There were at least 700 more Lynches in the South than previously thought

[PDH]

I failed math.

Wyoming failed meth.

[viper37]

Stuff like this is in the realm of "hard to believe humans can be so inhuman".

I can no more imagine myself getting together with some friends to go out and randomly murder some black guy than I could imagine working the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

being an active participant is one thing.  I don't think anyone here would do such things.

But being a bystander, not knowing the crime that was done, in that time period, you see a black guy being lynched, not many of us would actively try to prevent the lynching.  It would likely appear to be normal.  Heck, maybe even for many of those lynching the black guys, they thought they were killing a criminal.

Probably similar to those police shootings, when a black man and a white officer are involved.  I doubt the officer makes the conscious decision "oh wait, he's black, I'm gonna shoot that nigger and be done with it, then I'll claim he came at me".

[viper37]

When was the last time a black dude was lynched?

Well, I think they prefer lethal injection nowadays.  You could make a case that it is not the same thing as a lynching, despite the end result being very similar.

This is like Zerobama talking about the crusades as the justification for muslim terrorism.
Sure dude.

Here's a novel idea: quote me the exact words of Obama instead of relying on Gop spin doctors.  I'd really like to read that justification he supposedly made...

[Eddie Teach]

David is my favorite of them all.  By far.

Mono's favorite is Merrill. Marty's favorite is Jane.

[dps]

Stuff like this is in the realm of "hard to believe humans can be so inhuman".

I can no more imagine myself getting together with some friends to go out and randomly murder some black guy than I could imagine working the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

being an active participant is one thing.  I don't think anyone here would do such things.

If we were somehow transported back in time, no.  Though, if we were all white males born in the South back in the day, or Germans during WWII, I think a lot of us wouldn't be so noble.  Look at some of our posters' attitudes toward Moslems.  If those same posters were Germans of 70-some years ago, don't you think they'd be positively enthusiastic about gassing the Jews?

But being a bystander, not knowing the crime that was done, in that time period, you see a black guy being lynched, not many of us would actively try to prevent the lynching.  It would likely appear to be normal.  Heck, maybe even for many of those lynching the black guys, they thought they were killing a criminal.

While some blacks were lynched for actual crimes, most were lynched simply for being "uppity".  You know, for doing things like wearing their Army uniform, trying to register to vote, or reading a newspaper.

People that were lynched out west, as opposed to the south, were mostly those accused of crimes (and were usually white).  Whether they were actually guilty of those crimes is another issue.

Well, I think they prefer lethal injection nowadays.  You could make a case that it is not the same thing as a lynching, despite the end result being very similar.

It's the same thing if you think kidnapping someone is the same thing as sending someone to prison.

[grumbler]

When was the last time a black dude was lynched?

Well, I think they prefer lethal injection nowadays.  You could make a case that it is not the same thing as a lynching, despite the end result being very similar.

If you do nothing at all to a person, the end result is "very similar" to a lynching, by this reasoning.

[alfred russel]

When was the last time a black dude was lynched?

Well, I think they prefer lethal injection nowadays.  You could make a case that it is not the same thing as a lynching, despite the end result being very similar.

If you do nothing at all to a person, the end result is "very similar" to a lynching, by this reasoning.

Jesus will lynch us all, but people still worship him. Talk about an uncle tom attitude...

[Valmy]

Well, I think they prefer lethal injection nowadays.  You could make a case that it is not the same thing as a lynching, despite the end result being very similar.

Even if you view the death penalty falling disproportionately on blacks it is not comparable at all because the terrorism is not present.  Black men are not terrified of interacting with white people today because we might get them placed on death row if they say the wrong thing.

[Valmy]

The largest single lynching event recorded in the US was of Italian laborers in New Orleans.  And lynchings in the Western states were largely mob justice against white victims.  Of course, this doesn't change the fundamental fact that lynching as a form of organized political violence was overwhelmingly directed against former slaves and their black descendants.

The purpose was similar, terrorism.  Sometimes justifiably so I suppose.  In my genealogical studies I found the story of a man who kept offering to guide pioneers through the local community but instead he was murdering them all and taking all their valuables.  One time a young boy escaped, made it back to the locals and told the people what was going on.  So they lynched him and left him hanging there as warning to others.

I have a photography book that probably corresponds to the exhibit derspiess saw.  What I find most remarkable is that lynching was not really treated a vile but necessary activity, but something that the participants took pride in and that was perceived as wholesome fun for the whole family in the communities where it took place, even where it involved extreme torture or the mutilation of corpses.  Many of the photos are taken from souvenir postcards of the period that were widely sold where lynchings took place, and then mailed to family and friends across the country; it took the intervention of the Postmaster General (during, IIRC, the T. Roosevelt administration) to drive this market underground, alongside the equally robust trade in the memorabilia of lynching victims' body parts.

True.  Both of these things were true at the same time.  This part had a lot to do with Southern Redemption and the mythical Reconstruction.  I mentioned the coup that overthrew the government of Wilmington in another thread, the propaganda of black men rampaging through the streets and a Reconstruction era government aimed at destroying the South was what got everybody ready for battle.  And I suppose it was in the sense that it was a biracial Republican government.  You better believe the guys who took part in that were damn proud of it, having taken the South back from the evil Yankees and the blacks they brainwashed through lies etc...

But at the same time, especially as the Civil War generation began to die off, there was that disconnect between the image of the genteel South where everybody knew their place and was happy and the terror.  This required secret societies and all kinds of myth making to work.

Although there was some hand-wringing on the part of New South boosters in big city newspaper editorials, lynchings were largely something that you had to explain *not* participating in if you were a prominent male citizen in the communities where they took place.

Well yeah, why aren't you doing your duty for the community?  It was sort of like draft dodging.

[garbon]

being an active participant is one thing.  I don't think anyone here would do such things.

But being a bystander, not knowing the crime that was done, in that time period, you see a black guy being lynched, not many of us would actively try to prevent the lynching.  It would likely appear to be normal.  Heck, maybe even for many of those lynching the black guys, they thought they were killing a criminal.

So? Even if they thought that, it isn't up to the mob to dispense justice. In killing a "criminal", they became criminals

Probably similar to those police shootings, when a black man and a white officer are involved.  I doubt the officer makes the conscious decision "oh wait, he's black, I'm gonna shoot that nigger and be done with it, then I'll claim he came at me".

I may dislike the police but I don't see how this is similar at all.

[derspiess]

Here's a novel idea: quote me the exact words of Obama instead of relying on Gop spin doctors.  I'd really like to read that justification he supposedly made...

Get off your high horse.

[Ed Anger]

neigh

[viper37]

If we were somehow transported back in time, no.  Though, if we were all white males born in the South back in the day, or Germans during WWII, I think a lot of us wouldn't be so noble.  Look at some of our posters' attitudes toward Moslems.  If those same posters were Germans of 70-some years ago, don't you think they'd be positively enthusiastic about gassing the Jews?

I think it depends on the age&education we got.
Were we raised by Hitler's Youth, there's zero doubt that most of us would have happily gazed jews.

But if we're around 30 when the Nazis come to power, hard to tell.  Well, Jacob wouldn't do it for sure, that I know.  What with him being arrested in 1934 and deported to some concentration camp already . Siege is a no brainer, if he was not Jewish, he would have killed the Jews, ennemies of the State.
Others, I still think most of us wouldn't have done it.  Fighting in the war, certainly.  Turning a blind eye to suspicions we have, most likely, like most Whermacht army officers who didn't actively participate in the masscres.  But volunteering for the Totenkopf, even the muslim haters I find them unable to do so.  Maybe I'm too idealistic.

While some blacks were lynched for actual crimes, most were lynched simply for being "uppity".  You know, for doing things like wearing their Army uniform, trying to register to vote, or reading a newspaper.

What I'm trying to say is that I am unfamiliar with the process.  I always assumed that a lynch mob would take a black and simply decide to hang him, and when asked why by someone they would make trumped up charges and people would go along with it.

It's the same thing if you think kidnapping someone is the same thing as sending someone to prison.

If you send someone to prison knowing he's not really guilty or that there exist a strong possibility he is not guilty, but he's a poor black and nobody will miss him, yes, it is the same.

It's also the same when you refuse to condemn a bunch of white guys who murdered a black man because it was just kids having fun.

[garbon]

If you send someone to prison knowing he's not really guilty or that there exist a strong possibility he is not guilty, but he's a poor black and nobody will miss him, yes, it is the same.

Is your contention that the above has widespread occurrence?

[viper37]

So? Even if they thought that, it isn't up to the mob to dispense justice. In killing a "criminal", they became criminals

Because Americans living in the South and mid-west at that time had an inane sense of justice, believing it's the State's responsibility to dispense justice and they had nothing to do with it?  Yeah right.

I may dislike the police but I don't see how this is similar at all.

It is.  It is called racism.  You assume that the black guy is a criminal and he's dangerous because he's black and all blacks hate whites.  So, you're a police officer, you see a black guy resisting arrest, you assume he is armed and will kill you, no more question, you defend yourself.

In the case of a lynching mob, they assume they are doing what is necessary to protect themselves, to protect their families.  Most bystanders would probably not bother to find out why the guy is lynched.