Short yet informative...


"The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United States, 1880-1950" states that, contrary to present-day popular conception, lynching was not a crime committed exclusively against black people. Between the 1830s and the 1850s the majority of those lynched in the United States were whites. From 1882-1968, some 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States (not all lynchings were recorded). Of these, 3,446 or 73 percent were black and 1,297 (27 percent) were white. In other words, whites were the victims of more than one-fourth of all lynchings in the United States.

The vast majority (79 percent) of lynchings occurred in the South. Mississippi had the highest number of lynchings from 1882-1968 with 581, Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493. For blacks, most of the lynchings occurred in the South. Of the lynchings that did not take place in the South, most occurred in the West, and these were often lynchings of whites, not blacks. Note that for whites, it was equally likely that they would be lynched in Colorado (65) as Kentucky (63), Mississippi (42) as California (41), or Oregon (20) as West Virginia (20). Ninety percent of whites were lynched in nine states mostly in a swath from Montana, to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. Ninety percent of blacks were lynched in the four Southern states of Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana. Whites and blacks were lynched in "relatively equal" numbers in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri.

The worst year for whites was 1884 when 160 whites were lynched. For blacks, the highest number of lynchings occurred in 1892 when 161 were lynched. Three-fourths of all white lynchings occurred in the 14-year span from1882-1895. It took 28 years (1882-1909) for three-fourths of all black lynchings. There seems to have been a relative decline in lynchings generally beginning in 1901.

Not all states lynched people. Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut had no reported lynchings between 1882-1968. Even among those states that did have lynchings, seven states did not lynch any blacks: Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin. Delaware is the only state in which a black person was lynched and no whites were lynched. Of the 44 states in which lynchings occurred, 23 (52 percent) states lynched more white people than black.

While some whites were lynched for murder or stealing cattle, there is another important reason many were lynched. Many whites were lynched for helping blacks or being anti-lynching. According to David Barton's extensively well-documented book, "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White," the original targets of the Ku Klux Klan were Republicans, both black and white. The Klan terrorized both black and white Americans not to vote for Republican tickets. "Of all forms of violent intimidation, lynchings were by far the most effective." Republicans often led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and their platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching. "Democrats successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did condemn lynchings."
So there it is, the inconvenient truth. The truth that more than 1,000 whites were lynched and many of them were lynched because they were Republican, because they supported their fellow black citizens and because they opposed the lawless act of lynching. Equal rights, political autonomy, personal freedom ... these are fundamental principles of our democracy. But they have not always been so. More than 360,000 whites fought and died in the (un)Civil War to help defeat slavery. And many whites were lynched because they believed that these principles also belong to black Americans. Racism is not dead in America, but the fact remains that many whites have died trying to defeat it.

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/opinion/2017/09/25/many-whites-were-lynched-fighting-racism-opinion/700690001/

I find it extremely interesting that three-fourths of all white lynchings occurred in the 14-year span from1882-1895.

I'll have to research to see if I can find out why that was.

With respect to the premise of the thread, two of the most prominent white lynchings occurred during Freedom Summer in Mississppi.

They tell me my Grandmother tell the story of my Grandfather being lynched.  Her first husband was a real loser.  People around town think the two oldest boy did it after he beat the hell out of my Grandmother again. (as they said he would not do that again) But there was no way of proving it, and no one in town cared.  This was in Montana around 1840.

Many were Jewish boys from NYC
You don't F around in the Deep South in that time period

I wonder how many people would assume that all black lynching victims were innocent, while white victims probably had it coming?

Quote from: Cross Peen on May 23, 2020, 01:10:51 PM
I wonder how many people would assume that all black lynching victims were innocent, while white victims probably had it coming?

Most any modern day lefty.