The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States

White Southerners who supported lynching had a clear view of the violent act’s function: They believed that lynching was an opportunity to exercise justice outside of the limitations of the law. Those who committed lynchings saw themselves as upstanding members of society and vigilantes, enacting capital punishment on supposed criminals. Capital punishment is considered a way to eliminate future threats from the general population; dangerous criminals are identified and killed so that they cannot act again. However, lynchers committed atrocious acts of racist violence, and the deaths of lynching victims did not protect anyone. By contrast, racist violence like lynching is used to maintain power and control in a white supremacist society.

Wells highlights how lynching rose in popularity after Emancipation. During slavery, white people viewed their enslaved workers as capital, and so they had an interest in keeping enslaved Black people alive. After Emancipation, many white people saw granting rights to Black citizens as a threat to their way of life, believing that a voting Black population meant that white interests would no longer be protected or supported. White Southerners worried that Black citizens would hold property and take jobs that they believed rightfully belonged to them. Their racism clouded their ability to see the possibility of a different kind of future.

With this, lynchings helped maintain white power and domination in Southern states. Wells explains that rather than enacting justice for heinous crimes, lynchings were meant to intimidate and instill fear in Black citizens. This effectively forced free Black people into the same dangerous social space as slavery—despite being citizens, white violence made it impossible for Black Americans to live freely. Flimsy justifications were given for this extrajudicial violence, but lynchings were essentially permitted for any reason at all; in a white supremacist society, existing as a Black person is enough of a crime. The fear tactic was effective. Few Black citizens spoke out against white crimes, and the unfettered power of white mobs meant that white lynchers were not charged or prosecuted.

Another function of lynchings was normalization and desensitization. Black citizens were killed for a variety of offenses, and often for no offense at all. Wells details the list of accusations in Chapters 2 and 9. She attests that more than 10,000 lynchings occurred in 30 years, and more than 7,000 of these violent acts targeted Black citizens. The pervasive nature of racist violence caused the American public to have a short attention span. Wells explains that those who were outraged by a specific lynching often lost interest after a day or two. By desensitizing the public to racist violence, white supremacists could murder Black citizens without concern.

Racist violence established stereotypical narratives that continue to pervade American culture. Most prominently, Black men were widely accused of raping white women. However, this term was applied to any interaction between a Black man and a white woman, including an argument at a market stand, a request for food, and consensual relationships between two sexual partners. These accusations of rape contributed to a racist mythology that Black men are a threat to white women and children. This stereotype extended beyond lynch mobs into social and political structures; it was perpetuated by white social leaders like the WCTU’s president, Frances Willard. This creates a direct link between hands-on racist mob violence and the insidious institutional violence maintained by social structures.

Wells argues that the best way to combat racist violence as a mechanism for power is to force it to face another, greater power. In the text, she cites examples of major stakeholders refusing to do business with the United States so long as lynching persists. She encourages readers to appeal to the moral sentiments of powerful organizations and to attack the capital of Southern states and leaders who continue to support lynching practices. With this, Wells anticipates the effective boycott movements that emerged during the civil rights movement.