Lynching in America
June 15, 2017 6:29 AM Subscribe
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror is an interactive experience created by the Equal Justice Initiative and launched with support from Google. Includes interactive map exploring the geography of lynching, plus audio stories and video. The (PDF) original report this project was based on was discussed here previously.
I said it in another thread and I'll say it here.
The only reason women and people of color are still battling for equal rights in America is because of the astounding fragility of the white, male ego. Aided and abetted by the suffocating, puritanical, patriarchal bullshit that is the bedrock of 90% of religions here.
White, male America -- what the fuck is wrong with you? These reports are so important. Thank you beagle for posting this. I am forever astounded and ashamed of our racist past and present. I refuse to let Confederate sympathizers, Southern pride supporters and "Heritage not Hate" apologists get away with that bullshit. Lynching is their history. What is there to be proud of?
posted by pjsky at 7:52 AM on June 15, 2017 [9 favorites]
The only reason women and people of color are still battling for equal rights in America is because of the astounding fragility of the white, male ego. Aided and abetted by the suffocating, puritanical, patriarchal bullshit that is the bedrock of 90% of religions here.
White, male America -- what the fuck is wrong with you? These reports are so important. Thank you beagle for posting this. I am forever astounded and ashamed of our racist past and present. I refuse to let Confederate sympathizers, Southern pride supporters and "Heritage not Hate" apologists get away with that bullshit. Lynching is their history. What is there to be proud of?
posted by pjsky at 7:52 AM on June 15, 2017 [9 favorites]
Bryan Stevenson is a national treasure.
posted by allthinky at 8:14 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by allthinky at 8:14 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
I've been reading Blood at the Root this week which takes a long view of how lynching and racial violence in a community not only shaped the place itself, but its role in the larger area. I recommend it.
And today, in the book, I learned that Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the Federal government and, by extension, civil service across the country. When I worked as a summer intern in the Pentagon 30 years ago, it had "smoking" and "non-smoking" bathrooms which I later learned were original "colored" and "white" bathrooms. I often wonder if it just has twice as many bathrooms than you'd expect, or if they've turned those bathrooms into other uses now.
posted by crush at 8:17 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
And today, in the book, I learned that Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the Federal government and, by extension, civil service across the country. When I worked as a summer intern in the Pentagon 30 years ago, it had "smoking" and "non-smoking" bathrooms which I later learned were original "colored" and "white" bathrooms. I often wonder if it just has twice as many bathrooms than you'd expect, or if they've turned those bathrooms into other uses now.
posted by crush at 8:17 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
What about the lynchings of Mexicans and Italians, lesser in numbers but significant none-the-less.
posted by shnarg at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by shnarg at 8:19 AM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
A related "Previously on Metafilter": Without Sanctuary - postcards & photographs of lynching in America. Shocking and sad. (the site is NSFW due to, well, brutality).
As ugly as all of this is, as painful as it is to look at and read about, I'm forever grateful to the people (of all stripes) who do the tough physical and emotional labor to spread the word about this horrific practice and how it's shaped the country we live in today.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:32 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
As ugly as all of this is, as painful as it is to look at and read about, I'm forever grateful to the people (of all stripes) who do the tough physical and emotional labor to spread the word about this horrific practice and how it's shaped the country we live in today.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:32 AM on June 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
What about the lynchings of Mexicans and Italians, lesser in numbers but significant none-the-less.
posted by shnarg at 11:19 AM on June 15
The lynching of Mexican nationals is mentioned on page 56 of the PDF, but the specific focus of this report is the lynchings of African-Americans
That doesn't mean that the lynchings of people of other races(or sexualities, for that matter) are less significant. They're just not the primary focus of this particular report.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:44 AM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by shnarg at 11:19 AM on June 15
The lynching of Mexican nationals is mentioned on page 56 of the PDF, but the specific focus of this report is the lynchings of African-Americans
That doesn't mean that the lynchings of people of other races(or sexualities, for that matter) are less significant. They're just not the primary focus of this particular report.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:44 AM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]
If you haven't seen the American Lynching project supported by NEH, it's another disturbing view of the same topic mostly from historic news accounts.
posted by dbrunton at 8:48 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by dbrunton at 8:48 AM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
That doesn't mean that the lynchings of people of other races(or sexualities, for that matter) are less significant. They're just not the primary focus of this particular report.
I may be mistaken, but I think the majority of the non-racially based 20th century lynchings (when you exclude stuff like alleged horse thieves out West) were against labor organizers. Anyway, iirc, that's what was in the lynching data of "Without Sanctuary".
posted by thelonius at 9:33 AM on June 15, 2017
I may be mistaken, but I think the majority of the non-racially based 20th century lynchings (when you exclude stuff like alleged horse thieves out West) were against labor organizers. Anyway, iirc, that's what was in the lynching data of "Without Sanctuary".
posted by thelonius at 9:33 AM on June 15, 2017
What about the lynchings of Mexicans and Italians, lesser in numbers but significant none-the-less.
I haven't read the articles yet, but I know of another phenomenon: non-fatal lynching. After the murder of Jessie States, the local good 'ol boys in my town found a homeless Indo-Canadian man and beat him to within an inch of his life, under the assumption that he was the culprit (because, of course.) He wasn't, and he wasn't killed, and I guess he never reported it and it never (as far as I know) appeared in the press. But the act was done in the identical spirit to the well-known lynchings of black men. And in Canada, no less. But that sort of thing happens all the time. Racist violence by cowardly white men is just part of the scenery where I come from.
posted by klanawa at 10:42 AM on June 15, 2017 [4 favorites]
I haven't read the articles yet, but I know of another phenomenon: non-fatal lynching. After the murder of Jessie States, the local good 'ol boys in my town found a homeless Indo-Canadian man and beat him to within an inch of his life, under the assumption that he was the culprit (because, of course.) He wasn't, and he wasn't killed, and I guess he never reported it and it never (as far as I know) appeared in the press. But the act was done in the identical spirit to the well-known lynchings of black men. And in Canada, no less. But that sort of thing happens all the time. Racist violence by cowardly white men is just part of the scenery where I come from.
posted by klanawa at 10:42 AM on June 15, 2017 [4 favorites]
Deep down inside I know there was some interstellar mix up that resulted in me winding up on earth instead of the peaceful civilized planet I am supposed to be residing on.
.
posted by notreally at 10:57 AM on June 15, 2017 [4 favorites]
Today was our annual Day of Remembrance in Duluth, Minnesota to Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie. Up to 10,000 Duluthians formed a mob while three Black circus workers were lynched for a rape that in all likelihood never happened, back on June 15, 1920. Until EJI gets their national memorial built, the only memorial to lynching victims of any kind of size and downtown presence is right here, completed in 2003.
posted by RedEmma at 8:36 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RedEmma at 8:36 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
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