Customer Reviews

100 Years of Lynchings

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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_.

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.

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

In recent times, there has been a lot of interest and books about the Tulsa and Rosewood Massacres ("American Kristilllnachts" as a writer of a book on the Tulsa massacre put it). This book, orignially publsihed in 1961, shows that these were only two of thousands of such incidents in American history. Read it and see what your history teacher was not likely to have told you.

Ralph Ginzburg in this historic book show that African-Americans are justified in their fear of White America. The graphic details of lynchings show how racism can make people do to their fellow man. Anyone who wants to understand the roots of Black Nationalism should read this book.

I read this book back in 1967, when I was a young teen, first entering high school. It made a profound impression upon my and life and was one of the reasons I choose my line of work.

For me it was a telling story of state sanctioned terroism against African Americans. While we all lament citizen to citizen crime, especially at the alarming rate we see today, we must not forget the crimes that took place as described in this book, crimes that were either sanctioned, permitted, initiated or suppressed by State, Local and National government. Government is suppose to protect the people, the innocent and punish the guilty. We are indeed lost when the government becomes the guilty or protectors of the guilty.

We have a lot to learn and it it good that we are now willing as a nation to take a look at our past. Additionally, for many years this book was unavailable, and many of us were told it had been "banned" by the government sometime in the late sixties to early seventies. I am glad to see that regardless of why it was unvailable for so many yeart, that it is back in print.

I as first made aware of this book by a college professor and finally had a chance to purchase it. Lynchings as they were reported in the newspaper at the time, a sad and too easily forgotten piece of American history.

As I began to read the book, I could not believe what people had done to african american people. The only thing I remember is being told about one lynching. I wonder why they (teachers) never told the whole truth. They always made sure they talked about how (WE) were slaves, maybe they were to ashamed how white people really treated us.

Let me get back to the book, it is a must have. If for nothing else, the history.

I cried so many times while reading this book.

I AM FROM THE SOUTH AND WAS TOLD HOW THINGS WERE DOWN THERE AS A KID, SO
YOU HAD TO BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE WAY YOU ACTED, LOOKED OR SPOKE AROUND WHITE PEOPLE AT THAT TIME. THIS BOOK SHOWED THE REALITY OF WHITE PEOPLES CRUELTY AGANST THE EX-SLAVE,[BLACK MAN]WHO WAS NOT EVEN CONSIDERED A HUMAN BEING.SO WITH PICTURES AND POST CARD OF THE DEEDS.WHY ARE WE PRETENDING TO
WORRY ABOUT WATER-BOARDING A TERRORIST WHEN WE USE GO TO SEE A
BLACK MAN BARBECUED AT THE STAKE LIKE A CIRCUS ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON. OH YES,IT WASN'T ONLY IN THE SOUTH,BUT ALL OVER THE USA THE BOOK SHOWS THAT TOO! GOOD BOOK!TRUE HISTORY.

100 Years of Lynchings obviously won't make you feel good but it an absolutely necessary book to have in your collection if you are serious student of American history.