lynching
Extrajudicial mob killing
Lynching is extrajudicial killing by a mob, historically associated with the murder of Black Americans in the post-Civil War South through the mid-twentieth century.
Victims were often hanged from trees, though burning and shooting were also common.
The killings served as racial terrorism, enforcing white supremacy through spectacle violence.
The term now applies to any mob killing: The film depicted the lynching of an accused thief.
Figuratively, a public lynching describes coordinated attacks on someone's reputation.
Disorderly, aggressive crowd
- nooseLoop that constricts
- ropeThick twisted fibers
- hangingExecution by noose
- gallowsExecution hanging apparatus
torches · pitchforks · crowd · posse · tree · bonfire · spectacle · photography
Prejudice based on ethnicity
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
- wrongfulWithout legal right
persecution · scapegoating · miscarriage · inequality · bigotry · bias · terrorization · Emmett Till
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Billie Holiday"Strange Fruit" vocalist
- NAACPCivil rights advocacy organization
- memorialThing preserving remembrance
- antilynchingOpposing vigilante executions
Ida B. Wells · documentation · photography · archive · remembrance · reckoning
Outside court authority
- vigilanteExtralegal justice-seeker
- posseArmed group pursuing fugitives
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- vengeanceRetaliation for injury
mob
Disorderly, aggressive crowd
gallows · torches · pitchforks · crowd · posse · tree · bonfire · spectacle · photography · postcards
racism
Prejudice based on ethnicity
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
wrongful · persecution · scapegoating · miscarriage · inequality · bigotry · bias · terrorization · Emmett Till · memorial
Reconstruction
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Billie Holiday"Strange Fruit" vocalist
- NAACPCivil rights advocacy organization
- memorialThing preserving remembrance
Ida B. Wells · antilynching · documentation · photography · archive · remembrance · reckoning
extrajudicial
Outside court authority
- vigilanteExtralegal justice-seeker
- posseArmed group pursuing fugitives
- retributionPunishment for wrongdoing
- killingshomicide, murder for hire, manslaughter, killing, assassination
- Black HistoryMartin Luther King Jr., MLK, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass
- crimesarson, burglary, robbery, kidnapping, vandalism
- Wild Westcowboy, howdy, sheriff, giddyup, lawmen
- civil rightsequal protection, equal rights, Civil Rights Act, right to life, Voting Rights Act
- discriminationracism, systemic discrimination, Jim Crow laws, sexism, racial harassment
lynchingtrial
Judicial examination of claims
due process · fair trial · legal proceeding · judicial process · rule of law
lynchingrescue
Save from harm
protection · safeguarding · sanctuary · asylum · deliverance