Lynching Cases, 1921-1964
Scope and Contents
Group contains coverage of specific lynching and attempted lynching cases, including the incidents themselves, investigations and trials of participants, and editorials regarding specific cases. Most coverage is contemporary to the incident; where coverage references past incidents it is noted in the scope and content note for the folder. Lynching victims have been listed for each location, along with the specific location and year of the incident. Locations typically were transcribed from published dateline of clippings and may refer to the place the victim was lynched, where they were from, where they were jailed, or where trials took place. The majority of documentation is in the form of clippings; also found are photographs, correspondence, reports, press releases, and draft articles.
Dates
- Creation: 1921-1964
May Contain Harmful Content
- Harmful Content (general) Folders documenting lynching cases contain graphic textual and photographic depictions of violent incidents of lynching. Folders containing photographs of victims or graphic headlines have specific folder-level content warnings in the finding aid and on the physical folder itself. Such photographs and textual documents are encapsulated within folders to allow those accessing the folders to choose whether or not to engage with such content. Be aware that most of the folders contain graphic textual content, but where such content is found within the body of an article there is no specific content warning.
Arrangement
Arrangement is geographical; when multiple items referring to a single individual exist, a separate folder has been created with their name and the location in the folder title.
Processing Information
Lynching files have been processed using detailed processing procedures. All the information in the finding aid has been verified against folder content, dates and document types have been added, and more detailed arrangement and description work has been performed.
In files on lynching cases, names of victims are listed in the scope and content note for that folder, along with the locality and year of the incident. Unnamed victims are listed with location and date, and victims of attempted lynchings are also listed when named. When many documents are found for a specific victim, they are arranged in a separate folder with the victim's name in the folder title. Content warnings have been added to folder records where photographs of lynching victims are filed, or clippings with particularly graphic headlines, and such items are encapsulated within the main folders to allow researchers to choose whether or not to engage with this content.
The lynching legislation files appear to have been originally compiled around 1941, when correspondence is found between an AFRO librarian and a Congressional Research Service librarian. A 1939 report created by the Congressional Research Service is found, which may serve as an index to the content of these files.
Repository Details
Part of the AFRO American Newspapers Archives Repository