Most of the lynchings had the same
"scenario"; the whole town is alerted (very often the neighboring
towns as well), the victim is beaten up, tortured (some will
rather say "mutilated"), burned alive then hanged or hanged
then burned, body parts are cut off then sold (there comes the
scramble to gat hold of the "souvenirs"), pictures a taken and
postcards are sent.
Do not be fooled by the movies, it
was rare that the lynchings would happen at night with few people
involved. Contrary, huge crowds of hundred and sometimes thousand
of "spectators" would let out all kinds of exclamations to express
their distraction towards such atrocities. Men women, children,
policemen, judges, journalists, all social classes were there.
Those very common events lead to the establishment of the NAACP
in 1909.
The Tuskegee institute has recorded 4,742 lynchings of blacks
between 1882 and 1968.
Below is a list of a few lynchings in the
USA :
(source : "100 Years of Lynchings" by Ralph Ginzburg)
1889, April 23 - Sam Holt,
accused of murder, burned alive.
1899, December 7 - Richard Coleman,
wrongly accused of murder, burned alive.
1900, February 7 - Will Burst, 19, shot
to death.
1900, March 24 (Ripley). Louis Rice
hanged for testifying in favour of an other black.
1900, June 11 - 2 innocents
hanged because of impatience.
1901, January 3 - George Reed, wrongly accused
of assault then hanged.
1901, February 26 - George Ward,
lynched, burned alive for more than 2 hours.
1901, March 17 - a black woman executed
because her brother was suspected of theft
1901, June 19 - 2 innocents hanged.
1902, May 23 - Accused of assault,
tortured to death.
1903, July 14 - Wrongly accused, shot to death.
1903, July 27 - A black woman accused of poisoning
was hanged.
1906, March 17 - (Planquemines).
William Carr was hanged, accused of stealing a cow.
1910, March 25 (Pine Bluff). Judge
Jones was hanged for seeing a white woman.
1911, August 5 (Demopolis). Sam Verge
was lynched because his brother (wanted in connexion of Vernon
Tutt's murder) was nowhere to be find.
1912, January 23 - 4 blacks (3 men
and 1 woman) were hanged.
1912, April 9 - Lynched for writing
an insulting note to a white woman.
1912, September 16 -
An other innocent lynched.
1913, Febuary 8 - Second
innocent lynched for the same crime, burned alive.
1913, February 24 - 2 blacks lynched,
accused of stealing horses.
1913, August 12 - An
innocent lynched, accused of trying to escape.
1913, August 27 - Killed
for hitting a white man.
1913, September 20 -
Killed for asking a question.
1913, October 20 (Monroe) - Warren
Eton was hanged for making an insulting remark to a white woman.
1914, February 16 (Tampa) - John Richards was lynched,
accused of insulting a woman.
1914, April 29 -
Tortured for kissing a white girl.
1914, May 6 (Groveton) - Charley
Jones was lynched, suspected of stealing a pair of shoes.
1914, July 14 (Lake Cormorant) -
James Bailey was lynched, suspected of stealing 3 mules.
1914, November 25 (Byhalia). Fred
Sullivan and his wife were hanged, accused of arson.
1915, February 24 - Killed
for kissing his white girlfriend.
1915, April 17 (Valdosta) Caesar
Sheffield was lynched for stealing meat.
1915, September 4 (Dresden) - Mallie Wilson,
hanged for entering a room occupied by a white woman.
1915, December 9 - The
mother of a suspect lynched, raped, then hanged.
1916, January 3 - Lynched
for having said «Hello»
1916, March 25 -
Hanged for scrambling a white girl (by mistake).
1916, October 8 (Dewitt) - Frank
Dodd was hanged for insulting 2 white women.
1917, October 13 - Because he complained to
his superior, he was mutilated, his sister raped.
1919, April 4 -
A black soldier lynched for wearing his uniform.
1919, April 29 - Lynched
for writing an insulting note to a white woman.
1919, August 28 - Killed because he asked
for a better salary.
1920, May 8 - Killed because
a white woman was impatient.
1920, July 7 (Durban) - Edwards Roach was hanged.
Accused of assault, he was declared innocent after his death.
1921, July 20 - Explicit example of torture during a lynching.
