Lynching PowerPoint

LYNCHINGKate, Rob, Kieran

Lynching is an execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting.

Lynching is used in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people.

DEFINITION:

DATES: Lynching's took place most frequently in the Southern

United States starting from 1890 to the 1920s.

After the Civil War, lynching became particularly associated with the South, and with the first Ku Klux Klan which was founded in 1866.

The anti-lynching campaign sought to

fight lynching through education

or legal action.

FACTS: ● At the turn of the 20th century, at least 100 lynching‘s were being reported

each year. In 1892, a record of 230 were lynched: 160 of them were black.

● Out of the 4743 people who were lynched, only 1297 of them were white.

Many of the whites were lynched for helping the black, being anti-lynching or

even for domestic crimes.

● Lynching took place most frequently in the Southern United States.

● Lynching took place between 1882 and 1968.

● Most of the lynching was done

between 1882 and 1920.

Emmett Till (Before & after his murder)

The disturbing lyrics were rejected by Holiday's label, but she recorded it independently; the song became ananthem for the anti-lynching movement which joined the American civil rights movement.

STRANGE FRUIT:A song that refers to lynching is the Billie Holiday song ‘Strange Fruit’ written by Abel Meeropol in 1939.

“Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the roots. Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south, the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth. Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh. Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, here is a strange and bitter crop.”

The lynching of Emmett Till•Emmett Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white women.•Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta area when he spoke to 21 year old Carloyn Bryant.•Several nights later Carolyn Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam arrived at Till’s great-uncle’s house and took Till.

The encounter between Carolyn Bryant and Emmett Till•After skipping church with his cousin, Emmett and some local boys went to Bryant’s Grocery to buy candy, the boys he was with had been picking cotton all day. Emmett was bragging that he had a white girlfriend back home so the boys dared him to speak to Carolyn.•There are several different versions describing what happened, he may have wolf-whistled at Carolyn. However a newspaper article said that Till whistled to alleviate his stuttering.•Carolyn Bryant claimed that Till had grabbed her waist and asked her for a date. Whatever the event, Bryant ran to her car to get her pistol, a man told the boys to quickly leave after hearing what happened. Till quickly told his relatives that he wanted to return to Chicago. Carolyn's husband Roy Bryant was on a trip hauling shrimp to Texas and did not return until August 27th.

The Murder•When Roy Bryant was told of what had happened, he began by aggressively questioned young black men who entered the store.•Later that evening Bryant along with a black man called J. W. Washington approached a young black man and took him to be identified by a grocery worker who saw the event, the boy knew of Till and said he was from Chicago.•Between 2:00 am and 3:30 am on Sunday, August 28, 1955, Bryant and his half brother John Milam went to a house and found Till. They put him in the back of a pick-up truck and drove to a barn in Drew.

• He was beaten in Drew and then taken to Milam’s shed, people walking past Milam’s shed said they could hear somebody being beaten. Till was eventually shot and his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River.

• In Look magazine in 1956, Bryant and Milam stated they had no intention of killing Till, they just wanted to beat him and throw him into the river to frighten him, but Till called them bastards and this encouraged them to shoot him.

• His body was found three days later by boys fishing, his face was badly damaged, he had been shot above the ear, an eye was dislodged, and his neck had been weighted and tied with barbed wire.

Reaction•Till’s murder raised issues about segregation, law enforcement, relations between the North and South, the social status quo in Mississippi, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), White Citizens’ Council and the Cold War.•Many Mississippi newspapers reported the death, one said "Now is the time for every citizen who loves the state of Mississippi to 'Stand up and be counted' before hoodlum white trash brings us to destruction.”, the article said it wasn’t negroes who were not the downfall of Mississippi but the whites, like the violent radicals in the White Citizens’ Councils.•Mississippi’s governor, Hugh L. White promised a "vigorous prosecution". Leflore County Deputy Sheriff John Cothran stated, "The white people around here feel pretty mad about the way that poor little boy was treated, and they won't stand for this.“. The White Citizens’ council responded by saying racial segregation policies were in force for blacks’ safety.

• News of the death eventually spread to Chicago, as soon as this happened the attitude of Mississippi journalists changed dramatically, they started rumours of blacks and whites from the North coming to the South to protest. The NAACP executive Roy Wilkins said the murder was a lynching and accused Bryant and Milam that they carried out the murder to maintain white supremacy in Mississippi. After Wilkin’s comments, white opinions began to shift in Mississippi and they started to reject the opinions of the North, according to the former sheriff, the people of Tallahatchie had an independence and they do “what they damn well please”.

• The current sheriff Clarence Strider, who was initially positive about the case against Bryant, started to question whether the body was actually Till’s, he even began to speculate the body had been planted by the NAACP, he later said "The last thing I wanted to do was to defend those peckerwoods. But I just had no choice about it.”

Influence on Civil Rights•Till’s case became a symbol of black justice in Southern America. The Chicago Defender in 1955 prompted their readers to react to the case by voting in large numbers.•The NAACP asked Mamie Till Bradley to tour the country relating the events of her son’s death to the trial of his murderers, it was the NAACP’s most successful tour ever.•In Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider, which caused the boycott of the public bus system. Parks later said that ‘She thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back.”

John Milam – Look Magazine, 1956

‘Well, what else could we do? He was hopeless. I'm no bully; I never hurt a nigger in my life. I like niggers—in their place—I know how to work 'em. But I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice. As long as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place. Niggers ain't gonna vote where I live. If they did, they'd control the government. They ain't gonna go to school with my kids. And when a nigger gets close to mentioning sex with a white woman, he's tired o' livin'. I'm likely to kill him. Me and my folks fought for this country, and we got some rights. I stood there in that shed and listened to that nigger throw that poison at me, and I just made up my mind. 'Chicago boy,' I said, 'I'm tired of 'em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble. Goddam you, I'm going to make an example of you—just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.'