The Red Record

A Red Record

By Sarah Morris

        Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth century our nation has evolved drastically. When analyzing our current way of life it is not uncommon to see color and white hand in hand, where individuals in the past eras would be completely outraged. We have learned to conform and act as one as opposed to our history of being segregated. Where the pigment of skin is of no concern or value that no one race is more powerful than the other. This was just simply not the case in the 19th and 20th century. Until recent years, the acts of violence against African Americans have surely increased as individuals who engaged in white supremacy felt as if their power was being challenged. When this sensation occurred they took matters into their own hands.

        In the beginning white men owned an African American’s body and soul. They would belittle the soul while preserving the body, so that it could continue to carry out their everyday responsibilities. The slave owners knew that there was a fine line that had to be maintained when it came to punishing their slaves. As a master of a plantation it was rare for them to go as far as killing their slaves because of the potential loss of the hundreds of dollars that they had paid to even own them in the first place. So instead they would receive the worst punishment imaginable, being sold “Down River”.^[1]  As a slave this meant that sooner or later you would come face to face with death. The farther south you went the harsher the punishment and the faster the turnover rate.

        As time continued slaves had gained a new title, American citizens. After overcoming slavery and black codes it seemed as if they were finally able to let out a sigh of relief. Although they have already been through so much, the peaceful moment came to an abrupt end. When the Jim Crow laws, stating separate but equal, came into play this did not settle well with the white men and women of the South. They felt as is if the reigns were being taking out of their hands to be shared with someone who is supposed to be beneath them. So with the current frustrations the deaths of African Americans increase, due to the fact that they are no longer someone’s property. When in reality they had become the prey, and their method was lynching.

“The numbers are not exact, but by the best counts of recorded lynchings, at least 3,500 lynchings occurred between 1865 and 1920, mostly in the South during the period of black disfranchisement and the enactment and initial implementation of Jim Crow Laws. The numbers are numbing---so much so that outside of areas and people directly affected, they hardly seem real. And so barbaric is the grisly business that we too easily discount it as from another time and place and absolve ourselves of any responsibility for the conditions, causes, and consequences of the violent acts. In truth, lynchings were not something that inly “bad” people did somewhere else……They also point to the endorsement, if not the direct participation, of the “upstanding” members of the white community as essential to the ritual and meaning of public lynchings.”^[2]