Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases was the first documented analysis of post-Civil War lynching in the United States. Lynching was an act of murder by mob violence, particularly against black men, women, and children after the American Civil War (1861-65).

African American men who were suspected of being in consensual sexual relationships with white women were often lynched. Blacks who attempted to improve their socioeconomic status were also sometimes...
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Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases was the first documented analysis of post-Civil War lynching in the United States. Lynching was an act of murder by mob violence, particularly against black men, women, and children after the American Civil War (1861-65).

African American men who were suspected of being in consensual sexual relationships with white women were often lynched. Blacks who attempted to improve their socioeconomic status were also sometimes lynched.

Journalist Ida B. Wells, who was African American, became a crusader against lynching. She began her crusade after three of her friends, grocers in Memphis, were lynched for defending their store against an attack from a white mob.

The pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases was Wells's first extensive investigation of lynching and was the first to show lynching's economic roots. The groundbreaking exposé was widely read and affected the progress of civil rights in America.

The remarkable testimony on historical racism remains relevant today, as African Americans still face unequal treatment in the criminal justice system.

"A white man ... inflicted such injuries upon another Afro-American child that she died."