lynchings

11 Stories

He Was Accused of Blasphemy. Then the Mob Descended

Dozens arrested after man stoned to death for allegedly burning Koran in Pakistan

(Newser) - Dozens of men have been arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province after a man accused of blasphemy was stoned to death there over the weekend by an enraged mob. The BBC reports the lynching took place on Saturday evening in Tulamba, located in the district of Khanewal. Police spokesman Munawar...

He Says He Was Nearly Lynched. Now He's Been Charged

Black activist Vauhxx Booker hit with assault, trespassing charges a year after Indiana incident

(Newser) - Last summer, a Black Indiana activist says he was attacked by a group of white men and nearly lynched (he claims a noose was mentioned) as he walked with a friend to a park, and the video showing the incident went viral. Two men, Sean Purdy and Jerry Cox II,...

Jimmy John's Fires Everyone Connected to Noose Video

Employees terminated after white workers appear to mock a lynching

(Newser) - Jimmy John's wasted no time terminating everyone who was involved in a noose video that went viral. The video, filmed at one of the sandwich chain's Georgia locations, showed white employees placing a noose made out of bread dough around the neck of a white worker, in an...

Study Reveals Horrific Toll of Lynching During Reconstruction

White mobs lynched more than 2K black Americans in 12 years

(Newser) - In the South, the Civil War was followed by 12 bloody years in which black Americans' hopes of taking part in democracy were brutally crushed, according to a new report from the Equal Justice Initiative . The report documents more than 2,000 lynchings during the Reconstruction period and estimates that...

Cops Say They Hanged Themselves. Their Families Disagree

Robert Fuller, Malcolm Harsch found hanged from trees in S. California, and families want answers

(Newser) - Cops say two black men found hanged from trees in two separate incidents in Southern California took their own lives, but their families are pushing back on that, insisting neither one would've ended their lives that way. The New York Times reports that the body of 38-year-old Malcolm Harsch,...

After Nearly 200 Attempts, Congress Makes Lynching a Federal Crime

65 years after the death of Emmett Till, 14

(Newser) - Sixty-five years after 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi, the House has approved legislation designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law, the AP reports. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, introduced by Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, comes 120 years after Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation and after dozens...

He Was Ready to Place His Order. Then He Saw 'Disgusting' Decor

Erik Pocock says McDonald's Halloween stickers showed hanging that resembled lynching

(Newser) - A McDonald's in Massachusetts has put out an apology after catching flak for gruesome Halloween decor that some say looked uncomfortably like a lynching. Today reports on customer Erik Pocock's visit to a North Andover restaurant on Oct. 22, where he spotted a set of seasonal stickers depicting...

New Orleans Mayor to Apologize for Mass Lynching of Italian Americans

Vigilante mob killed 11 in 1891

(Newser) - The mayor of New Orleans wants to heal what the Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy calls a "longstanding wound"—the deadliest recorded mass lynching in American history. On March 14, 1891, a mob of vigilantes stormed a jail in the city and killed 11 Italian Americans....

Death of Ferguson Activist's Son a New Flashpoint
Suicide or 'Lynching'?
A New Ferguson Flashpoint
the rundown

Suicide or 'Lynching'? A New Ferguson Flashpoint

Police say it appears Danye Jones hanged himself, but his mother doesn't believe it

(Newser) - "They lynched my baby." So wrote Melissa McKinnies, an organizer of the Ferguson protests of 2014, upon the death of her 24-year-old son, Danye Jones. Police in St. Louis County, however, say it looks like a suicide. McKinnies' suspicions have since spread across social media, and the story...

Students on Hunt for Murdered African Americans

The Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project is archiving data on thousands of lynchings

(Newser) - From the end of Reconstruction following the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement into the 1960s, thousands of African Americans were killed by mobs, sometimes kidnapped from jails, sometimes hung from trees, sometimes mutilated, sometimes all of the above. Now a project called the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice...

A 1941 Army Base Lynching Remains Unsolved
A 1941 Army Base Lynching
Remains Unsolved
longform

A 1941 Army Base Lynching Remains Unsolved

Pvt. Felix Hall was found hanging from a tree at Fort Benning

(Newser) - On the morning of Feb. 12, 1941, Army Pvt. Felix Hall went to his job at a sawmill near Fort Benning where he was stationed. After his shift ended, he told friends he was going to the Post Exchange, the only place on the segregated Georgia base where a black...

11 Stories