The Lynching of W.C. Williams

This postcard depicts the lynching of W.C. Williams in Ruston Louisiana, on October 15, 1938. Of all the photographs I viewed, this one struck me most, first because the event it captures it took place later than any other in Allen’s collection. Our resource purports that Williams was most likely castrated before being hanged based on the blood dripping down his legs. A quick google search makes the photograph even more disturbing.

According to Northeastern University Law Schools’ database, Williams was a 19 year old African American who was not sound of mind. The lynching of Williams was orchestrated by three white male teenagers, in response to the recent killing of R.M. Blair, a white man, and the beating of his female companion. A lynch mob which grew to about 3,000 people disregarded the sheriff’s pleas for order, and Williams was tortured, shot, hanged, and ultimately burned to death. The image in the photograph is particularly graphic, as the angle of the shot reveals the torture Williams underwent prior to his death.

            The setting of the photograph seems to be a rural area, however, to draw such a crowd, the scene of the lynching must have been publicly accessible. The angle from which the photographer takes the photo is significant because it captures the gathered crowd, who all appear to be there for the spectacle. The fact that in 1938, areas like Ruston Louisiana could attract over 3,000 people to watch a gruesome lynching is astounding. It reveals the extensive racial tensions and white supremacy which pervaded in areas of the Deep South then, and continues in certain areas today. It really is quite horrifying to see both indifference and general revelry on the faces of those in the crowd. Even more upsetting is that the lynching was facilitated by three white teenagers who simply happened upon Williams while driving down a rural road. I do not know whether the three teenagers were the ones who ultimately killed Williams, but they initiated the lynching. This reveals social structures, especially in the South, in which being young, white, and male gives one an inordinate amount of power, and essentially shields one from the consequences of heinous actions.

            Williams was the complete opposite of the young males who initially captured him. He did not have the privilege of being white, or even sound of mind. This makes his lynching all the more disturbing. While one might think that he might be treated better as a result of his mental disability, I would venture to say that his disability and the color of his skinned combined perfectly in the minds of the gathered crown, and painted the picture of a deranged, deviant killer. And thus, he was castrated, like an animal that is not fit to breed. The dehumanization of Williams is beyond comprehension for me.

            While the photograph in and of itself is extremely disturbing, the context surrounding the events makes it even more so. What is most unsettling to me though, is that a culture existed in the United States even a century ago which was desensitized to not only the practice of lynching, but also to depictions of it in ways which painted spectators as highly amused, killers vigilante heroes, and victims as animals.

Additional info,

http://nuweb9.neu.edu/civilrights/louisiana/w-c-williams/

The Corpse of Clyde Johnson

Like most of the pictures in this series, this image ("The Corpse of Clyde Johnson") is extremely disturbing. It portrays the lynching of Clyde Johnson, and the words in the negative read, "Killer of Jack Daw Aug 3, 1935 vengeance in Siskiyou Country." The words refer to the police chief of Dunsmuir, Oregon (where the lynching took place), whom Johnson allegedly killed. Though he was officially arrested, the town of Dunsmuir decided to take justice into their own hands, by taking him from his jail cell and having him from a pine tree three miles outside of town.

The photo is composed very interestingly. Photographer James Allen chose to capture only Johnson in the image, without any of the lynchers pictured. This, paired with the words inscribed in the bottom corner, works to implicate only Johnson for Daw's murder, rather than to implicate the lynchers for their own brutal murder. This is extremely symbolic of this image's historical era. Lynchers could be seen as heroes bringing a man to justice, instead of the vicious killers that they were.

Many of the images in "Without Sanctuary" evoke similar feelings that are, not surprisingly, hard to stomach. This raises an important question of morality. Obviously, the circulation of these images of lynchings as a form of entertainment in correspondence was despicable. Now, they can serve as a reminder of our country's shameful actions and a record for our history books. However, one terrible aspect of lynching was its public nature, and the way in which bodies were left on display for sometimes days on end. This begs the question: are we adding to that shame by continuing to distribute these photos?