What is it about?
There is a peculiarity to the history of lynching in the United States. It is simultaneously reduced in scope, intentionally avoided, ever present, and mostly forgotten in the psyche of American citizenry. Those who know the history of lynching are rarely aware of its scope in volume, frequency, and ferocity. For Fouss, lynching rituals were conducted in a "performance complex" that resulted in a lynching cycle of performances with each stage executed to build excitement and to elicit the emotions that were required. A lynching was a form of reactionary terrorism "to maintain and fortify the status quo" of White people across social classes. The growing use of lynching effigies should be a reminder and cautionary tale of the desire for some to return to the practice. As part of an ongoing initiative to bring to light the history and memory of lynchings in America, the Equal Justice Initiative has assisted various towns and cities to erect historical markers.
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Why is it important?
What is public memory? The not so perfect way that we remember, the ways we frame what is remembered, and especially includes, what aspects we forget. Lynching is simultaneously something that has been extensively been forgotten yet remains undeniably known. The memory and forgetting is buried with each tree, lamp post, and bridge across the United States.
Perspectives
As an outgrowth of over 20 years of research on lynching, this book chapter touches upon the role historical memory and the possibilities (and cautions) in creating such a memory.
Rasul Mowatt
North Carolina State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The peculiar heritage of lynching in America, November 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781315440200-13.
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