Inside the Vault: Lynching and Anti-Lynching Materials
On April 6, 2023, our curators were joined by Dr. Terry Anne Scott (Director, Institute for Common Power). Dr. Scott used primary sources to discuss the history of anti-lynching activism and the dreadful events that gave rise to it, and she shared her advice for parents and teachers about how to broach topics that are historically and emotionally challenging.
Click here to download the slides from the presentation.
FEATURED DOCUMENT
USE THE TIMESTAMPS BELOW TO JUMP TO THE TOPIC YOU WANT TO VIEW
- 1:25–1:42: Today’s Document
- 2:49–10:16: Henry Smith, Note: Images of lynching are shown in this section
- 10:17–25:51: Robert Henson Hilliard, Note: Images of lynching are shown in this section
- 25:52–29:10: Russellville, Kentucky, Note: Images of lynching are shown in this section
- 29:11–31:05: Will Stanley, Note: Images of lynching are shown in this section
- 31:06–39:21: “The Waco Horror”
- 43:40–49:01: “The Shame of America”
- 49:02–50:31: “For the Good of America”
RELATED RESOURCES
- Spotlight on a Primary Source: “Lynching in America, ca. 1926”
- Guided Readings: “African Americans after Slavery” by Steven Mintz (University of Texas at Austin)
- Essay: “A Right Deferred: African American Voter Suppression after Reconstruction” by Marsha J. Tyson Darling (Adelphi University)
- Essay: “The Persistence of Ida B. Wells: Reform Leader and Civil Rights Activist” by Kristina DuRocher (Kennesaw State University)
- Essay: “The Rise (and Fall) of the First Ku Klux Klan” by Elaine S. Frantz (Kent State University)
- Essay: “African American Women and the Nineteenth Amendment” by Sharon Harley (University of Maryland)
- Essay: “Jim Crow and the Great Migration” by Jonathan Holloway (Rutgers University)
- Essay: “Memorializing the Gravesites of Twentieth-Century African Americans” by Karla F.C. Holloway (Duke University)
- Essay: “Fighting for Democracy in World War I—Overseas and Over Here” by Maurice Jackson (Georgetown University)
- Essay: “The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events and Legacies” by James T. Patterson (Brown University)
- Essay: “The Underground Railroad and the Coming of War” by Matthew Pinsker (Dickinson College)
- Essay: “The Lion of All Occasions: The Great Black Abolitionist Frederick Douglass” by Manisha Sinha (University of Connecticut)
- Essay: “The Square Deal: Theodore Roosevelt and the Themes of Progressive Reform” by Kirsten Swinth (Fordham University)
- Essay: “Ten Ways to Teach Rosa Parks” by Jeanne Theoharis (Brooklyn College) and Say Burgin (Dickinson College)
- Essay: “Teaching the Civil Rights Act of 1964” by Charles L. Zelden (Nova Southeastern University)