The images above, from James Allen’s collection “Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America,” show the infamous 1911 Oklahoma lynching of Laura Nelson and her teenage son L.D. According to accounts from Oklahoma newspapers, L.D. shot and killed deputy George Loney while he inspected their house for meat from a reportedly stolen cow. Laura attempted to take responsibility for the deputy’s death in order to protect her 14 year old son, yet both were arrested and simultaneously kidnapped and lynched by an angry and organized mob of white Oklahomans. Many African Americans believed that Oklahoma, which officially became a state in 1907, represented an escape from the racism and violence of the South, yet events like this one and the widely circulated photographs to prove it put an end to this hope for a peaceful future.
The sight of a woman, with a simple dress and the countenance of youth and vitality, really sets this image apart from the rest in the collection. The lynch mob knew of Laura Nelson’s innocence and her lie to try to save her son, yet in an extreme measure of absolute cruelty, the mob hung both her and her son in a dramatic fashion to send an even stronger message to their community and, through the postcards that came from these images, the whole world. Their inability to show mercy to a woman who was just trying to protect her child speaks to the dehumanizing group mentality of lynch mobs of the late 19th/early 20th century United States. Allen’s notes on the second picture discuss the prevailing idea that lynching equated the would-be punishments of the criminal justice system, as one Oklahoma Sheriff stated “while the general sentiment is adverse to the method, it is generally thought that the Negroes got what would have been due them under process of law” (http://withoutsanctuary.org/pics_33_text.html). The all-encompassing democracy immediately following the Civil War caused many whites, especially in the South, to resort to mob and extrajudicial “justice” to African Americans accused of any number of crimes against whites.
The perspective of the photographs, particularly the one depicting the crowd on the bridge, really make the lynching seem like an public presentation. I’m guessing that both photos were taken by photographer George Henry Farnum, owner of Oklahoma’s only photography studio in 1911, from a boat on the Canadian River. What might very well be the entire population of Okemah, OK is gathered along the bridge, and it is unclear whether they view the lynchings with pride and dignity or horror and disgust. Although the U.S. Postal Service banned postcards with lynchings in 1908, Farnum sold both photographs in postcard form; the first one even features “unmailable” stamped into the back. The commoditization of these graphic events diminishes the suffering felt by the victims and reveals the widespread acceptance of a shameful, barbaric practice.
