Lynching: The Crime of South 

Lynchings were going on in the 19th century when there were very high racial tensions. They were mostly done in the Southern states. There are many different kinds of lynchings such as hanging, burning alive, beheading, shooting, and many more. Some of these things still happen today even though this is the 21st century.. Victims of Lynching and Hate Crimes.

The Lynching of James Byrd Jr.In June 1998, James Byrd Jr. was found by neighbors behind a pickup truck and was mutilated. Byrd would walk and accept rides because he did not have a car nor received disability from the government. The night he was killed he accepted a ride from three men in a truck. However they did not take him home, instead, they took him to the woods and beat him very badly. They then chained him to the back of the pickup truck and drug him to his death. Pieces of his body were found along the route taken by his murderers. Soon after they were arrested and charged for his murder. Two of the three men supported theKKK group and had racist symbolic tattoos on them. After it was found that the killing was racially motivated. Two of the men, Brewer and King were sentenced to death, the third man, Shawn Berry has sentenced to life in prison. The Lynching of Emmett Till.

Before Byrd’s passing, Emmett Till was also brutally murdered. Emmett Till was from Chicago visiting family members in the Mississippi Delta for the summer. During his time in Money, Mississippi, he and his cousins went to Bryant’s Grocery for some candy. After leaving the store the owner’s wife claimed that “that black boy” whistled at her. The owner and his brother and law went to find Emmett. It was late at night when they came to pick him up. His uncle tried to stop the two men from taking him, but they threaten to kill him if he would not release him. They threw him on the back of a truck and drove him to ashed and brutally beat him. After the beating, they killed him by shooting him in his head. They tied a gin fan on him and threw him in the Tallahatchie River. Days later someone found EmmettTill's body in the river. The two-man were tried and acquitted, as was the case for many if not most lynchings in that time. The KKK. Hate crimes have been occurring for many years and still go on in this present day. Some suggest police killings and police brutality are kinds of hate crimes. Hate crimes are crimes that are motivated by race, sex, or other acts of discrimination involving violence. One of the most known perpetrators of hate crimes is Ku Klux Klan. After the civil war, the KKK was created to intimidate southern African Americans to stop them from enjoying basic civil rights. They would go out in white sheets covered from head to toe and do violent night rides and went around lynching, rapping, and terrorizing mostly blacks.

The KKK hated anyone who was not the same race, ethnicity, and religion as them as well as those that didn’t share their views. They have many places around the south where they meet. Stone Mountain, Georgia was a great meeting place for the Klu Klux Klan. The lynching of the Walker Family. David Walker, a black man, was involved in an argument with a white woman in Kentucky on October 3, 1908. No one knew what the argument was about but it was said that David swore at the white woman. That same night the NightRiders surrounded Walker’s cabin and covered it in coal oil and set it on fire. David begged the Тight Riders to spare his family. As he walked out of the cabin he was hit with multiple bullets. David’s wife came out of the cabin holding their newborn son begging them to have mercy on her and her family, but she and the newborn baby was shot dead. She fell to the ground still clutching the dead baby. As their three other children ran out screaming, they were shot as well. Walker’s oldest son did not leave the cabin and was burned alive. The Lynching of Mary Turner. One hundred years ago someone had killed a white plantation owner and blamed Sidney Johnson, an African American who had a confrontation with the white man. Because they couldn’t find Johnson a white mob set out to kill other black people.

One of the victims was Hayes Turner. His wife was so devastated that she loudly stated she would put a warrant out on the murders. This perceived disrespect from a black woman and incensed the mad. Mary Turner was 20 years old and eight months pregnant when the white mob tied her up and hung her from a tree by her ankles. They covered her in gas and motor oil and set her on fire. After her body was burned a man cut her belly open with a knife with a knife to authors. The baby fell to the ground umbilical cord still attached and let out two weak cries. The baby was crushed by the boot of one of the killers. After all, this was done they riddled her body with bullets. They buried Mary Turner and her baby in a grave where they were murdered, using whiskey bottle as a headstone. Lynching and hate crimes have made our country suffer in many different ways. Till this day people still mourn over the horrible lynchings of these men, women, and children.