Curricular Resources > 1979 Volume II > Unit 4 (79.02.04) > Section 8

Themes in Twentieth Century American Culture

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 79.02.04

Unit Guide

The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United States,1880-1950

Robert A. Gibson

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Sample Lessons

Lesson 4. Lynching was not a sectional crime.

In this lesson students will learn that lynchings were not restricted to the rural South, but took place throughout the United States. Mimeographed copies of the Tuskegee Institute lynching statistics for the period 882 1951 will be utilized by teacher and students in this lesson.

Objectives

1. Students will be required to read and interpret statistical data.

2. Students will learn that the majority of lynchings occurred in the South.

3. Students will list reasons why the majority of lynchings occurred in the South, i.e. why it was a rural phenomenon.

4. On maps of the United States students will write in the number of lynchings that took place in each state.

Lesson 5. Justifications given by whites for lynching Blacks.

In this lesson students will learn the five general accusations for which Black people were lynched. The Tuskegee Institute statistics will be used with this lesson.

Objectives

1. Students will suggest reasons for lynching Blacks.

2. Students will learn that the charges made against Black lynching victims fell under five categories: homicide, felonious assault, rape, insulting a white person and miscellaneous offenses.

3. Students should see that homicide and felonious assault, not rape, were most frequently cited as reasons for mob action.

4. Students will consider other reasons white people would use to justify lynching.

Lesson 6. Who participated in lynching mobs.

In this lesson, students will learn that most mob participants were from the lower strata of Southern white society.

Objectives

1. Students should see that the average mob participant was poor, illiterate or poorly educated, and was either a small land-owner, tenant farmer, or common laborer.

2. Students should understand that this group of people frequently competed with Blacks for jobs, and, therefore, saw Blacks as a social and economic threat—a major cause of race hatred.

3. Students should consider how monotonous rural life affected the lynching of Blacks.

4. Students should consider why middle and upper class whites occasionally participated in lynchings.

Classroom Activities - Projects

1. Arrange a classroom debate on one of the following suggested resolutions:

a. Resolved, Lynching was an effective means of controlling Black crime.

b. Resolved, the proposed Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill violated states’ rights.

2. Arrange a mock Southern court trial of a Black youth who is accused of raping a white woman in the 1920s. Students will play the various parts; judge, jury, victim, the accused, etc. This activity will help students visualize the tension and racial hostility that could lead to mob violence.

3. Write a letter to a Congressman in which you strongly state your views in support of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill and advise him to support it.

4. Write a detailed description of a lynching or race riot for a Black publication of the 1920s, or 1930s.

5. Hold a “Meet-the-Press” interview on the subject of racial violence with members of the class playing the roles of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W. E. B. DuBois, NAACP investigator Walter White, or a Southern Congressman.

6. Interview Black senior citizens who have experienced or witnessed some form of anti-Black mob violence, or who have had relatives or friends who were the victims of mob violence.

7. Research paper 5 to 7 pages on any topic dealing with lynching and race riots.

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1.	Students will be required to read and interpret statistical data.
2.	Students will learn that the majority of lynchings occurred in the South.
3.	Students will list reasons why the majority of lynchings occurred in the South, i.e. why it was a rural phenomenon.
4.	On maps of the United States students will write in the number of lynchings that took place in each state.

1.	Students will suggest reasons for lynching Blacks.
2.	Students will learn that the charges made against Black lynching victims fell under five categories: homicide, felonious assault, rape, insulting a white person and miscellaneous offenses.
3.	Students should see that homicide and felonious assault, not rape, were most frequently cited as reasons for mob action.
4.	Students will consider other reasons white people would use to justify lynching.

1.	Students should see that the average mob participant was poor, illiterate or poorly educated, and was either a small land-owner, tenant farmer, or common laborer.
2.	Students should understand that this group of people frequently competed with Blacks for jobs, and, therefore, saw Blacks as a social and economic threat—a major cause of race hatred.
3.	Students should consider how monotonous rural life affected the lynching of Blacks.
4.	Students should consider why middle and upper class whites occasionally participated in lynchings.

1.	Arrange a classroom debate on one of the following suggested resolutions:
	a.	Resolved, Lynching was an effective means of controlling Black crime.
	b.	Resolved, the proposed Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill violated states’ rights.
2.	Arrange a mock Southern court trial of a Black youth who is accused of raping a white woman in the 1920s. Students will play the various parts; judge, jury, victim, the accused, etc. This activity will help students visualize the tension and racial hostility that could lead to mob violence.
3.	Write a letter to a Congressman in which you strongly state your views in support of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill and advise him to support it.
4.	Write a detailed description of a lynching or race riot for a Black publication of the 1920s, or 1930s.
5.	Hold a “Meet-the-Press” interview on the subject of racial violence with members of the class playing the roles of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W. E. B. DuBois, NAACP investigator Walter White, or a Southern Congressman.
6.	Interview Black senior citizens who have experienced or witnessed some form of anti-Black mob violence, or who have had relatives or friends who were the victims of mob violence.
7.	Research paper 5 to 7 pages on any topic dealing with lynching and race riots.