The Lynching of Allen Brooks - Dallas, Texas 1910

This postcard, addressed to Dr. J. W. F. Williams in Kentucky, is somewhat hard to understand through its faded sepia tone.  It shows a very large crowd in a main commercial area in downtown Dallas in 1910.  In the back of the photo is Elk’s Arch, a very tall arch in the town square, with Allen Brooks, formerly an esteemed servant for the Buven’s family, hanging from the top.   What is particularly disturbing about this picture, is that this crowd is gathered to watch this gruesome event of a naked, elderly man’s lynching, and they are simply enjoying their lunch break, taking souvenirs and writing home about it. 

Brooks was accused vaguely, and almost certainly wrongfully, of assaulting the Buven family’s young daughter.  One violent mob attempted but failed to attack him and take him from the authorities.  However they tried again while he was on trial, this time a crowd of almost 200 whites, and succeeded, overwhelming the courtroom’s fifty armed deputies and twenty policemen.  Brooks was trapped and while no shots were fired, a noose was hung around his neck and he was thrown from an upper floor down to the mob below who attacked ruthlessly.  From contact with the pavement and horrifying attackers, he was soon almost naked and extremely beat up, when he slowly ascended from the pavement to the top of the arch on a rope, onlookers stripped the rest of his clothing off for souvenirs.   

What makes all of this even more despicable is the fact that the lynch mob, the attackers, the law enforcement, and the spectators all thought this was god’s work, that they were cherishing and protecting “purity and innocence.”  The postcard nonchalantly says the writer was on his lunch hour, and was “very much a part of the bunch.”  This lighthearted tone and apparent excitement at the spectacle is a gross and, sadly, extremely representative snapshot of American culture in this era.  Though we have thankfully progressed past this version of overt, dehumanizing racial violence, our society has simply replaced it with a more subtle and insidious, though no less present, version of the same racial violence, gross public spectacle, and objectification of black bodies.   

<http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html, photograph 7>

The Lynching of Will James

Found on the website of the James Allen collection of Lynching Postcards is a set of seven images devoted to the lynching of Will James. The photographs tell an important story of how this lynching was glorified and established as an attraction for the town of Cairo Illinois. Two photos in particular are especially compelling in their portrayal of Commercial Avenue in Cairo. 

First, image 43 (above), shows what is probably a drawing/painting of Commercial Avenue. The image shows what appears to be a normal main avenue in an average sized city in early 1900s America. In image 44 (right), we see a far different portrayal of Commercial Avenue.

Image 44 shows us Commercial Avenue filled with citizens of Cairo at night time during the lynching. The street is lit up for the lynching as a street would be lit today if a concert, festival, or parade took place on it. The street is packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder as far as the camera can see. The photographer found a perch far behind and high above the crowd in order to take a picture. The body of Will James cannot even be seen. 

What I find so compelling about these two images is that the lynching, the death of a man, was such an attractive event for so many people that the town of Cairo spent the time and money to establish the event as one for thousands of spectators. Perhaps town officials saw it as a way for citizens to come together. Perhaps they saw the event as a way to advertise the consequences of certain actions. All that I know, however, is that the lynching was enough of a big deal for the town of Cairo to come together with enthusiasm to watch a man die. 

The Lynching of Virgil Jones, Robert Jones, Thomas Jones, and Joseph Riley

These images from James Allen's "Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America"  are important documentations of America's history with violence -- a history that is often left out of the typical American narrative. These unsettling images depict exactly why it is important not to forget the cruelty that plagued this era. This period of violence is essential to the understanding of other American periods of violence, cruelty, and ostracism. An understanding of the overall progression of violence throughout history, informs our knowledge of where America actually stands on cruelty and terrorism today.

Virgil Jones, Robert Jones, Thomas Jones, and Joseph Riley were discontented sharecroppers in Logan County, Kentucky. When an argument broke out between their lodge brother, Rufus Browder, and the farmer for which he worked, James Cunningham, Browder killed Cunningham in an act of self-defense. After this event, authorities went after the three Jones men and Riley and had them arrested for "disturbing the peace." Browder, on the other hand, managed to flee to Louisville for his own protection. The real reason that the men were arrested was for having expressed outward approval of Browder's actions against his employer and for their public criticism of the white-run legal system in Logan County. These arrests were common during this time due to fears amongst whites that black lodgers were always scheming and planning rebellions. Once arrested, nearly one hundred men went to the county jail and demanded that the prisoners be handed over to them. The jailer complied with the crowd, and the men were lynched in a public display. A note is visibly seen pinned on one of the men. This note is said to have read, "Let this be a warning...to let white people alone or you will go the same way." One version of the image notes, "This image was taken at sunrise, Aug 1st by a young lady."

July 31, 1908, Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky.
Pencil inscription on reverse: "Another view of nigeros that was lynched in Russelville K.Y."

Lithographed postcard of the original image.
Printed on the card: "taken from death"

In the postcard that bears the lithographed image, the location is changed to the state of Georgia and the charge was changed to "assaulting a white woman." The reverse of the postcard someone wrote that these postcards were not openly for sale due to a law was passed forbidding these to be sent in the mail or to be sold anymore. Indeed, on May 27, 1908 an amendment to the U.S. Postal laws and Regulations was passed that forbade the mailing of "matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder or assassination."

The complete perversion of authority by Southern whites is made apparent by these images and their stories. The manipulation and then propagation of false stories was a common scare tactic used to incite further racial conflict and polarization. It is important to note that similar tactics have been used in other narratives of American violence to rally the masses against minority groups. The distribution of these images and the occurrence of public hangings were also messages to the the black community that compliance with the current social order is necessary, otherwise violence will follow.

The reproduction of the trope of the defenseless white female that is always at risk in the presence of black males was common. This appeal was reliant on women remaining in powerless positions within society, which is something that was beginning to evolve during this time. Interestingly, the photograph was taken by a woman. This suggests that the woman had the proper knowledge and skills to use the equipment and develop the photographs, which was not an easy task considering the technology of the early 20th century.

The attempt to contain these images to the Southern regions of the country is important to our understanding of why this period of violence is irreverently overlooked. Various political and economic factors were at stake if these images were to ever be proliferated and reported on in the North as well as abroad. At the same time, if a knowledge of these events did not exist in the South, the basis for Southern white power would fail to exist as well. However, important questions still remain. Why are these photographs and their stories still so hidden? What would happen if they became more well-known? What role does the government still play in silencing the promulgation of these narratives and images?

The Lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas

The lynching of teenage Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas

A crowd of over 10,000 people gathered at city hall in Waco, Texas; the court had just sentenced a teenage boy to death. However, this was not your average sentencing. The defendant was a teenage African-American farmhand by the name of Jesse Washington and he was accused of raping and killing Lucy Fryer, the wife of his employer. After the guilty verdict, he was dragged throughout the town, kicking and screaming, and eventually found himself at the base of a tree in front of city hall. A chain was placed around his neck; he was doused in gasoline, and then raised and lowered over a prepared fire pit to burn him to death. It was at this precise moment that the photograph was taken and subsequently printed on postcards for all to see.

This horrifying image most clearly demonstrates the monstrosity of human nature in this area of the United States at the time. Thousands of white onlookers gazed intently at the spectacle before them as if they were at some type of circus or baseball game. The aspect that I found most interesting was general uniformity of the spectators so intentionally captured by the photographer. It seems that almost every single male in the photograph is wearing a white top hat with some dark ribbon, and the women appear to be wearing darker, wider hats. This representation establishes the amalgamation of the white race at the time; there were thousands of people who could have stepped in and said that this process was not all right but the status quo at the time seemingly was some sort of fascination over the mutilation of another human being.

This image, like many of the postcards from James Allen’s collection, was the demonstration of a gruesome atrocity now known as the “Waco Horror” (as popularized by W.E.B. Dubois after the incident). Almost every single person is intently watching the horror manifest itself in front of them… and this image was captured and then printed to be seen by thousands more. Throughout our history, it seems as if we look to push out these types of images in our minds due to the gravity of the situation. These photographs plague our history and they will never, and should never, be forgotten.