LYNCHING

Vigilante Justice

Individuals or groups acting outside official legal systems to enforce what they perceive as justice.

Extrajudicial Violence

Violence that occurs outside the legal system but is often unofficially tolerated by the authorities.

Lynching

A killing that involves three or more perpetrators, framed as punishment, often targeting Black Americans as a tool of white supremacy.

Jim Crow

A series of legal and social restrictions enforced between the 1890s and 1960s that oppressed Black Americans.

White Supremacy

A belief system that enforces the supremacy of white people over others, often manifested through acts like lynching.

Legal Lynching

The condoning of lynching by the legal system, with little to no accountability for perpetrators.

Historical Lynching Statistics

Over 175 documented lynchings in North Carolina from 1865 to 1947 and over 5,000 across the southern U.S.

Modern-Day Parallels

Contemporary issues such as police brutality and mass incarceration function similarly to lynching in controlling Black communities.

The Role of Language in Justice

The implications of terms like 'extrajudicial' which suggest actions outside the law but may have been quietly sanctioned.

Racial Violence in America

The continued legacy of racial violence, including the trauma from historical lynching still affecting Black communities today.