Of Lynching From The Negro's Point Of View By Mary Church Terrell

After the Civil War, many liberated blacks endured lynching which was a practice where usually, mobs used the excuse of false accusations to justify injuring and killing a person alleged of an offense. Many southern white men used this technique to bring their concept of justice into society while also oppressing woman no matter the color just to be in control. During the 1880-90’s lynching had reached its highest, where black men were targeted to have perpetrated rapes, and homicides. This practice helped white men in the south preserve the lineage of white supremacy. Mary Church Terrell’s “Lynching from the Negro’s Point of View”, exposes the misconceptions of lynching while contrasting how both the South and the North played a role in

It is unclear on some aspects when it comes to the accuracy of information because the author has such a strong point of view on the subject. It is fair when it goes to show that not just one person or a group of people are to blame but that sometimes its not just the culprits fault but also the victims. Her contrast of the North and the South show that. There isn’t any emotional language or generalizations but I believe there are over-implications when it comes to blaming only the whites. Terrell shows how there isn’t just one way of looking at things but that there are about a million ways one picture can be analyzed and

It shows how this civil rights leader helps radicalize slavery after being a witness to experiencing the hanging of her three friends. The documentary helps reveal how being born into slavery can not only change a person but can influence them to change the social norms they grew up into. It starts of showing how she used education as a stepping stone to become an activist first by becoming a teacher and then eventually by joining the Lyceum Literary Club. During this time many black cultural and self-improvement societies had started coming out. She wanted to mobilize many woman’s groups in particular to change the image they had seen created and to instead create something new, a “organizational apparatus.” A important quote from the documentary states “ Wells bought a pistol the first thing after Tom Moss was lynched, because I expected some cowardly retaliation from the lyncher’s I had felt that one had better die fighting against injustice….Id already determined to sell my life dearly as possible attack, I felt if I could take one lyncher with me that would even up the score.” This sentence is the main thesis of Greaves film because it truly shows the courage and resistance Wells had when it came to fighting for