Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States 1889-1918

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF LYNCHING Published by the NAACP in 1919 to promote awareness of lynching in the United States, this seminal study provides information on the lynchings of 3,224 African-Americans between 1889 and 1918. With a new introduction by noted slave historian, Paul Finkelman. "The book reprinted here is one of the most comprehensive studies of lynching in U.S. history. The NAACP data shows that most lynchings were not about interracial sex-the great paranoia of the southern white Americans. Many blacks were lynched because they had allegedly committed murders. However, many of these "murderers" were never tried and the evidence against them was speculative at best. But other blacks were lynched for no apparent reason, or for some minor transgression of social and racial rules-as understood by whites-such as 'inflammatory language,' 'insulting remarks to a white woman,' 'being disreputable,' or just 'race prejudice.' This last cause-racial prejudice-was indeed at the root of almost all lynchings of African-Americans." -- Paul Finkelman, IntroductionCONTENTSSummation of the Facts Disclosed in TablesThe Story of One Hundred LynchingsAppendix I-Analyses of Number of Persons LynchedAppendix II-Chronological List of Persons Lynched in United States 1889 to 1918, Inclusive, Arranged by State