RACISM
LYNCHINGS
After the Civil War ended in 1865 and whites were left without slaves or much official power over African Americans, white southerners strived to “keep nigras in their place”. Their ways of doing so were cruel and barbaric, as shown in the 1900s with their practices of lynching— killing blacks in a mob form, often by hanging them. All a white bigot needed to get an African American on the end of a rope was an accusation and some proof— if an African American fell victim of a lynch mob, he or she was not legally tried. It did not matter if the evidence provided by the accuser had holes or if the crime committed was not grave— one way or another, the accused would be hung. Blacks could be killed for offenses against any accepted societal practices, although most men were accused of raping white women. By 1920, more than 1,100 African Americans were lynched in the southern and border states (Baskerville, "African American Migration.")
IMAGE CAPTION (top to bottom):
• THREE BLACK MEN HANGING.
• POLITICAL CARTOON ON LYNCHING DRIVING BLACKS AWAY.
• THREE BLACK MEN HANGING.
• POLITICAL CARTOON ON LYNCHING DRIVING BLACKS AWAY.
RISE OF TERRORIST GROUPS
The racist mob movements inspired new ones, such as the Ku Klux Klan, midnight Raiders, and the Knights of the Golden Circle. These groups targeted, beat, and murdered blacks for their political gain. They aimed to suppress the colored people from voting by using intimidation and spreading terror— and succeeded.