The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United StatesWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
African Americans -- History -- 1877-1964; Lynching -- United States; Lynching -- United States -- Statistics
Alabama, 22; Arkansas, 25; California, 3; Florida, 11; Georgia, 17; Idaho,
8; Illinois, 1; Kansas, 3; Kentucky, 9; Louisiana, 29; Maryland, 1;
Mississippi, 16; Missouri, 6; Montana, 4; New York, 1; North Carolina, 5;
North Dakota, 1; Ohio, 3; South Carolina, 5; Tennessee, 28; Texas, 15;
Virginia, 7; West Virginia, 5; Wyoming, 9; Arizona Territory, 3; Oklahoma,
2.
Of this number 160 were of Negro descent. Four of them were lynched in New
York, Ohio and Kansas; the remainder were murdered in the South. Five of
this number were females. The charges for which they were lynched cover a
wide range. They are as follows:
Rape, 46; murder, 58; rioting, 3; race prejudice, 6; no cause given, 4;
incendiarism, 6; robbery, 6; assault and battery, 1; attempted rape, 11;
suspected robbery, 4; larceny, 1; self-defense, 1; insulting women, 2;
desperadoes, 6; fraud, 1; attempted murder, 2; no offense stated, boy and
girl, 2.
In the case of the boy and girl above referred to, their father, named
Hastings, was accused of the murder of a white man; his fourteen-year-old
daughter and sixteen-year-old son were hanged and their bodies filled with
bullets, then the father was also lynched. This was in November, 1892, at
Jonesville, Louisiana.
3
LYNCHING IMBECILES
_(An Arkansas Butchery)_
The only excuse which capital punishment attempts to find is upon the
theory that the criminal is past the power of reformation and his life is
a constant menace to the community. If, however, he is mentally
unbalanced, irresponsible for his acts, there can be no more inhuman act
conceived of than the wilful sacrifice of his life. So thoroughly is that
principle grounded in the law, that all civilized society surrounds human
life with a safeguard, which prevents the execution of a criminal who is
insane, even if sane at the time of his criminal act. Should he become
insane after its commission the law steps in and protects him during the
period of his insanity. But Lynch Law has no such regard for human life.
Assuming for itself an absolute supremacy over the law of the land, it has
time and again dyed its hands in the blood of men who were imbeciles. Two
or three noteworthy cases will suffice to show with what inhuman ferocity
irresponsible men have been put to death by this system of injustice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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