VI. Percentages lynched for various causes by years, 1882–1903, Whites and Others 173 VII. Percentages lynched for various causes by years, 1882–1903, Negroes 174 VIII. Proportion lynched for various causes, 1882–1903, Whites and Others 175 IX. Proportion lynched for various causes, 1882–1903, Negroes 176 X. Proportion lynched for various causes in Southern States, 1882–1903, Whites and Others 177 XI. Proportion lynched for various causes in Southern States, 1882–1903, Negroes 178 XII. Proportion lynched for various causes in Western States, 1882–1903 179 XIII. Proportion lynched for various causes in Eastern States, 1882–1903 180 LYNCH-LAW CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It has been said that our country’s national crime is lynching. We may be reluctant to admit our peculiarity in this respect and it may seem unpatriotic to do so, but the fact remains that lynching is a criminal practice which is peculiar to the United States. The practice whereby mobs capture individuals suspected of crime, or take them from the officers of the law, and execute them without any process at law, or break open jails and hang convicted criminals, with impunity, is to be found in no other country of a high degree of civilization. Riots and mob executions take place in other countries, but there is no such frequent administration of what may be termed popular justice which can properly be compared with lynch-law procedure in the United States. The frequency and impunity of lynchings in the United States is justly regarded as a serious and disquieting symptom of American society.