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Black Men and Their Historical Plight:
A New Book on Lynchings
The January 21, 2002 edition of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, aired an interview with the author of a new book on the history of lynching.
Philip Dray's tome, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, chronicles the history and dynamics of lynchings from Reconstruction to the modern day. You might be asking yourself, What does this have to do with men's issues?
First of all, I've never heard of a woman being lynched, and if Dray knows of such an incident, he didn't mention it on the air. In response to Gross' questions, the author elaborated on the history of legislative attempts to put an end to lynchings. He stated that, by and large, federal laws to put an end to this barbaric custom failed; anti-lynching advocates never managed to get passed a law to stop, specifically, lynchings. I couldn't help but wonder if they wouldn't have had far less difficulty had one out of every 10 lynching victims been female. For the record, lynchings stopped for a variety of reasons, one of which was that Nazis and Fascists in Europe publicized lynchings in America as a way of saying, Look at how you treat your people. (or your Black men, I should say)
Another gender angle to Dray's book is that often lynchings were the result of knee-jerk reactions by white men to protect white women. A very common accusation against the eventual victim was that he had threatened or frightened a white woman in a sexual way. In some cases, the accusation was rape. And, as Dray stated, an accusation of rape was sure to cause a lynch mob to form. Dray's book also brings out some interesting insights on the plight of black men in their efforts to avoid being lynched.
He stated that Black parents wouldn't want to teach their sons to be particularly ambitious or bold because this might attract the attention of a lynch mob. He also mentioned that Black families frequently felt forced to move because of the threat of lynchings. And having to be so transient must have placed another burden on Black fathers/husbands, that of finding work in a new community. I'm aware that Dray's book is not written from a men's issues angle. But it's also notable that February is Black History Month. And, thinking of Black History gives me pause.
It leaves me to wonder how the men's movement might be more amenable to Black men and include them in the cause of men's rights as we know it.
Bill Kuhl
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At the Hands of Persons Unknown
The Lynching of Black America
Philip Dray
History - Americas | Random House | Hardcover | January 2002 | $35.00 | 0-375-50324-2
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