9 FEBRUARY 2019 BODY OF CHRIST NEWS Lynching in America Representative Lori Saine, of Colorado House District 63 recently made a statement, claiming that the same amount of whites have been lynched as blacks in the United States. Here's the facts and two of the victims tragic stories. Right after the Civil War ended and the slaves were supposed to have been set free, mobs in New Orleans lynched two thousand African Americans men, women, and children in just one year. In Texas from 1865 to 1868, nearly one thousand African Americans were lynched. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1882 - 1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black accounting for 72.7% and 1,297 were white accounting for 27.3%. It is also known that not all of the lynching of blacks by the local offi- cials were recorded, being that they were part of the mob. Mobs often singled out successful black men for retribution. The fastest way to get lynched was to be accused of raping a white woman. In 1911 a successful Negro farmer in Tennessee, who had, by his prosperity, aroused the jeal- ousy and anger of poor whites, was ambushed as he drove to town with his daughters to sell a load of cotton. The three were killed, the two girls by hanging and the father by shoot- ing. The wagon was driven under the tree on which the girls’ bodies hung and fire was set to it, burning the three bodies to a crisp. In Texas in the year 1912 Dan Davis, a Negro charged with rape, was executed in Tyler. Davis calmly asked the mob, "I wish some of you gentlemen would be Christian enough to cut my throat." His request was in vain. Davis would be burned alive. Those with the task of starting the fire were deemed to be too slow, so a few people dashed off to fetch more wood and fuel and were rewarded with front row seats. The impulse to lynch was embed- ded in small towns and Southern culture and economy, though it also appeared in the industrial North. In small southern towns lynching often took place of the carnival, circus, sporting events, and other diversions common to large cities. Affordable train fares, automobiles ownership, a growing telephone net- work, and inexpensive photographs all led to the popularization of the spec- tacle of violence and justice against the big bad black man. A notice of the impending lynching would be sent out in advance so that participants and observers could organize trains, buses, and car caravans. Souvenir photos and post cards were available to mail to family and friends. In the twentieth century, lynching became a shared cultural event. BLACK HISTORY By Body of Christ News