Lynching postcard

U.S. picture postcard depicting a lynching

A colorized postcard of the lynching of Virgil Jones, Robert Jones, Thomas Jones, and Joseph Riley on July 31, 1908, in Russellville, Kentucky

A lynching postcard is a postcard bearing the photograph of a lynching—a vigilante murder usually motivated by racial hatred—intended to be distributed, collected, or kept as a souvenir. Often a lynching postcard would be inscribed with racist text or poems. Lynching postcards were in widespread production for more than fifty years in the United States, although their distribution through the United States Postal Service was banned in 1908.

## Description

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Part of a series on the

Nadir of American
race relations

Violence in the 1906 Atlanta race massacre

* * *

Historical background

* Reconstruction era
* Voter suppression
* Disfranchisement
* Redeemers
* Compromise of 1877
* Jim Crow laws
* Segregation
* Anti-miscegenation laws
* Convict leasing

Practices

Common actions

* Expulsions of African Americans
* Lynchings
* Lynching postcards
* Sundown town
* Whitecapping

Vigilante groups

* Black Legion
* Indiana White Caps
* Ku Klux Klan
* Red Shirts

Lynchings

* Andrew Richards
* Michael Green
* Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer
* Eliza Woods
* Amos Miller
* George Meadows
* Joe Vermillion
* Jim Taylor
* Joe Coe
* People's Grocery
* Ephraim Grizzard
* Alfred Blount
* Samuel J. Bush
* Stephen Williams
* Frazier B. Baker and Julia Baker
* John Henry James
* Sam Hose
* George Ward
* David Wyatt
* Marie Thompson
* Watkinsville
* Ed Johnson
* William Burns
* Walker family
* Laura and L. D. Nelson
* King Johnson
* John Evans
* Jesse Washington
* Newberry Six
* Anthony Crawford
* Ell Persons
* Jim McIlherron
* George Taylor
* John Hartfield
* 1920 Duluth
* James Harvey and Joe Jordan
* Joe Pullen

Massacres and riots

* Opelousas massacre
* Rock Springs massacre
* Thibodaux massacre
* Spring Valley Race Riot of 1895
* Phoenix election riot
* Wilmington insurrection of 1898
* Pana riot
* Robert Charles riots
* Evansville race riot
* Atlanta Massacre of 1906
* Springfield race riot of 1908
* Johnson–Jeffries riots
* 1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County
* 1917 Chester race riot
* East St. Louis riots
* Elaine massacre
* Red Summer
* Chicago race riot of 1919
* Washington race riot of 1919
* Ocoee massacre
* Tulsa race massacre
* Perry race riot
* Rosewood massacre

Reactions

* Anti-lynching movement
* Atlanta Compromise
* Back to Africa movement
* Exodusters movement
* Great Migration
* Niagara Movement
* NAACP
* Silent Parade

Related topics

* Black genocide
* Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
* Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
* Mass racial violence in the United States

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Terror lynchings as a display of racial domination peaked around the 1880s through to the 1940s, and were less frequent until the 1970s, especially (but not exclusively) in the Southern United States.[1] Lynchings were widely used to intimidate recently emancipated African Americans after the Civil War Reconstruction era,[2] and were later used to intimidate voters and civil rights workers[3] of all ethnic backgrounds. Mostly African-American[1] men, women, and children were lynched, for a lack of subservience or for success in business.[4] Others were often accused of crimes and forcibly removed from their homes or jails[5] to be murdered by a white supremacist mob without due process or presumption of innocence.[6]

Spectators sold one another souvenirs including postcards.[7] Often the photographer was one of the killers.[8]

In a typical lynching postcard, the victim is displayed prominently at the center of the shot, while smiling spectators, often including children,[7] crowd the margins of the frame, posing for the camera to prove their presence. Facial expressions suggesting remorse, guilt, shame, or regret are rare.[8]

## Cultural significance

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Some purchasers used lynching postcards as ordinary postcards, communicating unrelated events to friends and relatives. Others resold lynching postcards at a profit.[6] Still others collected them as historical objects or racist paraphernalia: their manufacture and continued distribution was part of white supremacist culture, and has been likened to "bigot pornography".[9]

Whatever their use, the cultural message embodied in most lynching postcards was one of racial superiority. Historian Amy Louise Wood argues:

> Within specific localities, viewers did not disconnect the photographs from the actual lynchings they represented. Through that particularity, the images served as visual proof for the uncontested 'truth' of white civilized morality over and against supposed black bestiality and savagery. [9]

Viewed from an outsider's perspective, bereft of local context, the postcards symbolized white power more generally. White citizens were depicted as victorious over powerless murdered black victims, and the pictures became part of secular iconography.

Richard Lacayo, writing for Time magazine, noted in 2000:

> Even the Nazis did not stoop to selling souvenirs of Auschwitz, but lynching scenes became a burgeoning subdepartment of the postcard industry. By 1908, the trade had grown so large, and the practice of sending postcards featuring the victims of mob murderers had become so repugnant, that the U.S. Postmaster General banned the cards from the mails.[10]

As late as 2000, James Allen was able to acquire a collection of lynching postcards from dealers who offered them in whispered tones and clandestine marketplaces.[8]

## Legality

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Some towns had censored lynching photographs earlier in the 20th century, but the first step toward nationwide censorship came in 1908.[11] The 1873 Comstock Act had forbidden the publication of "obscene matter as well as its circulation in the mails".[11] In 1908, §3893 was added to the Comstock Act, extending the ban to material "tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination".[11] Although this act did not explicitly ban lynching postcards themselves, it banned the racist text that often accompanied them, which made "too explicit what was always implicit in lynchings".[11]

Despite the amendment, the distribution of lynching photographs and postcards continued, now concealed within envelopes or mail wrappers.[12][13]

## Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day

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The 2021 documentary short Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day documents said souvenirs.[14][15]

## See also

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* Coon card – Postcards with anti-black racist imagery
* History of postcards in the United States
* Lynching of Allen Brooks
* Lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson
* Lynching of Leo Frank
* Lynching in the United States § Photographic records and postcards
* Nazi memorabilia
* Murderabilia
* Nadir of American race relations

## References

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1. ^ a b Wolters 2004, pp. 399–425.
2. ^ "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror" (3rd ed.). Equal Justice Initiative. 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
3. ^ Kaleem, Jaweed (June 21, 2016). "They dared to register blacks to vote, and the KKK killed them: A 52-year-old case is closed — unsolved". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
4. ^ "Readers React: How lynching was used by whites to destroy competition from black business owners". Los Angeles Times. April 28, 2018. Archived from the original on January 21, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
5. ^ Lartey, Jamiles; Morris, Sam (April 26, 2018). "How white Americans used lynchings to terrorize and control black people". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
6. ^ a b Apel 2004.
7. ^ a b Young 2005, pp. 639–657.
8. ^ a b c Allen & Littlefield 2018.
9. ^ a b Wood 2005, pp. 373–399.
10. ^ Lacayo, Richard (April 2, 2000). "Blood At The Root". Time. Archived from the original on November 6, 2008. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
11. ^ a b c d Kim 2012.
12. ^ Rushdy 2012, pp. 68–69.
13. ^ Moehringer, J. R. (August 27, 2000). "An Obsessive Quest to Make People See". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 30, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
14. ^ 82nd Peabody Award Nominees Announced
15. ^ Lynching Postcards: 'Token for a Day' (2021)|MUBI

## Sources

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* Allen, James; Littlefield, John (2018) [2000]. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Twin Palms Publishers. ISBN 978-0-944092-69-9. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
* Apel, Dora (2004). Imagery of Lynching: Black Men, White Women, and the Mob. New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-3459-6.
* Kim, Linda (2012). "A Law of Unintended Consequences: United States Postal Censorship of Lynching Photographs". Visual Resources. 28 (2). Taylor & Francis: 171–193\. doi:10.1080/01973762.2012.678812. S2CID 159670864.
* Oney, Steve (2004). And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank. New York, New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-76423-6.
* Rushdy, Ashraf H. A. (2012). The End of American Lynching. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5292-7. JSTOR j.ctt1bqzmzg.
* Wolters, Wendy (2004). "Without Sanctuary: Bearing Witness, Bearing Whiteness" (PDF). Journal of Advanced Composition. 24 (2): 399–425\. JSTOR 20866631.
* Wood, Amy Louise (2005). "Lynching Photography and the Visual Reproduction of White Supremacy". American Nineteenth Century History. 6 (3: Lynching Reconsidered: New Perspectives in the Study of Mob Violence). Taylor & Francis: 373–399\. doi:10.1080/14664650500381090. S2CID 144176806.
* Young, Harvey (2005). "The Black Body as Souvenir in American Lynching". Theatre Journal. 57 (4): 639–657\. doi:10.1353/tj.2006.0054. JSTOR 25069734. S2CID 129940032.

## Further reading

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* Lynching Postcards: 'Token of A Great Day'. Paramount Plus. 2021.
* Lynching Postcards on IMDb
* Official trailer

* v
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* e

Lynching in the United States

List of lynching victims in the United States

| Before 1900|

* Francis McIntosh (1836)
* Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1837)
* Josefa Segovia (1851)
* Pancho Daniel (1858)
* Joshua Boyd (1863)
* Henry Plummer (1864)
* Bill Sketoe (1864)
* Clubfoot George (1864)
* Steve Long, Ace and Con Moyer (1868)
* Wyatt Outlaw (1870)
* John W. Stephens (1870)
* Alexander Boyd (1870)
* Jim Williams (1871)
* David Jones (1872)
* Jo Reed (1875)
* Arthur St. Clair (1877)
* Michael Green (1878)
* Joseph Standing (1879)
* Big Nose George Parrott (1881)
* Charles Thurber (1882)
* John Wesley Heath (1884)
* Eliza Woods (1886)
* Samuel "Mingo Jack" Johnson (1886)
* Amos Miller (1888)
* Joseph Vermillion (1889)
* George Meadows (1889)
* Ellen Watson (1889)
* Brown Washington (1890)
* Jim Taylor (1891)
* Dick Lundy (1891)
* Joe Coe (1891)
* Robert Lewis (1892)
* Ephraim Grizzard (1892)
* Samuel J. Bush (1893)
* John Peterson (1893)
* Alfred Blount (1893)
* Henry Smith (1893)
* Richard Puryear (1894)
* Stephen Williams (1894)
* Amos Hicks (1894)
* Jacob Henson (1896)
* William Andrews (1897)
* Joseph H. McCoy (1897)
* John Anderson (1898)
* John Henry James (1898)
* F. W. Stewart (1898)
* Sam Hose (1899)
* Benjamin Thomas (1899)

|

1900–1940|

* Fred Rochelle (1901)
* Ballie Crutchfield (1901)
* George Ward (1901)
* Walker Davis (1903)
* J. D. Mayfield (1903)
* George White (1903)
* David Wyatt (1903)
* Marie Thompson (1904)
* Paul Reed and Will Cato (1904)
* Bunk Richardson (1906)
* Ed Johnson (1906)
* Slab Pitts (1906)
* William Burns (1907)
* Earnest Williams (1907)
* Jim Miller (1909)
* James Hodges (1909)
* Matthew Chase (1909)
* "Mose" Creole (1909)
* "Pie" Hill (1909)
* William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner (1909)
* Grant Richardson (1910)
* King Johnson (1911)
* Name unknown (TX) (1911)
* Laura and L. D. Nelson (1911)
* Will Porter (1911)
* Zachariah Walker (1911)
* Mary Jackson (1912)
* Rob Edwards (1912)
* George Saunders (1912)
* Robert Perry (1913)
* ? Anderson (1913)
* Charles Fisher (1914)
* John Evans (1914)
* Leo Frank (1915)
* Name unknown (MS) (1915)
* Jesse Washington (1916)
* Anthony Crawford (1916)
* Jeff Brown (1916)
* Paulo Boleta (1916)
* Frank Little (1917)
* Charles Jones (1917)
* Ell Persons (1917)
* Robert Prager (1918)
* Mary Turner and her unborn baby (1918)
* Hazel "Hayes" Turner (1918)
* George Taylor (1918)
* Jim McIlherron (1918)
* Olli Kinkkonen (1918)
* Wallace Baynes (1919)
* Will Brown (1919)
* Wesley Everest (1919)
* John Hartfield (1919)
* Jay Lynch (1919)
* Berry Washington (1919)
* Willie Baird (1920)
* Roy Belton (1920)
* Dick Rowland (attempted) (1921)
* Henry Lowry (1921)
* James Harvey and Joe Jordan (1922)
* Joe Pullen (1923)
* Samuel Smith (1924)
* L. Q. Ivy (1925)
* Raymond Byrd (1926)
* James Clark (1926)
* Fred N. Selak (1926)
* Tom Payne (1927)
* John Carter (1927)
* Dan Anderson (1927)
* Will Sherod (1927)
* Bernice Raspberry (1927)
* Owen Flemming (1927)
* Joseph Upchurch (1927)
* Joe Smith (1927)
* Albert Williams (1927)
* Thomas Bradshaw (1927)
* Winston Pounds (1927)
* Thomas Williams (1927)
* Henry Choate (1927)
* Leonard Woods (1927)
* J. C. Collins (1928)
* George Hughes (1930)
* James Cameron (1930)
* Lynching of Raymond Gunn (1931)
* Matthew Williams (1931)
* Shedrick Thompson (1932)
* George Armwood (1933)
* Cordie Cheek (1933)
* Claude Neal (1934)
* Austin Callaway (1940)
* Elbert Williams (1940)

After 1940|

* Felix Hall (1941)
* Johannes Kunze (1943)
* Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943)
* Willie James Howard (1944)
* Recy Taylor (1944)
* John Cecil Jones (1946)
* Willie Earle (1947)
* Lamar Smith (1955)
* George W. Lee (1955)
* Emmett Till (1955)
* Judge Edward Aaron (1957)
* Willie Edwards (1957)
* Mack Charles Parker (1959)
* Louis Allen (1964)
* Lemuel Penn (1964)
* Frank Morris (1964)
* James Reeb (1965)
* Vernon Dahmer (1966)
* Wharlest Jackson (1967)
* Carol Jenkins (1968)
* Henry Marrow (1970)
* Marian Pyszko (1975)
* Betty Gardner (1978)
* Arthur McDuffie (1979)
* Michael Donald (1981)
* Yusef Hawkins (1989)
* James Byrd Jr. (1998)
* James Craig Anderson (2011)
* Ahmaud Arbery (2020)

Multiple victims

* Death of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith) (1844)
* Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre (1858)
* Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX (1862)
* New York City draft riots (1863)
* Detroit race riot (1863)
* ? Lachenais and four others (1863)
* Fort Pillow, TN, massacre (1864)
* Plummer Gang (1864)
* Memphis massacre (1866)
* Gallatin County, KY, race riot (1866)
* New Orleans massacre of 1866
* Reno Brothers Gang (1868)
* Camilla, GA, massacre (1868)
* Steve Long and two half-brothers (1868)
* Pulaski, TN, riot (1868)
* Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman (1868)
* Opelousas, LA, massacre (1868)
* Bear River City riot (1868)
* Chinese massacre of 1871
* Meridian, MS, race riot (1871)
* Colfax, LA, massacre (1873)
* Election riot of 1874 (AL)
* Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya (1874)
* Benjamin and Mollie French (1876)
* Ellenton, SC, riot (1876)
* Hamburg, SC, massacre (1876)
* Thibodeax, LA, massacre (1878)
* Mart and Tom Horrell (1878)
* Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer (1879)
* Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken (1879)
* T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey (1880)
* New Orleans 1891 lynchings (1891)
* Ruggles Brothers (CA) (1892)
* Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN) (1892)
* Porter and Spencer (MS) (1897)
* Phoenix, SC, election riot (1898)
* Wilmington, NC, insurrection (1898)
* Julia and Frazier Baker (1898)
* Pana, IL, riot (1899)
* Watkinsville lynching (1905)
* 1906 Atlanta race massacre
* Kemper County, MS (1906)
* Walker family (1908)
* Springfield race riot of 1908
* Slocum, TX, massacre (1910)
* Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911)
* Harris County, GA, lynchings (1912)
* Newberry, FL, lynchings (1916)
* East St. Louis, IL, riots (1917)
* Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA (1918)
* Jenkins County, GA, riot (1919)
* Longview, TX, race riot (1919)
* Elaine, AR, race riot (1919)
* Omaha race riot of 1919
* Knoxville riot of 1919
* Red Summer (1919)
* Duluth, MN, lynchings (1920)
* Ocoee, FL, massacre (1920)
* Tulsa race massacre (1921)
* Perry, FL, race riot (1922)
* Rosewood, FL, massacre (1923)
* Jim and Mark Fox (1927)
* Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930)
* Tate County, MS (1932)
* Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (1933)
* Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels (1937)
* Beaumont, TX, Race Riot (1943)
* O'Day Short, wife, and two children (1945)
* Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings (1946)
* Harry and Harriette Moore (1952)
* Anniston, AL (1961)
* Freedom Summer Murders (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) (1964)
* Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore (1964)

| General|

* Lynching
* Indiana White Caps
* Jim Crow laws
* Ku Klux Klan
* Nadir of American race relations
* Red Shirts
* Jews
* Women

|

Anti-lynching movement|

* American anti-lynching activists
* American Crusade Against Lynching
* Jessie Daniel Ames
* Martin C. Ansorge
* Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching
* Flossie Bailey
* William O'Connell Bradley
* Ella Barksdale Brown
* Father Divine
* "Flag Salute"
* N.A.A.C.P.
* National Conference on Lynching
* Paul Robeson
* "Strange Fruit"
* Ida B. Wells

| Legislation|

* Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
* Costigan-Wagner Bill
* Justice for Victims of Lynching Act
* Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act
* Emmett Till Antilynching Act

|

Defenders of lynching|

* Theodore G. Bilbo
* Cole L. Blease
* Julian S. Carr
* Sidney Johnston Catts
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* Rebecca Latimer Felton
* John Temple Graves
* John Trotwood Moore
* John T. Morgan
* James Rolph
* Goodloe Sutton
* Benjamin Tillman
* James K. Vardaman
* Thomas E. Watson

Memory|

* America's Black Holocaust Museum
* Civil Rights Memorial
* The Legacy Museum
* National Memorial for Peace and Justice
* National Museum of African American History and Culture
* Southern Poverty Law Center

Related articles|

* James Allen (collector)
* "And you are lynching Negroes"
* Attack on John Shillady
* Battle of Liberty Place
* The Birth of a Nation
* The Clansman
* Deaths in police custody
* Fury (1936 film)
* Hang 'Em High
* Lynching postcard
* Mississippi Burning
* Mississippi Cold Case
* Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson (1965)
* The Ox-Bow Incident
* Parade (musical)
* Reconstruction era
* Red Summer
* Scottsboro Boys
* Silent Parade
* Stone Mountain
* Summer in Mississippi
* Sundown town (list)
* They Won't Forget
* "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain)
* United States v. Shipp
* Vendetta (1999 film)
* Wilmington insurrection of 1898

Categories|

* Lynching in the United States
* Lynching deaths in the United States

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