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Lynching, which replaced the traditional slave codes, became a major form of punishment during the Reconstruction era, killing African Americans sometimes just for being suspected of a crime. Close to 3,000 African Americans were lynched between 1889 and 1918 (Seabrook & Wyatt-Nichol, 2016, p. 25). Many of these attacks were vigilante in nature and were neither sanctioned nor stopped by law enforcement (Seabrook & Wyatt-Nichol, 2016, p. 25). Even worse, there are reports of how lynching became dehumanized, becoming a ritualistic form of entertainment. During a lynching, it was common for whites to watch and bring snacks, making sure that everything was meticulously planned ahead of time, including the tree where the victim was to be hanged (Russell-Brown, 2013, p. 48). This planning led to a continuation of the pattern of ritualistic punishment to maintain social control that was seen during the slave codes.
While the argument can be made that this is purely coincidental, ritualism and planning became the basis of systematic racism. Given the widespread nature of lynching, as evidenced by the above statistics, it is clear that lynching and the racist attitudes that fueled it, was a systematic endeavor. Given the overall trend of racial relations in American history, it is not surprising that these patterns continue to emerge. Sociologist Loic Wacquant claims that the culture and criminal justice systems combine to “maintain patterns of racial dominance and hierarchy” and whenever “one mechanism for maintaining white domination broke down, another replaced it”, such as lynching replacing slavery (Tonry, 2010, p. 295). While someone can argue that this process is not deliberate, lynching in and of itself is a deliberate act. There is nothing implicit or unconscious about choosing to kill someone this way, when the reasons could be vague or lacking evidence. Here, it is obvious that lynching is an example of explicit racism driven by jealousy and economic tensions, repeating similar patterns of efforts to maintain social control already observed during slavery.
For more information on lynching, consider checking out the website for the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Recently opened by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit working on race related issues in the criminal justice system, the Legacy Museum is a great resource for more information on lynching. The link can be found here.