographs show corpses hanging from trees and bridges. Some figures are mutilated or charred. The victims include men, women, and children. The scenes are disturbing not only in that African Americans are tortured and killed, but also in that the whites in attendance took photographs and acted as if they were watching a benign spectacle. Allens compilation of lynchings confront the uncomfortable history that exists in the United States. It is important to note that we are only a few decades removed from these events being common place in the south. Lynchings are a powerful way for people to enforce racist ideologies. The torture and killing of those being lynched is not the only effect of the action. Lynching is also used to

Feeny 3 intimidate on-looking African Americans and people who are seeking racial equality. It allows a group of the dominant race to intimidate and manipulate large groups of people. Lynchings often went unpunished and police sometimes cooperated in the event itself. Ida Wells-Barnett made profound contributions to fight the practice of lynching and to confront the issue on an international level. James Allens collection of photographs helps to preserve the visual history of these horrific events and allows people to understand the violent nature in which they were carried out. Lynchings are not nearly as prevalent as they were decades ago. However, racism still persists in the United States both institutionally and in the common public. We must continue to strive against racism and fight for complete racial equality.