After America’s bloody Civil War, the former white planter class was dismantled in an attempt to create an equal society in the South. However, the war left a bitter resentment among white people. The defeated Confederates and their supporters took out their rage on Black people in the form of racial terrorism, and lynching was the primary outlet southern whites used to vent that collective frustration.
From 1870 to 1950, thousands of Black people were executed in front of mobs of women, men and children as a public spectacle. In the latest Atlanta Black Star original, we take a look at some of the horrific reasons Black people were lynched in America.
