Lynching occurred more in Mississippi than in any other state. During the 100 years after the Civil War, almost one in every ten lynchings in the United States took place in Mississippi. As in other Southern states, these brutal murders were carried out primarily by white mobs against black victims. The complicity of communities and courts ensured that few of the more than 500 lynchings in Mississippi resulted in criminal convictions.
This book studies lynching in Mississippi from the Civil War through the civil rights movement. It examines how the crime unfolded in the state and assesses the large number of deaths, the reasons, the distribution by counties, cities and rural locations, and public responses to these crimes. The final chapter covers lynching’s legacy in the decades since 1965; an appendix offers a chronology.

The late Julius E. Thompson was the director of the black studies program and a professor of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Julius E. Thompson
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 259
Bibliographic Info: 9 photos, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [2007]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6441-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0425-1
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

1. The Emancipation Era, 1865–1869      3
2. Terror in the Day and Night, 1870–1879      8
3. Hope in a Time of Despair, 1880–1889      17
4. Faith During the Years of Nadir, 1890–1899      28
5. The Search for Justice in a New Century, 1900–1909      43
6. The Era of World War I, 1910–1919      59
7. The Jazz Age, 1920–1929      78
8. The Great Depression, 1930–1939      91
9. The Era of World War II, 1940–1949      115
10. Changes in a New Era, 1950–1959      137
11. The Freedom Struggle, 1960–1965      156

Epilogue: Faith in Our Times, 1966–2002      176
Appendix: Chronology of Lynching in Mississippi, 1865–1965      193
Chapter Notes      197
Bibliography      231
Index      247