Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940

Contents

CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 PART I SPECTACLE 1 They Want to See the Thing Done: Public Executions 19 2 A Hell of Fire upon Earth: Religion 45 PART II WITNESSING 3 The Spectator Has a Picture in His Mind to Remember for a Long Time: Photography 71 4 They Never Witnessed Such a Melodrama: Early Moving Pictures 113 5 With the Roar of Thunder: The Birth of a Nation 147 PART III BEARING WITNESS 6 We Wanted to Be Boosters and Not Knockers: Photography and Antilynching Activism 179 7 Bring Home to America What Mob Violence Really Means: Hollywood’s Spectacular Indictment 223 Conclusion 261 Notes 271 Bibliography 319 Index 339 This page intentionally left blank FIGURES 1.1 Hanging-day crowd at the execution of Henry Campbell, Lawrenceville, Georgia, 1908 32 1.2 Seaborn Johnson on the day of his execution, Emanuel County, Georgia, 1923 37 3.1 The lynching of Henry Smith, Paris, Texas, 1893 72 3.2 Henry Smith on the scaffold, Paris, Texas, 1893 73 3.3 The lynching of Leo Frank, Marietta, Georgia, 1915 78 3.4. and 3.5 The lynching of Jesse Washington, Waco, Texas, 1916 79 3.6 The lynching of George Reed, Rome, Georgia, 1901 84 3.7 The lynching of Will Cato and Paul Reed, Statesboro, Georgia, 1904 87 3.8 The Henry Vance family, Paris, Texas, 1893 90 3.9 Talmage and Harmon Hodges, Statesboro, Georgia, 1904 91 3.10 Paul Reed and Will Cato, Statesboro, Georgia, 1904 92 3.11 The lynching of Charlie Hale, Lawrenceville, Georgia, 1911 95 3.12 Hunters with deer, Jekyll Island, Georgia 96 3.13 The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abe Smith, Marion, Indiana, 1930 102 3.14 “And speedily the punishment fits the crime,” 1901 104 3.15 and 3.16 Frank and Otis Sweet feign a lynching, West Mansfield, Massachusetts, 1898 110–11 4.1 The Watermelon Contest, 1896 122 4.2 Execution of Czolgosz, 1901 133 4.3 The black criminal assaults his victim, Avenging a Crime, 1904 137 4.4 The mob prepares a lynching pyre, Avenging a Crime, 1904 139 4.5 Cowboy Justice, 1903 141 4.6 Closing shot, Tracked by Bloodhounds, 1904 142 4.7 Closing shot, The Great Train Robbery, 1903 143 5.1 The lynched body of Gus, The Birth of a Nation, 1915 151 5.2 Silas Lynch’s assault on Elsie Stoneman, The Birth of a Nation, 1915 154 5.3 The Klan’s ceremony, The Birth of a Nation, 1915 155 5.4 The death of Flora, The Birth of a Nation, 1915 157 6.1 Lynching postcard, Andalusia, Alabama, Crisis, 1912 187 6.2 “Jesus Christ in Georgia,” Crisis, 1911 188 6.3 The lynching of George Hughes, Sherman, Texas, 1930 190 6.4 Isamu Noguchi, Death (Lynched Figure), 1933 191 6.5 The lynching of John Carter, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1927 192 6.6 NAACP antilynching pamphlet, 1935 196 6.7 The lynching of Robert “Bootjack” McDaniels, Duck Hill, Mississippi, 1937 198 6.8 Antilynching advertisement, Crisis, 1936 200 6.9 Antilynching cartoon, Chicago Defender, 1942 205 6.10 The lynching of William Brown, Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 213 6.11 The lynching of Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes, San Jose, California, 1933 215 7.1 A mother lifts her child to see the burning of the jail, Fury, 1936 233 7.2 Reginald Marsh, “This Is Her First Lynching,” 1934 233 7.3 Crowd at the lynching of Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes, San Jose, California, 1933 234 7.4 A shoeshine man jumps aside as the mob approaches, Fury, 1936 240 7.5 Katherine witnesses the burning of the jail, Fury, 1936 242 7.6 The lynching scene, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1943 244 7.7 Newsreel footage is revealed in the courtroom, Fury, 1936 248 7.8 Antilynching activists picketing outside the Strand Theater, New York, 1937 254 C.1 Emmett Till in his casket, 1955 266 C.2 Emmett Till 267 ...