
A Lynching Memorial Is Opening - kiddz
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/lynching-memorial-alabama.html
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rdl
Architecturally that looks a lot like the Berlin holocaust memorial.

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wmeredith
It says in the article that it was source of inspiration.

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adventured
After reading that, I realized I've never known a historical number as it
pertains to how many lynchings occured in the US.

The NAACP pegs the number at 4,743 total lynchings between 1882-1968. 3,446
were black, with 1,297 being white. 79% occurred in southern states.

[http://www.naacp.org/history-of-lynchings/](http://www.naacp.org/history-of-
lynchings/)

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tropo
The usual assumption seems to be that it was 100% black.

Fundamentally, a lynching is just a fancy way to refer to mob justice. People
get frustrated with the slow and methodical justice system. Rules of evidence
can and do let many perpetrators free, and people are well aware of this.
There is disagreement over what constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment",
and plenty of anger when punishment seems insufficient for the crime.
Frustrated angry people tend to take matters into their own hands.

This is something to think about when considering making punishment less
severe or easier to avoid. There is a point at which ordinary people won't
stand for it. Our justice system largely exists to appease angry people who
would otherwise dish out their own idea of justice.

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himalayanRock
'Rules of evidence can and do let many perpetrators free' \- yeah, justice
lets people walk away from the heinous crimes of "walking behind the wife of
his white employer" and "denouncing her husband’s lynching by a rampaging
white mob". This is so jaw-droppingly idiotic you must be deliberately
trolling. Did you read the article at all or you were to busy single handedly
rewriting history to read any of it?

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Ntrails
Of course the article can point out all the people lynched for essentially
being "other". As an expression of hate, or fear. There was a _lot_ of that
(and may still be some to be honest).

There were also lynchings where the mob simply believed the victim to be
guilty but unprovably so. Or where the punishment would not be sufficient to
the crime in their eyes. Those are the ones which the GP seems to refer to,
and it's not necessarily trolling to bring up the relationship between those
and a justice system that is _seen_ to work.

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nathanaldensr
Gotta love how far "The Grey Lady" has fallen with these BuzzFeed-style
headlines.

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scabarott
Wow, that was your takeaway

