Lynching
W.E.B. Du Bois documented lynching with relentless detail, exposing it as a tool of racial terror rather than a response to crime.
Lynching (72 articles)
W.E.B. Du Bois documented lynching with relentless detail, exposing it as a tool of racial terror rather than a response to crime.
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| Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1911 (Jan) | The Old Story | Exposes how racial prejudice fuels false criminal accusations, lynch mobs, and unjust legal imprisonment. |
| 1911 (Jan) | The Flag | Condemns States’ rights as shielding racial terror—arguing federal action is needed to protect Black citizens. |
| 1911 (Feb) | Lynching | Argues lynching stems from racial contempt and lawlessness that cheapens Black life and threatens democracy. |
| 1911 (Mar) | Triumph | Condemns lynching and white‑supremacist mob violence, urging Black resistance for justice and democracy. |
| 1911 (Mar) | The World in Council | Praises the First Universal Races Congress as a moral victory for race equality and condemns U.S. racial policy. |
| 1911 (Apr) | Mr. Taft | Condemns Taft’’s race policies, rejecting Southern guardianship over Black education, voting rights and justice. |
| 1911 (Jun) | Starvation and Prejudice | Argues Washington’s minimization of Southern race wrongs lets prejudice, lynching and disfranchisement threaten democracy. |
| 1911 (Jun) | Christmas Gift | Calls the 1911 vote a Christmas gift for Black voters, detailing disenfranchisement battles and political leverage. |
| 1911 (Jun) | The Sin Against the Holy Ghost | Argues deceit for political gain is the unforgivable sin, corroding Black humanity, race dignity, and democracy. |
| 1912 (Jan) | Crime and Lynching | Argues in The Crisis (1912) that lynching provokes crime; stop lynching to stop crime, a humane critique grounded in Florida and vagrancy abuses. |
| 1912 (Feb) | The Gall of Bitterness | Argues in The Crisis (Feb. 1912) that bitter truth, not sugarcoated wit, reveals racial antagonism, combats lynching myths, and demands justice. |
| 1912 (Mar) | Divine Right | Exposes racist divine-right myths, condemns lynching, and challenges white prerogatives in a provocative crisis-era argument |
| 1913 (Jan) | The Newest South | Lauds the newest South where interracial leaders openly confront race problems and denounces the old South’s racist press. |
| 1913 (Feb) | Burleson | Condemns Burleson’s push to segregate the federal civil service, links race exclusion to lynching, and urges action. |
| 1913 (Mar) | An Open Letter to Woodrow Wilson | Urges Woodrow Wilson to defend Black civil rights—voting, education, labor access—and end lynching to save democracy. |
| 1913 (Mar) | The Fruit of the Tree | Condemns rhetoric of Black subservience as causing disenfranchisement, segregation and lynching, and calls for resistance. |
| 1913 (Apr) | The Hurt Hound | Condemns racial degradation, arguing racism twists Black dignity so mere decency feels like ecstatic relief. |
| 1913 (Jun) | Education | Warns democracy is at risk unless lynching, disfranchisement and racial discrimination are confronted. |
| 1914 (Feb) | Votes for Women | Argues Black support for women’’s suffrage strengthens democracy, challenges racial disfranchisement, and advances justice. |
| 1914 (Mar) | Lynching | Exposes how suppressed reporting masks lynching’s rise, documenting race-based violence and challenging ineffective reforms. |
| 1914 (Apr) | Brazil | Rebukes Roosevelt, defending Brazil’s racial fusion and warning U.S. racism fuels poverty, lynching, and undermines democracy. |
| 1915 (Feb) | The Lynching Industry | Documents the 1914 lynching industry, exposing racial violence and the hypocrisy undermining American democracy. |
| 1915 (Feb) | Frank | Condemns Southern racial and religious prejudice and the legal failures that nearly led to Leo Frank’s lynching. |
| 1915 (Mar) | Preparedness | Argues that true national preparedness requires ending lynching and securing racial justice under law. |
| 1915 (Apr) | Hayti | Condemns U.S. intervention in Hayti as racist imperialism, calling citizens to protest and defend sovereignty. |
| 1915 (Jun) | Lusitania | Condemns World War I as the unveiling of Western racial and imperial hypocrisy, affirming Black moral vindication. |
| 1915 (Jun) | An Open Letter | Storey, Moorfield in The Crisis (1915) argues for justice, denouncing Southern disfranchisement and school neglect of Black Americans. |
| 1916 (Feb) | Carrizal | Condemns U.S. racism: Carrizal’‘s Black soldiers’’ sacrifice exposes hypocrisy—honored in death, denied rights in life. |
| 1916 (Apr) | Peonage | Condemns peonage as slavery reborn, exposing how coerced labor and lynching enforce racial domination. |
| 1916 (Apr) | Migration | Urges Black southerners to migrate North to escape lynching, gain education and labor opportunities. |
| 1916 (May) | Presidential Candidates | NAACP in The Crisis (1916) argues candidates must state positions on lynching, disfranchisement and segregation to guide Black voters. |
| 1916 (May) | Southern Civilization | Condemns Southern oligarchy for lynching, disfranchisement, and opposing national suffrage to preserve white supremacy. |
| 1917 (Jan) | Justice | Condemns the Justice Department’s racial hypocrisy, ignoring lynching and disfranchisement while policing alleged German plots. |
| 1917 (Feb) | Roosevelt | Praises Theodore Roosevelt’s stand against East St. Louis violence and condemns national hypocrisy on lynching and democracy. |
| 1917 (Mar) | Civilization in the South | Condemns Southern culture as entwined with lynching, racist labor hierarchies, and anti-democratic barbarism. |
| 1917 (Mar) | The Tuskegee Resolutions | Denounces Tuskegee resolutions for urging Black labor to remain South while ignoring lynching and legal injustice. |
| 1917 (Mar) | The Negro Silent Parade | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in The Crisis (1917) argues a silent march protesting lynching, race riots and segregation. |
| 1917 (May) | A Moral Void | Condemns Southern moral failure as governors ignore anti-Black lynching, praising Ohio’s pursuit of justice. |
| 1917 (Jun) | We Should Worry | Warns white leaders: Black military service or mass industrial migration will boost Black labor power and curb lynching |
| 1918 (Feb) | Help Us to Help | Urges redress of racial grievances—better travel, equal aid, suppression of lynching, securing democracy and war loyalty. |
| 1918 (Mar) | The Work of a Mob | White, Walter F. in The Crisis (1918) examines lynchings in Brooks and Lowndes, GA, exposing vigilante murders and racial injustice. |
| 1918 (Apr) | Houston and East St. Louis | Documents racial massacres in Houston and East St. Louis, exposing deadly injustice and unequal legal treatment. |
| 1919 (Mar) | Let us Reason Together | Urges Black self-defense against lynching while warning against vengeful violence to uphold law, honor, and democracy. |
| 1919 (Apr) | Byrnes | W.E.B. in The Crisis (1919) argues Congressman Byrnes represents disfranchisement, lynching and wage theft, urging Fourteenth Amendment action. |
| 1919 (Apr) | The Riot at Longview, Texas | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in The Crisis (1919) examines the Longview TX race riot mob murder and official complicity. |
| 1919 (May) | Returning Soldiers | Returns from war to demand racial justice, condemning lynching, disenfranchisement, and economic theft. |
| 1919 (May) | A Statement | Declares a critical racial moment, urging lawful resistance, NAACP organizing, and a fight against Jim Crow. |
| 1920 (Jan) | Sex Equality | Denounces AG Palmer for calling interracial marriage "sex equality," exposes hypocrisy and defends Black rights to marry. |
| 1920 (Feb) | The House of Jacob | Denounces Southern racial lawlessness—lynching, disfranchisement, failing schools and child labor that betray democracy. |
| 1920 (Feb) | A Matter of Manners | Argues that perceptions of Black manners provoke racial violence and lynching, exposing systemic injustice. |
| 1920 (Mar) | Dives, Mob, and Scab | Indicts industrialists and racist labor practices for driving Black workers to scab, lynching, and class conflict. |
| 1920 (Mar) | How Shall We Vote | Warns GOP and Democrats uphold Jim Crow; urges Black voters to elect congressional allies to defend race and democracy. |
| 1920 (Mar) | Murder Will Out | Exposes how Southern race and class power undermine labor and democracy, exploiting both Black and white workers. |
| 1920 (Apr) | Southern Representatives | Urges Republicans to cut Southern representation to punish Jim Crow disenfranchisement and defend Black voting. |
| 1920 (May) | Extradition Cases | Shows how northern refusals to extradite Black suspects—amid lynching threats—expose racial injustice in law. |
| 1920 (Oct) | Triumph | Celebrates woman suffrage as a democratic triumph and links opposition to lynching, child labor, and racial injustice. |
| 1921 (Feb) | Lynchings and Mobs | Exposes how southern police, courts and press enforce racial terror—lynching, mob rule, and denial of justice. |
| 1921 (Feb) | The Lynching Bill | Condemns lynching as wholesale murder, urging federal action to defend law, democracy, and Black lives. |
| 1921 (Feb) | Vicious Provisions of a Great Bill | Lambasts a federal education bill that would cement racial schooling inequity and encourage lynching and peonage. |
| 1921 (Mar) | About Pugilists | Exposes racial hypocrisy in boxing—condemning outrage at Jack Johnson while lynching goes unprotested. |
| 1921 (Mar) | Boddy | Indicts society for producing a young Black murderer—race, policing, war training and failed education at fault. |
| 1921 (Apr) | The Liberal South | Challenges the liberal South and urges white leaders to secure Black rights: vote, end Jim‑Crow travel, education, lynching. |
| 1921 (Jun) | Crime | Rejects the myth of Negro crime, cites poverty, ignorance, unjust courts, and urges reforms in labor, schools, justice. |
| 1922 (Feb) | Advertising | Argues modern advertising can mobilize indifferent white readers to expose lynching, advancing racial justice and democracy. |
| 1922 (May) | 7000 | Documents a 7,000-mile lecture tour in The Crisis, exposing Jim Crow, lynching, and Black life while urging racial democracy. |
| 1922 (May) | K.K.K. | Condemns the KKK as cowardly, racist, and lawless, urging the white South to defend democracy and Black rights. |
| 1923 (Jan) | Intentions | Condemns partisan betrayal over the Dyer anti‑lynching bill and urges Black political power, sustained fight for democracy. |
| 1923 (Jun) | A University Course in Lynching | Condemns university ‘courses’ that normalize lynching, exposing racial injustice and corruption of American education. |
| 1924 (May) | Fall Books | Reviews fall books, indicting the Southern oligarchy, lynching, and disfranchisement while championing race, democracy, and education |
| 1926 (Feb) | The Newer South | Critiques the New South’s Jim Crow, lynching, and educational neglect while urging white Southerners to join racial justice. |
| 1926 (May) | Lynching | Argues in The Crisis (1926) that lynching endures, urges Congress to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, and reveals racial injustice. |
| 1926 (Jun) | The Shambles of South Carolina | White, Walter in The Crisis (1926) examines the brutal lynching of the Lowman family and Southern mob terror. |
| 1927 (Feb) | Lynching | Denounces 1926’s surge in lynching, arguing failed local justice demands federal action to protect Black life and democracy. |
| 1927 (Mar) | Aiken | Condemns Aiken’s lynchocracy: Klan rule, racial violence, and democratic failure with officials complicit. |
| 1927 (Apr) | The Higher Friction | Argues racial friction moves up to higher stakes—voting, education, lynching, housing—measuring uneven Black progress. |
| 1927 (Jul) | Flood | Urges Black refugees to flee Southern racial terror—documenting lynching, exploitative relief, and labor coercion. |
| 1927 (Aug) | Mob Tactics | Exposes mob tactics: police and mobs criminalize Black Americans, undermine democracy, and urges armed self‑defense. |
| 1928 (Sep) | Houston | Writing for The Crisis (1928), shows the Democratic Party weaponizing race to suppress Black voters, exposing Jim-Crow politics and corruption. |
| 1928 (Sep) | Lynching | Exposes lynching as a political crime, showing a Florida photograph that reveals white supremacy and state violence. |
| 1930 (Jan) | About Wailing | Defends continued ‘wailing’—documenting racial injustice, disfranchisement, poverty, and exclusion despite surface progress. |
| 1931 (Apr) | Causes of Lynching | Links lynching to ignorance, economic exploitation, political exclusion, religious intolerance, and sexual prejudice. |
| 1932 (Feb) | Lynchings | Exposes lynching as racial caste violence that thrives on denied education, economic oppression, and lack of human rights. |
| 1933 (Dec) | Too Rich to be a Nigger | Documents how white backlash to Black education and prosperity culminated in lynching, exposing racial terror. |
| 1934 (Jan) | Scottsboro | Condemns Scottsboro trials as racial injustice — Southern courts using law to punish Black lives for profit and prejudice. |
| 1934 (May) | Grand Jury Adjourns: Laurens County Fails to Indict Dendy Lynchers | Boardman, Helen in The Crisis (1934) examines the failure to indict Norris Dendy’s lynchers and state inaction in South Carolina. |
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