Lynch Mobs

Description

Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University considers the lynchings of blacks in the South to be a "system of terror," carried out in public.

This feature is no longer available.

The Story of Emmett Till

Description

NBC Narrator Rosalind Jordan looks back at the story of Emmett Till, who was 14 when he left Chicago to visit his family in the segregated South. Two white men accused Till of making a pass at Bryant's wife, Carolyn, and Till was brutally murdered.

This feature is no longer available.

Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America

Annotation

James Allen has assembled a collection of chilling photographs of lynchings throughout America, primarily from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many were circulated as souvenir postcards. The site is a companion to Allen's book Without Sanctuary. The exhibit can be experienced through a flash movie with narrative comments by Allen or as a gallery of more than 80 photographs with brief captions. Most images also have links to more extensive descriptions of the circumstances behind each specific act of violence.

While the vast majority of lynching victims were African Americans, white victims are also depicted. Individually and as a group, these images are disturbing and difficult to fathom. They provide, however, an excellent resource for approaching the virulence and impact of racism in late 19th and 20th-century America.