Lynching Legislation - Tennessee, 1948

Dates

Creation: 1948

Document Types

Clipping

Legacy Description

Headline reads, "Anti-Lynching Bill for Tennesseeans" (clipping from December 12, 1931). From clipping, "Nashville, Tenn. An anti-lynching bill has been introduced in the legislature by Representative George Chamlee Jr., of Hamilton; payment for mob killings or serious injuries by the counties in which the acts occur are provided for in the measure." Headline reads, "Tenn. Has Lynch Law for 67 Years: Never Enforced, State Official Declares" (clipping from March 20, 1948). According to the clipping, the anti-lynching bill appeared in chapter 45 of the Public Acts of 1881 and in the 1932 Tennessee Code, section 697.

Additional Description

Arrangement

Most of the morgue material on lynching is arranged in two main categories, Lynching Cases, and Lynching Legislation. Files documenting Lynching Cases are arranged by state. Specific lynching cases with a large volume of documents are arranged in their own folders. The lynching legislation files for federal legislation are arranged chronologically by congressional term, and state legislation by state, following the original order of the series. Additional material documenting lynchings is found elsewhere in the morgue collection, filed under the names of victims and others involved in incidents, subsequent trials, or political activity.

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.