Week of November 16

Thanksgiving Break isn’t kind to us this year. I had hoped to have an uninterrupted series of classes during which to explore the issues of race, and I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. I know that numbers of students will be departing early, because travelling over Thanksgiving is horrendous–it’s the busies few days for airlines in the entire calendar year. I’m going to take a census in class on Friday the 9th to see how many people are going to be here on Monday the 19th, and I may adjust this syllabus accordingly. We will have class, but I don’t want anyone to miss some of the agenda items, because of their interest and their importance.

Between 1882 (when reliable statistics were first collected) and 1968 (when the classic forms of lynching had disappeared), 4,743 persons died of lynching, 3,446 of them black men and women. Mississippi (539 black victims, 42 white) led this grim parade of death, followed by Georgia (492, 39), Texas (352, 141), Louisiana (335, 56), and Alabama (299, 48). From 1882 to 1901, the annual number nationally usually exceeded 100;

1892 had a record 230 deaths (161 black, 69 white).

Although lynchings declined somewhat in the twentieth century, there were still 97 in 1908 (89 black, 8 white), 83 in the racially troubled postwar year of 1919 (76, 7, plus some 25 race riots), 30 in 1926 (23, 7), and 28 in 1933 (24, 4).

About Lynching, by Robert L. Zangrando, et al.

Internet Assignment:

Download and Read:

About Lynching, by Robert L. Zangrando,

Lynch Law in Georgia, by Ida Wells Barnett (1899)

Lynching in America, including the report of the lynching

in Urbana, Ohio and the newspaper accounts of it.

I am expecting that some of you will find today's readings and discussion profoundly disturbing. In fact, I would be a bit disappointed if this was not the case. All too often we are ready to assume that inter-social conflict is something that happens elsewhere... in Ireland, or Israel, or Afghanistan, certainly not in "civilized" America. And yet our own record is bloody enough, and surprisingly unknown. There are a number of voices speaking to you today, and it is important that you consider them. Note that popular sentiments divided on this issue, and that for every anti-lynch crusader like Ida Wells there were civic voices raised defending the practice. Note, too, that not all the lynchings were southern, Urbana, Illinois, scene of a late 19th century lynching was home to the University of Illinois. Not all the persons lynched were black. However, in many cases where a white person was lynched the "crime" involved over familiarity with black persons.

Note the social class implications in this cartoon. If you've seen the film, To Kill a Mockingbird, you'll have seen some similar social class implications. We'll look at some photographs when we return which will question the implications suggested by this illustration.

Without Sanctuary

I've been debating with myself just how to present this particular website to you, or whether in fact to present it at all. I've decided that the best way to observe it is quietly, without comment, communing with our own sense of what justice is, what Americans are, and what this exhibit tells us about our past, including the violent edge of the 1980s.

I'll try to hold the silence for a few minutes, then open the floor for anyone's comments.

Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book "Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers . Features will be added to this site over time and it will evolve into an educational tool. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing. We welcome your comments and input through the forum section.

Hon. Austin Stoneman*, an abolitionist leader in the National House of representatives

His lovely daughter, Elsie*

His older son, Phil

His younger son, Tod

The Southern Cameron family

Dr. Cameron*

Mrs. Cameron, His wife*

Margaret the eldest daughter*

Younger pet sister, Flora, a.k.a., "Little Sister" *

Eldest son Benjamin, known as "the Little Colonel"*

Second son Wade

Youngest son Duke

The Blacks (all played by whites)

Silas Lynch, mulatto (half African-American) leader of the blacks.*

Lydia Brown, Stoneman’s mulatto housekeeper and mistress*

Gus, the “inflamed, lusty Negro” "renegade"*

Two unnamed “faithful servants”.*

This film is one of the most controversial ever made: The filmsite says: The film is many things: repulsive, naive, biased, simplistic, historically inaccurate, and astonishing in its view of history and racist glorification of the KKK

Visit the website http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html and read the history of the film thoroughly. Note that it extends through three web pages. Bring a list of the principal characters with you to the film: I’ve placed asterisks by the most crucial

The first syllabus announced an "optional" take-home final. I will post this online by Friday of this week. Here's a few thoughts on this.

The reason that I'm calling this "optional" is that for students who have done a thorough job on the journal to do this would be largely redundant. Through creating entries which follow the topics discussed all semester you have, in essence, already written something of an "final exam".

You may want to compare your journal with the weekly syllabus updates to see if you've more or less covered the territory, and let that guide you in determining whether or not you plan to do the final exercise.

Because I'm calling this "optional" I'm going to also treat it as "extra credit. In other words, If you attempt it, it will only have a neutral or positive impact on your grade. It will not lower it regardless of the quality involved.