Lynching in the Jim Crow South more prevalent than previously thought

A boy watches a mob march by.
(Image credit: Library of Congress/Flickr)

The Equal Justice Initiative just finished a meticulous historical examination of lynching in the Jim Crow South, and the results are grim. They find that from 1877-1950, nearly 4,000 Americans were murdered by white supremacist mobs, at least 700 more than previous studies:

The report calls this "terror lynching," because it was a foundational part of the politics of Jim Crow. It was often not for blacks accused of a crime, but for those who had committed social transgressions (bumping into a white woman, for example) or for community leaders who resisted mistreatment. Behind the surface of segregation was the threat of violent death for anyone who resisted.

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Read the report here.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.