I Hope We Never Forget | Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America

A Question For Those That Bought This Book... | Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America | Jon Lewis, Leon F. Litwack, ...

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	• Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America Jon Lewis, Leon F. Litwack, ... Twin Palms Publishers, 2000 - 209 pages average customer review:based on 48 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is Now

I know so many white people would like to believe that the images in this book represent past history. The black and white photographs, like black and white footage of Martin Luther King, really fool one into believing that this must have been during the era of Little House on the Prairie, not modern times.

I would bet that some of the white people in these photos, especially the children are still alive. They are your grandparents and aunts and uncles. And they are still with us. Some of them, like Trent Lott are in our government.

The book isn't just a reminder of what happened in the past. It's a reminder of how much further we have to go. Of how much white people refuse to let go of the past. How white people refuse to relinquish the power of prejudice, bigotry and racism; and how black people are still terrorized, oppressed and virtually lynched by white people every day, especially in the media but in ever other bastion of the society as well: socially, economically, politically.

There is no justice for the black man. There is no power for the black man. There is no refuge for the black man.

We are still Without Sanctuary.

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I Hope We Never Forget

Tearful, hurtful, and very difficult to ignore. These images should give every American pause, to ask one's self a question about justice, even today. We as Americans, out of fear, out of hate because these humans simply had dark skin found this type of treatment to be just fine. Of course not all were Black, but when one thinks of lynching one automatically sees a black face at the end of that rope.

Shame on America. Too long did America look the other way, and the few who were arrested, and tried for such a vicious crime were set free, by juries made up of sympathic citizens who believed lynching was a just sentence, even for trival crimes. Crimes unproven by the way.

This book again makes me shutter to think our fore parents treated other Human Being this way or that our fore parents were the victims. Even now I fear this kind of terror in America is alive and well just below the surface, and screaming to be released. Even now in this the 21st century. For I fear we learned very little, and we continue to be hateful toward our fellow man. He or She talks different, dresses different, has different skin, does not believe in God, or does not speak English. Meanwhile at the very root of a resurgence of such behavior is a Gaovenment which will not enforce it's own laws. Refuses to protect us all from invaders. Real or otherwise.

Yes America we can pass this way again, but I hope enough of us read such books, educate our children, and grand children that only barbarians treat Human Beings with such disregard. If you need a reminder, this book is it.

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A Question For Those That Bought This Book...

I am going to purchase this book based on the reviews here, but I have a question for those that bought the book and know a great deal regarding this chapter in American History.

What I am very curious about is this...did the white people who participated in these lynchings make up the majority regarding the mindset of most white folks at the time? What I mean by that is this...the big story recently has been about dog fighting in America. How it's an awful subculture, and how the men and women who participate in this not only just fight dogs, but they shoot, lynch, and drown the dogs that don't show enough "fighting spirit." However, I certainly would not say that most of America feels this way about animals. I would say the average American enjoys animals, and feels they deserve to be treated with respect (even if they are ironically eating a Hamburger at the time they say this).

So my question is...do you think (or know) if the white people who engaged in these horrific acts represent the mindset of the majority of white folks in that time period? Or, were the whites who supported/enjoyed/participated in these lynchings similar to the people who support and participate in horrific things like dog fighting and other awful crimes--they are more in the minority when it comes to what the majority of Americans think and believe in?

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Should be taught in schools, starting with all history classes

I didn't know lynching was this bad. To hear about it, is one thing. To see it, is quite another, especially the faces of the witnesses who enjoy it. Those who would witness a hanging, and enjoy it, unfortunately, have children that grow up to be just like their parents and we wonder why our world is so messed up. I think if these were shown in schools, to the older children, maybe they will learn compassion and ensure that it won't happen in the future.

crimes against humanity

They say a picture's worth a thousand words, but no words can describe, let alone explain, the horrific crimes against humanity documented in this photographic history of lynching in America--and not "just" hangings, but burnings, castration, mutilation, and sadistic tortures like cutting unborn babies from their mother's womb. Nor do the four introductory essays (pp. 7-44) and the notes to the 98 photographic plates make for easy reading. This is a significant if revolting part of American history, even if high school history courses never mention it.

"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century," writes Leon Litwack, "two or three black southerners were hanged, burned at the stake, or quietly murdered every week. In the 1890s, lynchings claimed an average of 139 lives each year, 75 per cent of them black. The numbers declined in the following decades, but the percentage of black victims rose to 90 percent. Between 1882 and 1968, an estimated 4,742 blacks met their deaths at the hands of lynch mobs." These are only the documented cases, and they don't include the "legal lynchings" of perverted "justice," or private posses on "nigger hunts."

Some lynchings were done in isolated and remote areas by psychopaths. But as this volume shows, they were not only public events but public spectacles that were advertised, described by lurid media headlines ("colored man roasted alive"), and attended by thousands of voyeuristic spectators. They were carried out by and celebrated by leading citizens, state and federal congressmen, and leaders in business and church. "Our American Christians," wrote the anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, "are too busy saving the souls of white Christians from burning in hell-fire to save the lives of black ones from present burning in fires kindled by white Christians." There was no due process of law in most of these lynchings, nor any attempt to hide the identity of the executioners. The US postal service was happy to mail commemorative post cards with pictures of lynchings. Trains provided free services to the spectacles. Yes, there were lone dissenting voices, but far too few. For a narrative history of lynching see Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown; The Lynching of Black America.

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