This went on for decades with little intervention by local courts or federal authorities. Lynching became so widespread that it spurred the Great Migration and eventually became a national scandal. If one considers the deaths of so many, over so wide an area, the thought occurs that surely there had to be some strenuous wrestling of consciences among those who considered themselves the more enlightened and noble of the races. Even if we consider these men in the context of their culture and time, would the fact that they did what they did in the dark offer some possibility that deep down they knew they were wrong and wished to stop?
Did those covering themselves with masks and sheets ever wish they were not summoned or pressured to go? Did they ever discuss it with family or friends?
One hopes for at least a soul-sick need for a deathbed confession or fear-of-hell sourced remorse for those who considered love and mercy integral parts of their professed faith.
I wish there were some accounts of this, in family stories or diaries or something to give me a little more faith in my fellow man. Because reading the later accounts of public hangings, open mob violence, and resistance to outside investigation leads me with little reassurance. I have to accept that it stopped only because of the individual heroism of African-American investigators, writers, and their white allies who risked their lives to document the deaths and report them over and over again until the nation could no longer turn away and pretend it was an exaggeration of isolated cases.
And that makes me wonder if the fear, greed, and hatred at the root of such socially-sanctioned terrorism which is what it was, whether the word terrorism was coined then or not never completely went away. Rather, those rages went underneath the surface when there was finally resistance from our better natures. And if so, are we catching glimpses of them bubbling up again? And do we have a better way to stop it this time around?
I find it hard to rate books like this. How do you give 5 stars that say "I loved it! I had to put it down several times, and read fast through some sections. I don't know if it was the way it was written, my state of mind, or the topic. I didn't love it, but I'm glad that I read it. Nov 18, Pamela rated it it was ok Shelves: civil-war , csueb , history. Social Justice never took a break, only how historians have portrayed the struggle. Feb 04, Madison Ogletree rated it really liked it. His resistance, she asserts, laid in enshrining his testimony into public record during the congressional hearings investigating Klan violence 2.
They Left Great Marks on Me provides an outlet for these black voices to speak. The book constructs testimony—formal and informal, to outsiders and with each other—as a driving force for change and action during Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the height of the Nadir, and the years before and after the Great War.
She as the historian operates as a mediator between her readers and the stories, giving these voices the room to speak on their own terms but also providing necessary contextualization for the stories of physical and psychological terror but also of community and a collective counter-vision of black subjectivity and citizenship.
May 11, Steve rated it liked it Shelves: 19thc-history , 20thc-history. It's good and valuable, but it less about the violence than specifically, as the subtitle says, the testimonies of that violence--how African-Americans, especially victims and witnesses, communicated about and discussed responses to that violence. That focus on communication, interpretation, and reaction makes it often pretty abstract on the whole and a harder read. Oct 16, Andrew Gabriel rated it really liked it.
Painful but important. Feb 19, Josh rated it really liked it. Not an easy book to read. Jun 27, Dan Gorman rated it really liked it. Fascinating discussion of black political mobilization and journalism in the face of overwhelming domestic terrorism that white racists perpetrated.
Nov 11, Lindsay rated it really liked it. Hard to read, but important testimony to all the ways we've failed each other and need to to better. Cybil rated it liked it Nov 13, Emily Friel rated it really liked it Feb 16, Devin Creed rated it liked it Jun 17, Emily Heimerman rated it really liked it Feb 01, Harry Churchill rated it liked it Apr 09, Jen rated it it was amazing Feb 08, Ashley rated it it was amazing May 12, Riva Cullinan rated it really liked it Jan 29, Leila rated it liked it Sep 23, Dan McGill rated it really liked it Feb 10, Miles Robinson rated it liked it Jun 13, Lindzer rated it liked it Dec 08, Tristan Miranda Williams rated it it was amazing Jan 17, Nathan Ojo rated it really liked it Jun 03, Taylor Johnson rated it it was amazing May 05, Ssadjadi rated it it was amazing Jul 11, Melissa F.
Rolda Darlington rated it really liked it Sep 04, Beth Fowler is currently reading it Apr 01, Kristin added it Apr 27, Sandra marked it as to-read Jun 19, Robin Bernstein marked it as to-read Jun 26, Nikhil P. Freeman marked it as to-read Dec 29, Yulonda marked it as to-read Jan 04, Claudia marked it as to-read Jan 21, Stephanie McGarrah marked it as to-read Feb 18, Just Me marked it as to-read Mar 17, Cherisse marked it as to-read Jul 31, Annelisa marked it as to-read Aug 01, Kiese Laymon marked it as to-read Aug 04, Sandra Clark marked it as to-read Sep 02, Derrick Bernard marked it as to-read Oct 01, Jillian Martin marked it as to-read Nov 12, Sydelle marked it as to-read Dec 01, Antonio Jenkins marked it as to-read Dec 22, Renee marked it as to-read Jan 06, Harper Sutherland marked it as to-read Feb 27, Rebekah marked it as to-read Dec 11, Williams's superlative interpretation of African American responses to racial violence should be read by all interested in the histories of American lynching and the African American experience.
Pfeifer, American Historical Review "The author of this study brilliantly telegraphs the significance of her work in the title of the book and examines how the savage violence inflicted upon African American men, women, and children from the close of the Civil War to Woodrow Wilson's war to 'make the world a safe democracy' wounded their bodies, psyches, and communities Williams lifts the curtain on this sinister and brutal stage of American history to reveal pain and loss and African Americans' steely determination to resist subjugation by whites and to demand full citizenship from the federal government.
Highly recommended. Whereas most previous scholars utilized the records of the Freedmen's Bureau and other agencies to document the causes, characteristics, and extent of anti-black violence during the postebellum period, Williams focuses on the importance of the testimony itself, especially to the African Americans who were brave enough to provide such testimony in the hostile environment of the era.
She convincingly argues that this act of testifying itself was one of the galvanizing forces for the movement that eventually produced a host of civil rights activists at the turn of the twentieth century. While lifting up the transformative power of public testimony, Ms. Williams also helps re-center the discussion of white-on-black violence in the late nineteenth century, which all too often focuses on the most spectacular form of violence during that period, lynching, to the detriment of the more common and arguably more important day-to-day violence suffered by African Americans.
This is an important work that should be widely read by all those interested in late nineteenth century America and the origins of the civil rights movement of the 20th century. You can select specific subjects that match your interests!
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