America After Slavery: From Lynching to White Riots
As the dust of the Civil war settled, many Blacks saw an era of prosperity and hope. This dream was cut drastically as a concerted effort was begun by whites to destroy any advances which Blacks had made for themselves. This effort was extremely successful in removing Blacks from the many state and federal offices which Reconstruction had allowed them to hold. But this was not enough. The architects of the revived South needed something more to further the cause of white supremacy and Black oppression. Out of this need, the era of Jim Crow was born with its "separate but equal" claims. And with it came a wave of violence against America's newest citizens. The social atmosphere of white supremacy which Jim Crow had managed to create soon became a tide of hatred. Bolstered by the idea of the inferiority of Blacks and the protection of "white womanhood," whites saw it as nothing to trample Blacks in a storm of violence. These attacks included lynchings, burnings, and race riots. And though the majority of this violence took place in the South, the North was by no means immune. For more than a century, angry whites made the life of Black America a continuous nightmare.
Burnings and Lynchings
Burnings of Blacks were commonplace in America following Reconstruction. Primarily the victims were Black males who were often mutilated, shot and beaten before being burned on pyres. This Black man was beaten, stoned, dragged through the street and then burned alive by onlookers. His body parts were later sold as souvenirs which was often the custom.
Mob lynchings were a common form of death for young Black men. The idea that most of these men were charged with the rape of white women is a false one. Their alleged crimes were numerous: using offensive language; bad reputation; refusal to give up a farm; throwing stones; unpopularity; slapping a child; and stealing hogs to name a few. In East Texas a black man and his three sons were lynched for the grand crime of "harvesting the first cotton of the season." Only 19% of those lynched were ever charged with rape. Fewer were ever proven.
It should be remembered that it was not only Black men who were killed during this era. The lynching of Mary Turner best illustrates this. Turner, a pregnant Black woman, was lynched in Valdosta, Georgia in 1918. Turner was tied to a tree, doused with gasoline and motor oil and burned. As she dangled from the rope, a man stepped forward with a pocketknife and ripped open her abdomen in a crude Cesarean operation. A news reporter who witnessed the killing wrote, "Out tumbled the prematurely born child. Two feeble cries it gave---and received for the answer the heel of a stalwart man, as life was ground out of the tiny form." Pictured here is the famous Silent Protest March of 1917 against lynching which featured the famous banner, "Mother, do lynchers go to heaven?"
Ida B. Wells was one of the most outspoken crusaders against lynchings, burnings, and other acts of white on Black violence. For forty years she rallied her cause in both America and Europe. A radical for her times, Wells worked feverishly to dispel the myth of the sex-starved, white skin lusting, black rapist. This was an act which put her life in danger time and time again. No pacifist, she stated defiantly that the greatest deterrent against lynching was for every Black man to keep a Winchester rifle at his window. Ida B. Wells wrote several long and detailed studies on lynchings which are still regarded as some of the best works on the subject even today.
White Riots
Often the word 'riot' conveys in one's head the idea of Black urban residents rebelling as seen since the 1960s. But riots were a part of America long before Blacks decided to take part. Throughout the United States, riots erupted as angry white citizenry of all classes took to the streets to terrorize and attack Blacks. They took place in Memphis, Chicago, Wilmington, and elsewhere. Entire prosperous Black districts were destroyed in Oklahoma and Florida by jealous whites. These white riots were numerous both in the North and South and were often helped along by the local police or militia. The picture above is of a Black man being stoned to death with bricks in front of his home by a white mob in Chicago, Illinois. To the right is the same black man found dead by police. Below are only a few of the numerous anti-Black riots that occurred following the slave trade.
The Great Memphis Race Riot of 1866 occurred between May 1st and 3rd as Irish policemen, firemen and other white laborers attacked Black Union troops and residents. At least 46 Blacks were killed, some 80 wounded, and at least 5 Black women were raped. Twelve schools and 4 churches were burned.
In 1906 a riot occurred in Atlanta, Georgia in which whites, including policemen, attacked Blacks throughout the city. This event, then known as the Atlanta Massacre, reportedly killed "scores of Blacks."
In July of 1917 white citizens of East St. Louis attacked Black districts. Anywhere from 40 to 200 Blacks were killed and 6,000 more were driven from their homes.
Civil Rights and White Rage
After returning to America from WWII many Blacks began to fight more strongly for their rights. They staged boycotts, sit-ins, protests, and demonstrations. And though these actions were peaceful, they did not stop whites from lashing out with brutality and violence.
One of the most brutal and shocking murders of the time was the death of 14 yr. old Emmett Till. Visiting Mississippi from Chicago during the summer of 1955, Emmett was accussed of the supposed crime of "whistling at a white woman." For this great offense, two white men kidnapped him from his grandparents' home, beat him, mutilated him, shot him and threw his body into a river. His killers were acquitted of the crime. Pictured here is Emmett Till with his mother.
No one was immune from the violence of white America. On September 15, 1963 at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a dynamite bomb planted by white anti-Civil Rights activists exploded injuring more than 20 people. Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair pictured here were all killed in the blast.
Holocaust: The Numbers
How many Blacks died throughout the years of white rage and violence is unknown. But to put it all in perspective, contemplate on the following. Between 1899-1918 alone, the NAACP estimated that 3,200 Blacks were killed by white mobs. This means that 3,200 Black people were murdered in only a thirty-year period! In 1893 it was estimated that white mobs lynched a Black man or woman a day. (Photos and Information courtesy of Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett, A Red Record by Ida B. Wells, Black Holocaust Website, The Black Book, Rope and Faggot, Eyes on the Prize)
America After Slavery:
