The Spectacle of Lynching: Rituals of White Supremacy in the Jim Crow South

Abstract

AbstractFrom 1890s to the 1930s, white mobs tortured and killed thousands of African Americans across the South. These lynchings, even those committed by the smallest of mobs, were ritualistic and performative, enacting and reinforcing the core beliefs of white supremacy. The narratives and photographs produced after lynchings likewise created and circulated representations of white domination and black subordination. Lynching was thus more than a social or political form of violence; it was a cultural spectacle that conveyed meaning to its white participants and spectators. This article, adapted from the author’s 2009 book, examines the forces that gave rise to lynching spectacles and the cultural work those spectacles performed. It argues that, although the spectacle was reinforced through modern technologies, such as photography, lynching ultimately arose as a reaction against the transformations that modern life had brought to the South. Industrialization and urbanization had destabilized the racial hierarchy and fueled white fears of a black crime wave. Lynching was a violent means to assert order in the face of potential disorder. As such, it was rooted in traditional practices, such as notions of popular justice and public executions, and white southerners interpreted lynching spectacles through local customs and beliefs. Over time, the dissemination of lynching spectacle nationally through modern media by anti‐lynching activists contributed to the decline of mob violence.