African Americans Confront Lynching: Strategies of Resistance from The
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African Americans Confront Lynching Strategies of Resistance from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era Christopher Waldrep StrategiesofResistance.indd 1 9/30/08 11:52:02 AM African Americans Confront Lynching The African American History Series Series Editors: Jacqueline M. Moore, Austin College Nina Mjagkij, Ball State University Traditionally, history books tend to fall into two categories: books academics write for each other, and books written for popular audiences. Historians often claim that many of the popu- lar authors do not have the proper training to interpret and evaluate the historical evidence. Yet, popular audiences complain that most historical monographs are inaccessible because they are too narrow in scope or lack an engaging style. This series, which will take both chronolog- ical and thematic approaches to topics and individuals crucial to an understanding of the African American experience, is an attempt to address that problem. The books in this series, written in lively prose by established scholars, are aimed primarily at nonspecialists. They fo- cus on topics in African American history that have broad significance and place them in their historical context. While presenting sophisticated interpretations based on primary sources and the latest scholarship, the authors tell their stories in a succinct manner, avoiding jargon and obscure language. They include selected documents that allow readers to judge the evidence for themselves and to evaluate the authors’ conclusions. Bridging the gap between popular and academic history, these books bring the African American story to life. Volumes Published Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift Jacqueline M. Moore Slavery in Colonial America, 1619–1776 Betty Wood African Americans in the Jazz Age A Decade of Struggle and Promise Mark Robert Schneider A. Philip Randolph A Life in the Vanguard Andrew E. Kersten The African American Experience in Vietnam Brothers in Arms James Westheider Bayard Rustin American Dreamer Jerald Podair African Americans Confront Lynching Strategies of Resistance Christopher Waldrep Lift Every Voice The History of African American Music Burton W. Peretti African Americans Confront Lynching Strategies of Resistance from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era Christopher Waldrep ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Waldrep, Christopher, 1951– African Americans confront lynching : strategies of resistance from the Civil War to the civil rights era / Christopher Waldrep. p. cm. — (The African American history series) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5272-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-5272-1 (cloth : alk. paper) eISBN-13: 978-0-7425-6483-1 eISBN-10: 0-7425-6483-5 1. Lynching—United States—History. 2. Hate crimes—United States—History. I. Title. HV6457.W347 2009 364.1'34—dc22 2008025180 Printed in the United States of America ϱ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Contents Chronology vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii Prologue: Henry Adams xix Chapter 1 White Constitutionalism: “The Demon’s Rage” 1 Chapter 2 Black Constitutionalism: T. Thomas Fortune and John Mitchell Jr. 13 Chapter 3 The Power of Numbers: Sociology and Lynching, Ida B. Wells and Monroe Work 39 Chapter 4 NAACP: Organized Resistance 59 Chapter 5 Facing Dynamite 93 Chapter 6 Hate Crimes 113 Documents 129 Bibliographic Essay 183 Index 195 About the Author 201 v Chronology 1856 T. Thomas Fortune is born a slave in Florida. 1862 Ida B. Wells is born a slave in Mississippi. 1863 John Mitchell Jr. is born a slave in Virginia. 1866 Ku Klux Klan is organized in Pulaski, Tennessee. Congress passes the first civil rights act in American history and writes the Fourteenth Amendment, making blacks citizens and guaranteeing equal protection and due process of law for all American citizens. Monroe Work is born in North Carolina. 1868 Three-fourths of the states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and it becomes part of the Constitution. 1870 and 1871 Congress passes enforcement acts based on the Fourteenth Amendment, including the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, targeting violently racist individuals acting “under color of law.”1 1883 Chicago Tribune begins annual report on lynchings, listing lynchings from the previous year. 1886 Ida B. Wells wins lawsuits against a discriminating railroad in Tennessee. 1“Under color of law” means acts done by authority of state law. The Fourteenth Amendment says, “No state shall” treat its citizens unequally or deprive them of due process of law. It does not explic- itly say individuals cannot do so. vii viii Chronology 1892 After three of her friends are lynched in Memphis, Ida B. Wells moves to New York and publishes Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. The University of Chicago establishes the first American sociology department. 1893 Walter F. White is born in Atlanta, Georgia. 1904 Monroe Work goes to Tuskegee, Alabama, to establish the Department of Records and Research, dedicated to documenting the accomplishments of black people. 1910 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) begins its campaign against lynching. 1912 James Weldon Johnson publishes Autobiography of an Ex- Colored Man. 1916 NAACP hires James Weldon Johnson as a field secretary. 1918 Walter White joins the NAACP staff and investigates lynching of Jim McIlherron in Tennessee and Mary Turner in Valdosta, Georgia. 1920 James Weldon Johnson becomes the first black NAACP executive secretary and takes charge of the organization. 1921 Tulsa race riot. 1922 House of Representatives passes an antilynching bill that then fails in the Senate. 1931 Walter White becomes executive secretary of the NAACP and takes charge of the organization. 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president. 1937 House of Representatives again passes an antilynching law that again fails in the Senate. 1940 Department of Justice begins to investigate all lynchings in America. House of Representatives again passes an antilynching bill that again fails in the Senate. 1944 Supreme Court decides the case of Screws v. United States, ruling that the federal government can investigate and prosecute lynchings when carried out “under color of law.” 1953 Dwight Eisenhower is elected president. Department of Justice no longer routinely investigates lynchings. 1954 Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional, igniting a wave of racial violence. 1955 White Mississippians murder Emmett Till. 1960 John F. Kennedy is elected president. 1963 Martin Luther King leads protests through Birmingham, Alabama. Kennedy is assassinated. Chronology ix 1964 Barry Goldwater runs for president of the United States by campaigning against crime. Congress passes a new civil rights law. 1965 Black Panthers organize in Oakland, California. Congress passes the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing blacks’ right to vote. Malcolm X is assassinated in New York. 1968 Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis. 1976 Leon Ralph, an African American Democrat from Watts in the California state legislature, writes a state law designed to protect people from violence based on their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, or position in a labor dispute. 1981 The states of Washington and Oregon pass laws aimed at crimes motivated by prejudice. 1990 Congress passes the first federal hate crime law, the Hate Crime Statistics Act. 1993 The Supreme Court rules hate crime laws constitutional. 1994 Congress enacts the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, requiring the U.S. Sentencing Commission to enhance sentences for persons convicted in federal court of hate crimes. Acknowledgments I have now been actively researching American lynching for ten years, and in that time I have accumulated many more debts than I can ever repay. For this project I asked my colleague Eva Sheppard Wolf to read an early draft at a time when she was very busy with her own important work. She nonethe- less graciously consented and gave my manuscript a very careful and helpful reading. My graduate assistant Mike Caires also read the manuscript and of- fered his reactions and suggestions. Mike and Christina Speidel helped with the research at the National Archives. When I first wrote this book my daughter Janelle was an undergraduate, and I asked her to read it to identify words and concepts that might be unclear to a student audience. She found many terms and ideas that I had to rework. As always, my wife Pamela pro- vided support and encouragement. She also read an early version