Why read Southern Horrors?

Book cover of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Book description

These shocking accounts of lynching within the Southern States during the late nineteenth century remain no less poignant today than when they were first recorded. A terrible reminder of the violent consequences which ingrained racism has upon society, this book unflinchingly tells of the various laws throughout the USA which…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Southern Horrors as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kristina DuRocher

Author

In this tract, Wells became the first person, Black or white, to distribute a systematically researched explanation for the rise in lynchings in the South during the late nineteenth century. Wells’s investigation into lynchings across the South countered the image perpetuated by the media that Black males possessed an uncontrolled sexual desire for white women. Instead, Wells noted that lynchings were a form of terrorism; acts of racial violence intended to maintain white economic, social, and political power. It was a gutsy move for a young, southern, Black woman, and it resulted in her being exiled from the South for…

From Kristina's list on The best books for understanding racial violence in the South after the Civil War.