The post-reconstruction acts were very detrimental to the Southerners. It involved a targeted dreadful lynching of black Americans and the white women. The region was highly dominated by the white Democrats who believed to be a superior race. They used lynching to enforce their white supremacy, hence intimidating blacks based on racial terrorism 1 . The escalating rates of lynching were strongly associated with the underlying economic strains. The freedmen and those fighting for civil rights were regularly attacked during the reconstruction process. Moreover, black voting was inhibited by violence, literacy tests, and poll taxes.
Causes of Lynching
The onset of lynching amongst the Southerners began the moment freedmen were granted the U.S. constitutional rights that allowed them to vote. This freedom was strongly resisted by most white Southerners. Some of them blamed their freedmen for their wartime hardships, loss of political and social privilege, as well as post-war economic losses 2 . Massive violence was essentially ignited during the electioneering period. The primary motive for lynching was based on the essence of maintaining the supremacy of white people over their black counterparts. Another major cause of these fatal incidences was the aspect of economic competition. The independent businessmen or black farmers were at times lynched without any wrongdoing. The Southerners were sometimes lynched for financial or to establish economic or political dominance 3 . They underlined a new social order established under the leadership of Jim Crow. It was a point in time when acted in harmony to reinforce their mutual identity alongside the unequal black status.
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How the Whites Justified Lynching by then
The Whites justified their lynching acts in various ways. For instance, the victims of black lynching were falsely accused of attempted rape or actual rape. Sexual infractions were primarily cited as the basic reasons for the criminal acts. On the other hand, murder cases or attempted murder were also cited as the most predominant accusation. This was followed by various infractions comprising physical and verbal aggression, ideological independence, as well as the spirited business competition among the black victims 4 . Moreover, the alleged lynch mob ‘policing’ often led the white mobs to murder suspected individuals. In the West, the cattle barons accused the blacks as horse and cattle thieves. In turn, they acted against the law by subsequently hanging the perceived criminals. Finally, they are deemed to have always taken precedence of the underlying political and class struggles.
The establishment of Anti-lynching Movements among African-Americans and White Women
After the un-ending oppression and remorse amongst the black Southerners, the victims opted to establish anti-lynching movements. This encompassed a U.S civil rights movement aimed at eradicating the lynching mishap since it was a detrimental tool for repressing the African Americans. The civil rights movement mainly comprised of African Americans. Their main objective was to persuade the politicians to intervene. After failing to successfully convince them, they began to push for a stern anti-lynching legislation. In this case, the African-American women were active in the establishment of this movement. Thus, the large segment was encompassed women's organizations. The initially established anti-lynching movement was composed of the black conventions that were organized after the immediate reverberation of personal incidents. It was until the 1890s when this movement received a significant national support 5 . This is the moment when the organization was spearheaded NERC (National Equal Rights Council) and AAL (Afro-American League).
Bibliography
Ayers, Edward L. The promise of the new South: Life after reconstruction . Oxford University Press, 2007.
Byrd, Alexander X. "Studying Lynching in the Jim Crow South." OAH Magazine of History 18, no. 2 (2004): 31-36.
Fitzgerald, Michael W. Splendid failure: postwar reconstruction in the American South . Ivan R Dee, 2007.
King, Desmond, and Stephen Tuck. "De-centring the South: America's nationwide white supremacist order after Reconstruction." Past and present 194, no. 1 (2007): 213-253.
1 Fitzgerald, Michael W. Splendid failure: postwar reconstruction in the American South . Ivan R Dee, 2007.
2 King, Desmond, and Stephen Tuck. "De-centring the South: America's nationwide white supremacist order after Reconstruction." Past and present 194, no. 1 (2007): 213-253.
3 Byrd, Alexander X. "Studying Lynching in the Jim Crow South." OAH Magazine of History 18, no. 2 (2004): 31-36.
4 Ayers, Edward L. The promise of the new South: Life after reconstruction . Oxford University Press, 2007.
5 Fitzgerald, Michael W. Splendid failure: postwar reconstruction in the American South . Ivan R Dee, 2007.
