This is a list of lynching victims in the United States. While the definition has changed over time, lynching is often defined as the summary execution of one or more persons without due process of law by a group of people organized internally and not authorized by a legitimate government.
Lynchers may claim to be issuing punishment for an alleged crime; however, they are not a judicial body nor deputized by one. Lynchings in the United States rose in number after the American Civil War in the late 19th century, following the emancipation of slaves ; they declined in the s. Nearly 3, African Americans and 1, whites were lynched in the United States between and More than 73 percent of lynchings in the postβCivil War period occurred in the Southern states.
The purpose for many of the lynchings was to enforce white supremacy and intimidate black people through racial terrorism. According to Ida B.
Wells and the Tuskegee University , most lynching victims were accused of murder or attempted murder. Rape or attempted rape was the second most common accusation; such accusations were often pretexts for lynching black people who violated Jim Crow etiquette or engaged in economic competition with white people.
Sociologist Arthur F. Raper investigated one hundred lynchings during the s and estimated that approximately one-third of the victims were falsely accused. At least six law officers were killed trying to stop lynch mobs, three of whom succeeded at the cost of their own lives, including Deputy Sheriff Samuel Joseph Lewis in , [ 11 ] and two law officers in in South Carolina.
