Lynching in the United States

Lynching, in the United States, has influenced and been influenced by the major social conflicts in the country, revolving around the American frontier, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement. Originally, lynching meant any extra-judicial punishment, including tarring and feathering and running out of town, but during the 19th century in the United States, it began to be used to refer specifically to murder, usually by hanging.

Related Topics:
Lynching - United States - American frontier - Reconstruction - Civil rights movement - Tarring and feathering - Running out of town - Murder - Hanging

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On the American frontier, where the power of the police and the army was tenuous, lynching was seen by some as a positive alternative to complete lawlessness. In the Reconstruction-era South, lynching of blacks was used, especially by the first Ku Klux Klan, as a tool for reversing the social changes brought on by Federal occupation. This type of racially motivated lynching continued in the Jim Crow era as a way of enforcing subservience and preventing economic competition, and into the twentieth century as a method of resisting the civil rights movement.

Related Topics:
Reconstruction-era South - Ku Klux Klan - Jim Crow era - Civil rights movement

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More recently, lynching has come to have a contemporary informal use as a label for social vilification, particularly in the media, and particularly of African-Americans.

Related Topics:
Media - African-American

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For legal definitions of lynching, see the section on "Laws" below.

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