Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial killing carried out by a mob, without lawful trial or authority. Historically, it has been used to terrorize and control marginalized groups, especially Black communities in the United States.

Racial terror: Violence or threats used to intimidate a population and preserve racial hierarchy. Lynching made racial terror public and enforced white supremacy through fear.
Lynch law: A phrase for punishment imposed by a mob or unauthorized group outside formal legal process. The phrase named the claimed authority behind extrajudicial punishment.
Ida B. Wells: An African American journalist and anti-lynching activist who documented racial violence in the United States. Her reporting challenged false justifications and public indifference to lynching.
Anti-lynching movement: The campaigns by Black activists and allies to expose lynching and secure legal protections against it. Organized resistance sought to end mob killings and force government intervention.
Without Sanctuary: A 2000 book and exhibition of lynching photographs and related artifacts curated by James Allen. It confronted audiences with images once circulated as souvenirs and records of racial terror.
Spectacle lynching: A lynching staged before a crowd, often with publicity and souvenir-taking. Public gatherings turned individual killings into communal displays of racial power.
Reconstruction era: The period of United States history from 1865 to 1877, following the Civil War. White supremacist violence, including lynching, sought to undo Black political gains.
Mary Church Terrell: An African American educator, civil rights activist, and founding member of the National Association of Colored Women. She organized against lynching and pressed national institutions to act.
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill: A 1922 U.S. bill that would have made lynching a federal crime; it passed the House but failed in the Senate. Its defeat showed the limits of early federal efforts to prosecute lynching.
Strange Fruit: A song about the lynching of Black Americans, first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Its stark lyrics turned lynching into a subject of protest performance.

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