lynching
1. The lynching of African-Americans in the South was rare before the Civil War, reached a
peak in 1892, increased again somewhat during the 1930s, and finally gradually
disappeared after 1950. Using your knowledge of U.S. history, try to explain these
patterns.
2. In one of the first studies of the lynching problem in the United States, Arthur F. Raper
wrote in The Tragedy of Lynching (1930), "Mobs do not come out of the nowhere; they
are the logical outgrowths of dominant assumptions and prevalent thinking." Explain in
your own words what you think he meant.
3. What is a lynching? Could a lynching ever by justified? Explain.
4. Was the effort to stop lynching widespread? Explain your answer.
5. To what degree was it successful?
6. Who participated in this effort, primarily? Among ordinary citizens did both blacks and
whites participate? Both men and women? Both Northerners and Southerners? Provide
examples.
7. What organizations sponsored actions against lynchings? How effective were their
efforts?
8. What American leaders (black and white) took a leading role? In what ways did
American citizens exercise their Constitutional rights in the fight against lynching (e.g.
right to vote, petition)?
9. Were remedies sought at the local, state and federal level? At which level was action
most effective?
10. Were remedies sought from all three branches of government: the judiciary, executive
and legislative?
11. Of all the methods listed to fight lynch law on the timeline, which do you believe was
most effective? Why was lynching such a difficult crime to eradicate?
Jim Crow
1. Imagine that you were born black in 1860 and lived until 1920. Would you have any faith
in the U.S. legal system? In the “American way of life”? Why or why not?
2. How did Jim Crow laws affect the American image abroad? How did our foreign policy
impact racial equality at home?
3. Most laws are meant to promote the general welfare or protect society from an evil. Did
Jim Crow laws serve these purposes? If so, how? If not, what was their purpose?
4. Under Jim Crow, black facilities were often of far poorer quality than those reserved for
whites. Separate rarely meant equal. If blacks and whites had received equal treatment,
would Jim Crow laws have been fair?
5. “I don’t believe you can change the hearts of men with laws or decisions,” said one
person who opposed court ordered desegregation. Do you agree with the statement? Is it
a valid reason to continue segregation?
6. Read the 14th Amendment and explain how the Supreme Court used it to disallow
segregation in the Brown decision. Why didn’t the Court use it for the same purpose in
Plessy v. Ferguson?