Lynching in Marion, Indiana 1930. This picture …
Lynching in Marion, Indiana 1930. This picture was taken from the collection of James Allen who has dedicated himself to documenting racial violence in America. These pictures and a movie can be seen at this site.
Women were rarely lynched, but there are photos …
Women were rarely lynched, but there are photos of a dead black woman named Laura Nelson, lynched May 25, 1911 in Okemah, Oklahoma. The text accompanying this photo, says,
District Judge Caruthers convened a grand jury in June 1911 to investigate the lynching of the Negro woman and her son. In his instructions to the jury, he said, “The people of the state have said by recently adopted constitutional provision that the race to which the unfortunate victims belonged should in large measure be divorced from participation in our political contests, because of their known racial inferiority and their dependent credulity, which very characteristic made them the mere tool of the designing and cunning. It is well known that I heartily concur in this constitutional provision of the people’s will. The more then does the duty devolve upon us of a superior race and of greater intelligence to protect this weaker race from unjustifiable and lawless attacks.”
Nelson’s lynching was unusual not for its cruelty, but because it was so well documented photographically, almost certainly because the victim was a woman. She and her son, L.W., age 14, were lynched from a bridge over the Canadian River near Okemah. They were hanged about 20 feet apart.
L.W. was accused of murdering a deputy investigating them for theft. The boy’s father confessed to the theft and was remanded to custody elsewhere. Laura confessed to the shooting to save her son. She and LW were locked up in the jail. The lynch mob entered, “overpowered” the lone guard and took mother and son to the bridge and lynched them.
Lynching is Just All Right with Them
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
These men have two thing in common. They are all Republicans. They all failed to co-sponsor or vote for anti-lynching legislation.
Why?
The picture is haunting. The bodies of the dead da…
The picture is haunting. The bodies of the dead dangle overhead, twisted and grotesque, while the living frolic beneath them, posing for the camera. The joy and laughter on the faces of the celebrants is unmistakably genuine. These are people exulting in hate, glorying in their own cruelty.
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
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.
