Lynchings In America Essay -- essays research papers

Recently, an L.A. Times article (dated 2/13/00) reviewed a new book entitled "Without Sanctuary", a order of battle of photographs from lynchings throughout America. During the course of the article, the author, Benjamin Schwarz, outlined some very evoke and disturbing facts related to this gruesome act of violence Between 1882 and 1930, to a greater extent than 3,000 people were lynched in the U.S., with approximately 80% of them taking place in the South. Though most people think only African Americans were victims of lynchings, during those years, active 25% were dust coat. Data indicates that mobs in the West lynched 447 whites and 38 blacks in the middle west there were 181 white victims and 79 black and in the South, people lynched 291 whites and 2,462 African Americans. Though most people believe lynchings were just the manifestation of racial hatred, the author indicates that 20% of Southern lynching victims were killed by mobs of their own race. In addition, ot her societies such as Ancient Rome and Greece, Germany, China, Nigeria, and East Africa lynched their own. It is for this moderateness that Mr. Schwarz believes lynchings cannot be explained only in terms of racism and paranoid "white psyche". To find the true reason, we must consider a diverse point of view. According to Mr. Schwarz, in the late 19th century, there arose in the South a large proportion of transient black manpower who, as their labor became expendable in an increasingly industrial and commercialised econo...