Lynching free essay sample

â€Å"The practice of lynching in the United States is a phenomenon that scholars from all backgrounds- history, psychology, sociology, and economics- continue to analyze. (pg. 89) † Lynching to me was a way for white’s to get back at blacks in a horrifying manner. Many whites believed that lynching was simply a necessary reaction to criminal behavior on the part of blacks. â€Å"Lynching played a key role in affirming the place of poor whites within the strata of southern society† (pg. 91). The lynching mobs consisted of twelve or more whites that took matters into their own hands to torture an African American person brutally or even worse, murder them. Lynching started to take place after World War II. In most cases lynching effected black African Americans. They were kidnapped and lynched for reasons whites thought were not socially acceptable. Whites looked at lynching as immediately justice for themselves. Personally, if blacks were taken to court they would still be penalized because the jury was likely to be an all-white jury in most cases. We will write a custom essay sample on Lynching or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"In rare cases lynches were brought to trial, all white juries, time after time, they failed to find the guilty† (pg. 96). Less than one percent of lynches were convicted for their crimes. Failure to find lynchers guilty showed an injustice to the black community. â€Å"Lynching of a black person was an act of community solidarity and white supremacy† (pg. 92). Blacks could not retaliate and defend themselves because they were still quite powerless. If they were to act on an event of lynching they would become a victim to the lynching mob. In May of 1918 in South Georgia, Mary Turner tried to seek justice for her husband. The statements that Mrs. Turner made about her husband and his death caused her to be victimized by the mob. They kidnapped Mrs. Turner, drowned her with gasoline; not satisfied enough with what they had done, they cut her fetus out and demolished it with the boot of a mobber. In the 1930’s, lynching started to decrease and more people had become aware of the things that were going on with lynching. People were less fearful and started to report more lynchings. â€Å"Activist such as Ida B. Wells, a famous journalist led a women campaign against lynching†. (pg. 94) Eventually more people joined her campaign to stop lynching completely. What caught my interest was the fact that many McLeod Bethune took a stand against lynching. Her efforts of broadcasting lynching helped bring more attention to unfairness, inequality, and suffering to blacks. Unfortunately, you would think all the attention brought to white’s about lynching would cause it to go away completely, but didn’t. In 1955 a famous incident of lynching happened. A young man Emmett Till was taken away from his Uncle house in Money, Mississippi for yelling â€Å"hey baby† to a white lady. When they took Emmett beat him, shut him in the head and tied him to a cotton gin. Till was the thrown into a lake. Later on, Till’s family identified him and this brought attention back to lynching. Till’s Uncle did not know what was going on until after they found Emmett was brutally murdered. In today’s society lynching is not very common but other acts similar to if is still relevant. Recently there was a case were a white person killed a young black man and was not found guilty of his act. This made African-American very furious because this act was just a repeat of history. As a young African American woman I want equality and justice for every one of all colors and rules. Even though we were tortured terribly by whites, we can’t continue to go along in life and hold grudges and have a heart full of hatred. The hatred will only pass down from generation to generation and society will never be able to better itself.