The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith An iconic photograph is an image that brings to mind an event or location, often with emotional impact, for people in a given time, place or culture. An example I’d like to use would be the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith two men both accused of killing a white man and raping a white woman. This photo was taken on August 7th, 1930 by Lawrence Beitler. A night before the lynching incident happened three men were apprehended for being suspects in a robbery, murder of Claude Deeter, and the raping of his girlfriend Mary Ball the men were known as Thomas Shipp, Abram Smith, and James Cameron. Once the county from Marion, Indiana heard about the incident an angry mob of white folk busted through …show more content…
I believe the white folk did this lynching on purpose not for the reason that two men did a crime but for the fact that they wanted to set a boundary between the colored people and the white people showing them that white will always be the leading race. What many don’t know is that the people pleaded that the bodies not to be taken down till the next day to show they mean business. Although many people were with the lynching taking place the head of the local chapter of the National Association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP) wasn’t too happy about it and decided to find justice for the two men. After all she tried with finding the mob leaders accused for the two colored men’s murders the leaders were found innocent by the court run by white men. The memories made by this tragic event will never fade and with that James Cameron dedicated his life to write the book “Time Of Terror” to tell his story. This photo could well be the most iconic photograph on lynching and racism. This photograph is so famous a poem was written about the lynching named “Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol and later made into a song by Billie Holiday. This famous poem had to do with the lynching of mostly blacks and protested racism. This …show more content…
Racism started when the colonial era was taking place ever since the 16th century all rights were only given to white people and were taken away from mostly black people. White people never saw black folk as great people ever since slavery was abolished just 65 years before this happened they would just think of them as lower life forms that would just cause trouble now that they are free. When Abraham Lincoln was in office he was with abolishing slavery but just not let it continue to spread to new territories and with that a large amount of white folk didn’t enjoy that idea and thought it would just bring the U.S more trouble than it can handle. During Abraham Lincolns presidential term the Civil war broke out which made the federal government come to their senses and liberate slaves to weaken the Confederacy. After all this took place many black folk thought life would be easier which it was but just to some extent; black people didn’t have much authority in anything, they couldn’t get jobs, couldn’t get the right education, and weren’t paid well which was like still being slaves. The way blacks were treated after the civil war made them turn to a life of crime stealing to be able to feed themselves and family, sell things in the black market that shouldn’t be sold, and find jobs that no mere person would