100 Years of Lynchings [Paperback]

Ralph Ginzburg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 1996

Ginzburg compiles vivid newspaper accounts from 1886 to 1960 to provide insight and understanding of the history of racial violence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Black Classic Press (November 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933121180
• ISBN-13: 978-0933121188
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Primary Sources on Lynching, January 11, 2002

By 

J. Reynolds (Far From Inner Asia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Years of Lynchings (Paperback)

Given its politically and culturally loaded history, lynching is one of the most difficult topics to teach in American universities. Ginzburg's book makes the job easier by providing the instructor with primary documents with which to examine the phenomenon. In particular, Ginzburg's collection is useful because it draws upon newspaper articles intended for a number of constituencies. Some, directed at racist whites, cheer the lynchings. Meanwhile, black newspapers and those directed at more progressive whites decry the practice. As such, the collection is a perfect tool for examing the place of lynching within various US communities in the latter 19th and early 20th century. Even more excellent when combined with the visual record of _No Sanctuary_.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars gloomy but informative, July 4, 2001

By 

Haseeb - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Years of Lynchings (Paperback)

This book has no table of contents, no index and no pictures but just newspaper reports from 1880 to 1961 on various lynching incidents. The headlines are all in bold type and the complete articles are given. The articles are not an easy read for the squeamish. All of the gory details of the lynchings are given including why the victim was lynched, how the victim was tortured before the lynching and the method used for execution.

Here are some examples of a few headlines to give you an idea of the content:

"First Negro at West Point Knifed by Fellow Cadets" "Texans Lynch Wrong Negro" "Lynched for Being Black" "Wrong Man Lynched as Rapist" "Negro Youth Mutilated for Kissing White Girl" "Negro Shot Dead for Kissing his White Girlfriend" The redeeming value in a book like this is that it's a study of human behavior. It shows how far people can and will go in the name of hate and what kinds of things people are capable of.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LYNCHING: America' most important, and most denied, CRIME., July 3, 2007

By 

T.W. (Chicago, Il.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Years of Lynchings (Paperback)

This book provides the written evidence of America's most heinous sins, and Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, provides the photographs that support the written evidence. Shame, embarrassment and denial have kept this common practice (estimates range from 6,000 to 100,000 Black victims) swept under America's rug, and left out of America's classrooms. So ashamed are White Americans, that any mention of other reference materials on this subject, usually result in censorship (even by Amazon). I used this book, along with several others that I won't bother mentioning (because Amazon won't print the titles, even though they'll sell them), to write my book White Men Can't Hump (As Good As Black Men), also available on Amazon. The detailed info in 100 Years of Lynching helped me address the Racial and Sexual stereotypes that have long plagued our society. These stereotypes have a profound impact on how Whites and Blacks perceive, and therefore, treat each other. Lynching, castration, Jim Crow laws, and anti-Miscegenation laws, all emanated from White Male fear of the Black Pen*s. How else can you explain such heinous behavior, and heinous legislation. This behavior had nothing to do with Race-Mixing, because Race-Mixing has always been quite alright in America (as long as it's a White Pen*s doing the mixing, a la Stromm Thurmond). This book is one of the cornerstones of my book's basic premise, so therefore, I obviously cherish it, and highly recommend it. It reminds me of Jack Nicholson's comment in the movie "A Few Good Men": You want the truth! You want the truth! You CAN'T handle the truth! America says that it wants the truth to our Racial divide, but by sweeping the practice of Lynching under the rug, America obviously CAN'T handle the truth.
Peace