{"id":53769,"date":"2015-02-23T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=53769"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:05","slug":"new-report-on-lynching-reveals-americas-sinister-legacy-of-racial-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/02\/new-report-on-lynching-reveals-americas-sinister-legacy-of-racial-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"New Report on Lynching Reveals America\u2019s Sinister Legacy of \u2018Racial Terrorism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A flag announcing a lynching hangs from the window of the NAACP headquarters on 69 Fifth Ave., New York City. (Photo: Library of Congress)<\/p><\/div>\n

Feb11, 2015 – <\/em>Capital punishment and ongoing racial injustice in the United States are \u201cdirect descendents\u201d of lynching, charges a new study, which found that the pre-World War II practice of \u201cracial terrorism\u201d has had a much more profound impact on race relations in America than previously acknowledged.<\/p>\n

The most comprehensive work done on lynching to date, the investigation unearthed a total of 3,959 racially-motivated lynchings during the period between Reconstruction and World War II, which is at least 700 more killings than previously reported.<\/p>\n

The report, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror <\/em><\/a>, published Tuesday by the legal nonprofit Equal Justice Institute (EJI), culminates the group\u2019s multi-year investigation into lynching in 12 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) during that period.<\/p>\n

These killings, EJI charges, are a form of terrorism. The \u201cviolent and public acts of torture\u201d were widely tolerated, particularly by state and federal officials, and \u201ccreated a fearful environment where racial subordination and segregation was maintained with limited resistance for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failings of this era very much reflect what young people are now saying about police shootings,\u201d EJI Director Bryan Stevenson told<\/a> the Guardian,<\/em> connecting the widespread acceptance of lynchings historically with the current racial justice movement. \u201cIt is about embracing this idea that \u2018black lives matter.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson continued: \u201cI also think that the lynching era created a narrative of racial difference, a presumption of guilt, a presumption of dangerousness that got assigned to African-Americans in particular \u2014 and that\u2019s the same presumption of guilt that burdens young kids living in urban areas who are sometimes menaced, threatened, or shot and killed by law enforcement officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report documents a number of cases where black individuals were tortured and murdered, often in front of spectators, for such \u201ccrimes\u201d as bumping into a white person, wearing their military uniforms after World War I, or not using the appropriate title when addressing a white person.<\/p>\n

The report further suggests that the decline of lynching was tied to the rise of capital punishment \u2014 \u201ca more palatable form of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital punishment, the authors say, remains \u201crooted in racial terror\u201d and is a \u201cdirect descendant of lynching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 1910 and 1950, African-Americans fell to just 22 percent of the South\u2019s population but constituted 75 percent of those executed there during that time. And today, African-Americans compromise less than 13 percent of the nation\u2019s population but nearly 42 percent of those currently on death row in America.<\/p>\n

The report continues: \u201cModern death sentences are disproportionately meted out to African-Americans accused of crimes against white victims; efforts to combat racial bias and create federal protection against racial bias in the administration of the death penalty remain thwarted by familiar appeals to the rhetoric of states\u2019 rights; and regional data demonstrates that the modern death penalty in America mirrors racial violence of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors hope that by confronting the reality of the country\u2019s racial history, Americans can work toward addressing the contemporary problems that are lynching\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era of racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it,\u201d Stevenson said.<\/a><\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Lauren McCauley<\/em> is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/em><\/p>\n

This post first appeared at<\/em> Common Dreams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 billmoyers.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb11, 2015 – Capital punishment and ongoing racial injustice in the United States are \u201cdirect descendents\u201d of lynching, charges a new study, which found that the pre-World War II practice of \u201cracial terrorism\u201d has had a much more profound impact on race relations in America than previously acknowledged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}