At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (Hardcover)

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Amazon.com Review

Lynching, the extrajudicial punishment inflicted by vigilantes and mobs on often innocent victims, was far from an unusual occurrence, though some historians have depicted it as such. Instead, writes Philip Dray, lynching was part of a "systematized reign of terror that was used to maintain the power whites had over blacks." Drawing on records held at the Tuskegee Institute, Dray argues that from 1882 until 1952, not a single year passed without a recorded lynching somewhere in the United States, most often in the Deep South and Mississippi Delta regions. This violent "justice," meted out "at the hands of persons unknown" (with, therefore, no possibility of attaching guilt to the perpetrators, though, as Dray points out, such seemingly spontaneous events required organization and planning) held African American communities in terror and was one force behind the exodus of black southerners to the north in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dray's extraordinary study reveals a pattern of crime against humanity, one that, he writes, diminished gradually for various reasons, not least of them the work of reformers and ordinary citizens "who knew we were too good to be a nation of lynchers." --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Between 1882 and 1944 at least 3,417 African-Americans were lynched in the United States, an average of slightly more than one a week. It was not until 1952, as Dray notes, that a full year went by without a reported racial lynching. Covering the South's resistance to racial equality from Reconstruction and the 1875 Civil Rights Act (which gave rise to the widespread acceptance of public murders) through the mid-20th century, this prodigiously researched, tightly written and compelling history of the lynching of African-Americans examines the social background behind the horrific acts. Yet Dray (We Are Not Afraid) also covers the myriad attempts of popular and judicial resistance to lynching, in particular the campaigns led by Ida B. Wells and by the NAACP. He has pulled together a wealth of cultural material, including D.W. Griffith's 1915 Birth of a Nation, Reginald Marsh's famous 1934 antilynching cartoon in the New Yorker, among much else, to supplement his impressive survey of the breadth of lynching in Southern society. While there is much shocking material here the 1918 lynching and disembowelment of eight-month-pregnant Mary Turner; California governor James Rolph Jr.'s 1933 statement that lynching was "a fine lesson for the whole nation" Dray never lets it dictate the complex social and political story he is telling. He faces the underlying sexual impulse of most lynchings head-on and shows how, in the 1913 lynching of Leo Frank, the fear of blacks was transferred to a Jewish victim. Whether he is explicating why the feminist-run Women's Christian Temperance Union refused to speak out against lynching, or why FDR refused to endorse antilynching legislation in the 1930s, Dray balances moral indignation with a sound understanding of history and politics. The result is vital, hard-hitting cultural history.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375503242
• ISBN-13: 978-0375503245
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #706,707 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book on a Very Tough, Important Subject, July 10, 2002

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Philip Dray has written a lively and readable study of a very difficult subject in At the Hands of Persons Unknown (The Lynching of Black America). The case studies are horrific and do not lose any of their impact as the stores build up over the course of the book, in fact they become more horrible. In contrast to these important, but terrible, aspects the author provides the reader with excellent portrayals of such courageous figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells. This is a perfect one volume place to begin to study and learn about this chapter of American history as it covers the entire history of the nation and puts the events in their political, social and economic context. This is a large, readable account that is gripping and illuminating into the darkness of this time not so long ago or far away. Highly recommended.

82 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is, indeed amazing to contemplate so vast a vacuity., March 1, 2002

By	taking a rest - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The words above these comments are from a 1920 essay written entitled, "The Sahara Of The Bozart", by H.L. Mencken. These words and those that followed come as close as any I have read to quantifying what was absent from vast areas of The United States where, "Lynch Law", was not only practiced, but defended and enthusiastically endorsed until the 1960's.

I cannot comment with specificity on the events this book documents. The details are that vile. This book describes ritualistic murder that was routinely carried out from the latter part of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th. This in no way limits the genocide inflicted on blacks for centuries in this country, rather this focuses on particularly barbaric events that on many occasions took place with thousands or even 20,000 or 30,000 spectators. The spectators to these planned, public atrocities would learn of the events from newspapers, and would travel to the scene via free passage provided by railroads. Governors publicly endorsed these murders routinely together with other elected officials, and were largely ignored by the federal government. The 1965 murder of 3 persons working for Civil Rights finally got the attention of Washington, and actually lead to a real trial and convictions. It may sound cynical, but the fact remains that two of the victims were white, and Civil Rights Legislation was popular for the first time following the death of President Kennedy. The early laws that were passed followed on the heals of his assassination when a vote against what the murdered president had started was too risky for even the most committed racists in congress that had repeatedly blocked any form of federal law, including any law outlawing the lynching of citizens. Congress had company, as the legislation had no Presidential support whether it was FDR, or Eisenhower.

Men, women, children, pregnant women, and entire families were lynched. Now that word brings to mind a rope and a victim. If those who inhabited the vacuity that Mr. Mencken described stopped at that, their hands would be fairly clean when compared to what repeatedly took place. The rituals that were carried out were limited in their cruelty only by the imaginations of those inflicting the torment. These acts could last for hours prior to ending in a holocaust. When the site had cooled, souvenirs were collected, sold, and displayed in shop windows on Main Street for weeks, or even months.

No vile act practiced in medieval dungeons or The Concentration Camps of the Nazis surpassed these public events. These murderous spectacles were memorialized with postcards that The US Postal Service delivered for decades. Often the photographs would show nicely dressed children, wearing white dresses and ribbons and smiling, while within arms reach the remains of a victim were present. Some of this public butchering took place so recently that many of these young children are likely to be alive today.

As destructive and demented as these acts were, they ultimately were defeated. This did not come about due to a decline of the perverse ideas of honor. Nor was there change to twisted logic that allowed slave owners to avail themselves of violent assault on their female slaves, which resulted in the production of children that were the same offspring the mobs would speak of when justifying the murder of black men. Mixing of the races was the canard used to justify killing black men, who were innocent of the very act their white killers were often the practitioners of. The vast majority of killings were based on false accusations of sexual assault even when a doctor determined that no such act had occurred. These examinations were just another pro forma step in, "trials" that would take 8 to 25 minutes from opening arguments to sentencing, and then the handing of the innocent over to the waiting mob outside.

Change came about because of incredibly brave individuals that would place themselves at risk to document the killing and work for its end. Change came about as black men fought and died for this country in World War One and Two only to come home and find that which they fought for did not accrue to their benefit. The US was embarrassed and ridiculed for its hypocrisy-riddled stance when condemning the abuses of Germany in the early 1930's. The Japanese in WWII, distributed information about these racist crimes to populations in the Pacific Rim as evidence of what America would bring. Black men were good enough to fight and die for their country that would not allow them to sit at a counter with whites, drink from the same water fountain, or use the same bathroom.

Ida B. Wells brought about change. While a petite four foot six, she was so feared by the defenders of certain states, she fled to continue her work from the north. Thurgood Marshall just survived being killed while working as a lawyer in the South. This country was fortunate he survived, as he became one of the great jurists of The United States Supreme Court. Clarence Darrow, who as a white lawyer would routinely ridicule and defeat those who brought their ignorance into a courtroom when he was present. The numerous people and organizations that forced the Federal Government to step in and crush the nonsense that was practiced in a variety of states is the part of the book that allows the reader to make it through the grisly history. The author points out that there are issues of flying The Confederate Battle Flag on top of State Capital Buildings, or on there grounds, but feels when put in perspective these issues are minor. If States want to continue to display the relic that they claim is a source of pride, let them. It is their choice to remain in, "that vast vacuity, that sterile, artistically, intellectually, and cultural Sahara Desert", of H.L. Mencken.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perversions of "Justice", May 30, 2002

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Dray notes that he knew very little about lynchings when he began his research for this book; I knew very little about this subject until after I read his book. Perhaps I am not unique in that much of what I think I know and understand about U.S. history has depended to a significant extent on films and television programs. ... Many of the lynchings described in Dray's book would be deemed today as "unsuitable for viewing" by the general public and thus would never be fully portrayed in a film or television program. And yet, for reasons Dray explains, many of the lynchings attracted large and enthusiastic crowds (which included women and small children) and were scheduled to accommodate as many people as possible. Several hangings were preceded by dismemberment and burning.

Dray's book is not primarily about such situations, although he traces lynching back to the American Revolution when Charles Lynch literally took the law into his own hands and hanged Tories who had stolen from him. A local court then exonerated his behavior. Dray explains that before the Civil War, more whites than blacks were lynched; that is, hanged without due process. It was only during the decades after the war ended that lynching became inextricably bound with racial strife as blacks were hanged in a progressively greater number and higher percentage than whites. Dray's extensive research of this period (roughly 1865-1900) provides some of the most interesting material in the book and his analysis of it is both rigorous and revealing. In many instances, the identities of those who conducted lynchings were concealed by white sheets or masks. Later, it was common to place a hood over the heads of those executed (after due process) by military, federal, or state officials.

I view Dray as both an historian and an anthropologist. He tries hard to understand (and to help his reader to understand) why human beings throughout U.S. history grabbed a rope and hanged another human being. (For a period of time, multiple hangings were not uncommon.) Obviously, some of the lynchers who ignored due process were absolutely convinced that they were agents of justice; the motives of others are also understandable, perhaps, but nonetheless contemptible. I am grateful to Dray for the extensive research he completed and even more for his analysis of what that research revealed. Some readers may quarrel with some of his conclusions. (I am unqualified to do so.) However, I think almost all readers will view this book as an important contribution to our understanding of a recurrent pattern of behavior which, until now (at least for me), has been neglected, ignored, or worse yet denied.