The Many Faces of Judge Lynch
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The Many Faces of Judge Lynch Extralegal Violence and Punishment in America Christopher Waldrep
THE MANY FACES OF JUDGE LYNCH Copyright Christopher Waldrep, 2002. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-312-29399-4 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38764-9 ISBN 978-1-4039-8271-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781403982711 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at the Library of Congress A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: November 2002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Pamela
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Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter One Prologue: The Origins of the Word 13 Chapter Two The Word and the Nation 27 Chapter Three California Law : The West and the Nation 49 Chapter Four Chapter Five What We Call Murder : Lynching and the Meaning of Legitimacy in Reconstruction 67 The Indignation of the People Knew No Bounds : The Lynching Narrative in the 1870s and 1880s 85 Chapter Six Threadbare Lies : Making Lynching Racial 103 Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Tuskegee, the NAACP, and the Definition of Lynching, 1899 1940 127 High-Tech Lynchings : Making the Rhetoric National 151 Epilogue Hate Crimes 185 Notes 193 Bibliography 233 Index 00
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Acknowledgments Steve Whitfield generously gave this manuscript a careful reading, as did Tom Appleton. Michael Les Benedict, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, Dan McMillan, and Michael Fitzgerald read portions of the text. I benefited greatly from all their insights and comments and claim all the remaining errors for myself. I presented portions of this manuscript at the Citadel, at a Southern Historical Association meeting, the Southern Intellectual History Conference, and Vernon Burton s southern history reading group at the University of Illinois. The discussion generated by these presentations stimulated my thinking enormously. Michael Bellesiles encouraged me to first write about this topic in his anthology Lethal Imagination: Violence and Brutality in American History (New York: New York University Press, 2000). I am still benefiting from my participation in Michael Johnson s 1991 National Endowment for the Humanities seminar, Slavery and Freedom. Deborah Gershenowitz s support has been essential. Gordon Cotton and Martha Huie provided indispensable help as I grappled with elements of this story. Jack Davis alerted me to the importance of Jesse James Payne and shared his materials on that case. Judy Schafer, Cory Andrews, and Joe Tregle, Jr., helped me locate New Orleans newspapers. Christian Fritz shared his work on popular sovereignty. William Carrigan deserves mention for his excellent work on the lynching of ethnic Mexicans. Beyond that, I must thank him especially for loaning me the transcript of Jesse Washington s trial. Michael Hussey at the National Archives has been enormously helpful. Susan Sherwood at the San Francisco State University Labor Archives found materials without being asked. I am most grateful. Chapter seven originally appeared as War of Words: The Controversy Over the Definition of Lynching, 1899 1940, Journal of Southern History LXVI, No. 1, February 2000, 75 100. I thank that journal for permission to republish here. My colleagues at Eastern Illinois University heard more about lynching than anyone should have to endure, primarily in our monthly history colloquia. David K. Smith kept me supplied with books on the French Terror
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and Anita Shelton guided me through the meanings of Russian terrorism. Newton Key and Lynne Curry generously shared their insights and knowledge. My colleagues at San Francisco State University are proving just as supportive. Bill Issel, Chris Jackson, and Barbara Loomis have directed me to useful sources. The San Francisco State University Foundation supported this project. Librarians and archivists at both these institutions and many more provided the most important support of all. I thank them all. As always my family played an important role in this project. Pamela makes it all worthwhile. In my first book I said that Janelle and Andrea learned to read books as I learned to write one. I am still learning to write, but now they are catching up, beginning their own writing.