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"To Hang in an Orderly Fashion" 1900-1940 From 1900 to 1940, 70 people—61 blacks and 9 whites—were lynched in Kentucky, a considerabledecline from 166 during the previous twenty-five years and 117 in the first decade of emancipation . And of the lynchings in Kentucky that have occurred in this century , 44 of them (63 percent) occurred in the first decade of the century . Even so, 44 signaled a significant decline from 92 in the 18905, and the decline would continue with 18 lynchings from 1911 to 1920, 7 in the 19205, and 2 in the 19305. Although the number of lynchings steadily declined inKentucky, it is difficult to see why some yearshad i or no lynchings while other years experienced several. In 1900, only i lynching occurred. During the next two years, however, there were 16 lynchings. Yet after climbing to 9 in 1902, the number dropped to 2 in 1903 and remained at no more than 3 in any year until 1908, when 14 people (13 AfroAmericans and a single white) were killed. The Night Riders were largely responsible for much of the violence in 1908. By 1910, state officials had taken steps to end the lawless acts of the Night Riders, and Kentucky experienced its first year without a recorded lynching since 1875. Interestingly, however, the next five years, 1911 to 1915, witnessed 12 lynchings in Kentucky. During the First World War, a time when lynchings increased again throughout the nation, no rise occurred in the Bluegrass State.Indeed,from 1917 to 1920, there were only 4 lynchings in the state. That whites coveredup many lynchings is an important reason for their apparent decline in the twentieth century. To be sure, the exact number of lynchings for any time period is difficult to determine. Yet many lynchings from the i88os and 18905 can be documented because they were held in public. But by the 19205, after Kentucky had 105 T H R E E i 06 Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865-1940 passed legislation calling for stiff penalties for members of lynch mobs and had elected officials willing to press for arrests and convictions , it is clear that several lynchings were covered up with claims that heavily armed blacks had fired on whites. In July, 1929, details were released about two black men shooting and killing John O. Silvey, a railroad foreman in Greenup. Silvey had supposedly ordered the men to leave the property of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and they returned and ambushed him. A posse was formed, comprising the sheriff and white railroad workers. According to the members of the posse, they had no choice but to kill the two blacks because they would not surrender. Walter White, of the national office of the NAACP, wrote to EdwardE.Underwood, a black physician who served as president of the Frankfort branch, urging him to investigate the matter. "It has been our experience that within recent years due to publicity against lynchings, there is a marked tendency to cover up lynchings by calling them murders or killings 'by posses,'" White explained.1 Of the seventy lynchings, eighteen—26 percent—were for rape or attempted rape, which is comparable to the nineteenth century, when 28 percent of the total lynchings had been attributed to this offense. In many cases of lynchings as a result of rape, the problem remains one of fully understanding the relationship between the alleged black rapist and the white victim. On several occasions it was rumored, at least among Afro-Americans, that an intimate relationship had existed. In the lynching of Silas Esters in Hodgenville, the sources are vague on details of the incident, leading one to speculate that a homosexual act, either a rape or a mutually agreed relationship, had occurred . Esters was arrested in October, 1901, charged with forcing Granville Ward, a fifteen-year-old white boy, to commit an "unnameable act." A mob of seventy-five men, led by Thomas Ward, the boy's father, demanded the keys to the jail, which were freely given to i. New York World, July 20, 1929; Walter White to E. E. Underwood, July, 192,9, Underwood to White, July 22, 1929, both in the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (hereinafter cited as NAACPPapers). The NAACPlisted the deaths of the two anonymous blacksas a lynching. However, as mentioned previously, I have decided not to count as alynching any incidents where Afro-Americans had weapons...

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