From the end of Reconstruction to the onset of the civil rights
era, lynching was prevalent in developing and frontier regions that
had a dynamic and fluid African American population. Focusing on
Mississippi and South Carolina because of the high proportion of
African Americans in each state during "the age of lynching,"
Terence Finnegan explains lynching as a consequence of the
revolution in social relations--assertiveness, competition, and
tension--that resulted from emancipation. A comprehensive study of
lynching in Mississippi and South Carolina, A Deed So Accursed
reveals the economic and social circumstances that spawned lynching
and explores the interplay between extralegal violence and
political and civil rights.
Finnegan's research shows that lynching rates depended on
factors other than caste conflict and the interaction of race and
southern notions of honor. Although lynching supported the ends of
white supremacy, many mobs lynched more for private retaliation
than for communal motives, which explains why mobs varied greatly
in size, organization, behavior, and purpose.
The resistance of African Americans was vigorous and sustained
and took on a variety of forms, but depending on the circumstances,
black resistance could sometimes provoke rather than deter
lynching. Ultimately, Finnegan shows how out of the tragedy of
lynching came the triumph of the civil rights movement, which was
built upon the organizational efforts of African American
anti-lynching campaigns.
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