Charles Lynch Research Paper

Charles Lynch and the Origin of the Term

According to Buckser (1992), the term “lynching” was derived from a Revolutionary War Virginia militia colonel, Charles Lynch. Lynch, at this time, came up with an “unofficial justice system” that punished suspected criminals and thieves through whippings; this later became known as “Lynch’s law”. He also mentions that during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, writers used a form of public humiliation known as charivari (12). These ridicule- based punishments were typically against people who transgressed the community norm. Buckser (1992) also noted that by the 1830s writers began to see a change when the frequency and severity of lynch laws increased. They attributed this increase to the rise

of lawlessness and the eroding public confidence in the American legal system. After 1830, lynching’s were taking on a more severe form of punishments and abolitionists were the prime target, especially African Americans anti-slavery activists (Buckser 1992). The article (Buckser 1992) also points out that post-Civil War, lynching not only involved capital punishment but also focusing black criminals. The article (1992) points out that the image of black victims began to control Southern and Northern outlooks of lynching. Buckser’s article also mentioned that by the 1930’s, by the time lynching’s began to die out, the absolute term came to mean “the killing of blacks by groups of whites” (13).
The Historical Newspaper Controversy in Defining Lynching
The definition of lynching is one that has been historically controversial and widely debated.

Buckser (1992) defined lynching as the unlawful killing of a supposed criminal by members of a community, developed into a widespread and stylized phenomenon in the years between the American Civil War and the Great Depression (11). Lynching in the United States became a prominent and common practice during this era and it frequently targeted African American men and women in the south, pitting white communities against black communities. It was most active from 1890s to 1920s with its peak during 1892. For example, as defined by Pfeifer (2009), “lynching is the collective murder motivated by justice, race, or tradition, was a key aspect of the social and cultural landscape of late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Loiusiana” (189). During the lynching era, the south was led by conservative democrats who had made the practice of lynching an informal system of law enforcement to enforce white supremacy against the marginalized blacks at the time. During the time that lynching gained prominence in American society, many American news groups had different perspectives and descriptions of what constituted as lynching. Newspapers at the time covered the practice of lynching- some supporting the act, while others fought against the vice. The aim of this paper is to conduct an in-depth study of lynching within the history of the American society, and how newspapers at the time defined and covered the topic. The time-period of this paper focuses on the late 18th century and early 19th

century.
Lynching in American Society and how Newspapers Covered the Issue
The issue and practice of lynching in the United States is a thorny issue which has attracted many historians to research the matter to gain insight of the topic. Historians who conducted research on the practice of lynching between 1880s and 1930s in the south found out that the newspapers that existed at the time were proponents of the lynching practice encouraging the atrocities through articles that covered the vice. An evaluation of newspaper articles during the lynching era indicates that the journalism fraternity had no unified voice supporting the practice, rather the research indicates that differences in perspectives on lynching existed pitting journalists who supported the vice and journalists who were against the extra judicial killing of blacks and the role newspapers played in advancing the vice. The battle pitting lynching proponents and reformers who fought against the vice differed greatly on the interpretation of the word lynching with supporters of lynching changing the definition of lynching to a socially acceptable definition to encourage white supremacists and general society to advance the practice of lynching.
In 1904, a mob of white supremacists descended on two black men in Statesboro burning the two at the stake for allegedly killing a white family. The local newspaper, Statesboro GA News carried a headline after the white family killing incidence stating that the culprits ‘Should Swing Publicly’ (Reed, 2005). The editor of the article went on to state that the American society were anxiously waiting for the culprits to be hanged high and stay hanged until they breathed their last breath. The newspaper article in the Statesboro GA News claimed that the feeling in the society was that the two black culprits should be executed by any means whether the law was followed or not. This message was received positively well by the Statesboro community and within 12 days after the article a mob consisting of basically law abiding citizens lynched and burned the two black men. The Statesboro GA News journalists were at hand during the lynching process taking pictures and making notes of the event which were covered extensively in the next day’s newspaper headlines and articles.