Lynch Mobs In To Kill A Mockingbird

A perfect example backing up what Wells-Barnett argues the cause of lynching is in Southern Horrors is the case of a lynching that occurred on March 9th, 1892 in Memphis, Tennessee. Tensions were rising in a Memphis neighborhood after three African American men; Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart, opened their own grocery store that was taking business away from a nearby white owned store. The three black men stayed overnight at their store to protect it from vandals that night. Sometime in the night they shot off some of the white men who came to attack. In retaliation for the white men who were shot, the storeowners were arrested and taken to jail. These men were never given the opportunity to defend their actions due to a lynch mob dragging them from their cell then murdering them. Additionally, Wells-Barnett informed the public that some of the cases, more often than not where black men that were lynched for raping white women, the sexual relations were consensual and not forced. Learning of the unjust treatment of the store owners, the other men who were falsely accused of rape, and countless other injustices Wells-Barnett became outraged to the degree of taking it upon herself to put her life at risk by traveling the south for two months gathering information on other lynching incidents

Thomas Fuller once said, “The mob has many heads, but no brains.” In this day in age, mob mentality is seen as having a negative influence on society. Specific behaviors can be triggered by the influence of our peers around us, some of which can cause people to take perilous actions that can have a significant impact on humanity.

In the late 19th century, lynchings were commonplace occurrences, especially in Southern states. The lynchings were publicized in newspaper ads and were so accepted that postcards showing pictures of the event were sold as souvenirs. Apologists claimed that the lynchings took place to punish criminals for their crimes and to protect white women from black aggressors. To counter the claims that resulted in these “punishments,” many activists, including Ida B. Wells, wrote speeches depicting the harsh and racist reality of lynchings. In 1909, Wells gave a speech at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s first annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, in which she condemns lynchings and their public acceptance. By offering

During the Reconstruction era, former slaves received much violence from whites. About 5,000 blacks were murdered by whites from 1865-1866. White mobs killed 34 blacks in New Orleans and 46 blacks in Memphis during race riots in 1866. Blacks were also subjected to the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret white organization. That was founded in 1865 or 1866 in Tennessee. The members of the Ku Klux Klan wore white hoods and robes and put white sheets over their horses. Blacks and white sympathizers were beaten and murdered by the Klan. The Klan did whatever it could to prevent blacks from exercising their rights. By terrorizing blacks, they kept them from voting. These attacks couldn’t even be stopped by the U.S. Army troops.

First, ask yourself how would you feel after hearing the news that one of your family members had been lynched? Throughout the chapters 1-8, we can experience and observe the disheartening history of violence and lies. It is additionally an irritating depiction of a partitioned country on the very edge of the social equality development and an eerie contemplation on race, history, and the battle for truth. Throughout history, the conditions of the lynching, how it affected the legislators of the day, quickened the social equality development and keeps on shadowing the Georgia people group where these homicides occurred. During the 1900s until 19600s various African-Americans experienced various harsh conditions of violence, never being granted the right to vote and being segregated from whites based on their race and skin-color from their white masters. In general racism between whites and blacks can be seen throughout the globe during the era of slavery

These organizations mainly targeted guiltless blacks, and on occasion, other minorities. Lynching was commonly used to kill the blacks. About 3,209 blacks fell victims of these hate crimes during the years 1889 to 1918 by these organizations. Many minorities that worked at the factories, as well as the majorities, started many riots, boycotts and other forms of strikes to accomplish the goals they set out to achieve.

Before and during the Civil War it was not uncommon for masters to physically harm their slaves, often times hurting them just enough so that they didn't die. But now as slavery was abolished, harm still came to those who were free. The only difference was that it had a new name (lynching) and some of the reasoning behind it. White southern leaders felt threatened and thought that their rights were the ones being threatened. They saw the North trying to elevate the colored population in the South, holding the freedmens' rights above the white population. Those men then began retaliating against those freedmen and any of their supporters. Where slavery usually involved the harming of the slave, lynching involved both white and black people, men and women. Many massacres occurred during this time of Reconstruction, most of them could have been avoidable if the North had stricter laws and higher security in places with high

Recently, an L.A. Times article (dated 2/13/00) reviewed a new book entitled "Without Sanctuary", a collection of photographs from lynchings throughout America. During the course of the article, the author, Benjamin Schwarz, outlined some very interesting and disturbing facts related to this gruesome act of violence: Between 1882 and 1930, more than 3,000 people were lynched in the U.S., with approximately 80% of them taking place in the South. Though most people think only African Americans were victims of lynchings, during those years, about 25% were white. Data indicates that mobs in the West lynched 447 whites and 38 blacks; in the Midwest there were 181 white victims and 79 black; and in the South, people lynched 291

Lynchings were commonplace, yet one of the most heinous acts of mob justice dealt out in the Jim Crow era. Between the years 1880 and 1930, 3,343 lynchings occurred in the United States. Eighty percent of lynchings occurred in the American South with the majority of these occurring in Mississippi and Georgia (Manis 56). Macon was not an exception to the outburst of lynchings. Six known lynchings occurred in Bibb County: one in 1880’s, one in the 1890’s, one in 1912, and three in years spanning from 1918 to 1922 (Manis 57). The three lynchings that occurred from 1918 to 1922 came at a time when returning WW1 veterans, exposed to entirely

During the nineteenth century, lynching was brought to America by British Isles and after the Civil War white Americans lynching African American increased. Causing and bringing fear into their world. In the Southern United States, lynching became a method used by the whites to terrorize the Blacks and to remain in control with white supremacy. The hatred and fear that was installed into the white people’s head had caused them to turn to the lynch law. The term lynching means to be put to death by hanging by a mob action without legal sanction. So many white people were supportive of lynching because it was a sign of power that the white people had. “Lynching of the black people was used frequently by white people, their is no specific detail of how many times they had done it, but lynching of black people has lasted from 1882 to 1968. Lynching also is in fact a inhuman combination of racism and sadism which was used to support the south’s caste system,’’(Gandhi).

Another way that white southerners were able to rolled back many of the rights held by African Americans is by lynching. Lynch is a mob of people killed, especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial. The primary source, ““Lynch Law in America” the author Ida B. Wells organized a national fight against lynching in the early twentieth century. Born a slave, Wells became a teacher and civil rights leader in Memphis, Tennessee. When a white mob lynched three of her friends, she helped organize a black boycott of white-owned businesses and wrote harsh editorials in her own newspaper. According to Wells, lynching “ It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is

Starting with 1892, the Ida’s newspaper was destroyed. Her newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech, was the most prominent Newspaper for forty years of lynching in United States. They then began making speech and her last speech was the one she made in Chicago on January 1900. The national crime for USA by then was lynching. Today, lynching is not the creature for a moment. It can attract uncontrolled fury of the insane mob, leading to destruction. Lynching was being used as the effective method of making judgment by those times.

The great majority of people lynched between 1882 and 1930 were black. During that period there were almost 4800 recorded lynchings in the United States. There were many more, no doubt, but we know about 4800. 3400 victims of this mob justice were black. The period from 1889 to 1893 accounted for the worst years. 579 blacks were lynched as opposed to 260 whites. That is a ration of 2.2 blacks lynched for every white. This is a significant difference already, but only part of the story. By the end of the century the racial nature of lynching had revealed itself, completely and unmistakably. Between 1899 and 1903, 543 people were lynched in the United States -- men and women. Of that number only 27 were white. That is a ratio of 22 blacks lynched for every white.

Lynching was way of life in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. As Wells-Barnett points out, although most white people try to say that they did not want to discuss the noisy, because it will drag the reputation of angry white women, the vast majority of lynching had been completed, white people thought like lynching or burning some black people just to teach them their place. Wells intends to dissolve these myths and reasons into lynching, especially black rape white women. She repeats and the objectivity of the news proves that most black corpses killed black citizens are innocent and that their murders are not punished.

In to kill a mocking, Harper Lee uses a range of techniques to present the mob in a bad, and in cases a mocking light. When first coming on to scene, the mob is presented as one shadowy figure, but when actually inspected closely upon, it is seen that that is not the truth at all.