Postcard commemorating thelynching of Allen Brooks in Dallas in 1910

Postcard of crowd two hours after the lynching of Brooks

This is alist of lynching victims in the United States. While the definition has changed over time,lynching is often defined as thesummary execution of one or more personswithout due process of law by a group of people organized internally and not authorized by a legitimate government. Lynchers may claim to be issuing punishment for an alleged crime; however, they are not a judicial body nor deputized by one. Lynchings in the United States rose in number after theAmerican Civil War in the late 19th century, following theemancipation of slaves; they declined in the 1920s. Nearly 3,500African Americans and 1,300whites werelynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968.^[1] Most lynchings were ofAfrican-American men in theSouthern United States, butwomen were also lynched. More than 73 percent of lynchings in the post–Civil War period occurred in the Southern states.^[2] White lynchings of black people also occurred in theMidwestern United States and theBorder States, especially during the 20th-centuryGreat Migration of black people out of the Southern United States. According to the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, the purpose for many of the lynchings was to enforcewhite supremacy and intimidate black people throughracial terrorism.^[3]

According toIda B. Wells and theTuskegee University, most lynching victims were accused of murder or attempted murder. Rape or attempted rape was the second most common accusation; such accusations were often pretexts for lynching black people who violatedJim Crow etiquette or engaged in economic competition withwhite people. SociologistArthur F. Raper investigated one hundred lynchings during the 1930s and estimated that approximately one-third of the victims were falsely accused.^[4][5]

On aper capita basis, lynchings were also common inCalifornia and theOld West, especially ofLatinos, although they represented less than 10% of the national total.Native Americans,Asian Americans,Jewish Americans, andItalian-Americans^[6][7] were also lynched.^[8] Other ethnicities, includingFinnish-Americans^[9] andGerman-Americans^[10] were also lynched occasionally. At least six law officers were killed trying to stop lynch mobs, three of whom succeeded at the cost of their own lives, including Deputy Sheriff Samuel Joseph Lewis in 1882,^[11] and two law officers in 1915 in South Carolina.^[12] Three law officers were themselves hanged by lynch mobs (Henry Plummer in 1864; James Murray in 1897; Carl Etherington in 1910).