Causes of Lynching (1931)

We have nothing but praise for the Southern Commission on the study of lynching. It has eleven members: the white members are: George F. Milton, Dr. W. J. McGlothlin, W. P. King, Julian Harris, Dr. Edward W. Odum, and Alexander Spence. The colored members are: Dr. R. R. Moton, Dr. John Hope, Dr. Charles S. Johnson, President B. F. Hubert and Professor John Work.

At the same time, we know the temptation that faces such a committee working in the South. They are almost forced to be diplomatic before they are absolutely truthful. We trust, therefore, that they are going to be brave enough to say this plain word about lynching: the cause of lynching lies in ignorance, economic exploitation, religious intolerance, political disfranchisement, and sex prejudice.

The ignorance still forced on the colored South and still allowed in the white South is stupendous. Economic exploitation, including actual peonage on the plantations of the Gulf States and the Mississippi Valley, is a perfectly well-known fact. Political disfranchisement puts the selection of officials who enforce the law largely in the hands of the white mob. Religious intolerance is making hypocrites of Southern white Christians and allowing them to recite the Golden Rule with one side of their mouths and shriek “Kill the Nigger!” with the other. And finally, lynching has always been used and is still being used to stop sexual intercourse between colored men and white women, whether by consent or not. Every anti intermarriage law of the South is a cause of lynching and an affront to civilization. God only knows how many black men accused of rape have been done to death by mobs simply because they chose a willing white paramour or were chosen by one. There is no use blinking these facts. They are true. But we know that it will take courage to say it.

Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1931. “Causes of Lynching.” The Crisis. 38(4):138.