The book is a thorough history of mob violence directed against African-Americans over nearly a century after the end of slavery, starting in 1886 and not truly ending until 1964, when the last known mob-directed lynching occurred with explicit assistance and approval from local police officials.ĭray has created a complex portrait of an American-particularly Southern-tradition of publicly murdering African-Americans, drawing on documents collected at the Tuskegee Institute known as the Lynching Archives. Those parallels, and the feeling of dread, and their lingering influence on black Americans' attitudes towards police and other authorities, are dramatically evoked in a new book by Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown. IF YOU NOW FIND YOURSELF obsessed, in the wake of September 11, with the possibilities of other heinous acts, if you feel like a target for zealotry and extremism, if you are now doubting your government's ability to protect you, then you are getting an idea of what it has felt like to be African-American for a good part of this country's history. Retrieved from ĪT THE HANDS OF PERSONS UNKNOWN: The Lynching of Black America by Philip Dray Random House, $29.95
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |