Lynching in America
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Lynching in Little Rock

Lynching in America, also, Lynching in Little Rock. Community Remembrance Project. , Lynching in America. Racial terror lynching between 1877 and 1950 claimed the lives of thousands of African Americans and created a legacy of injustice that can still be felt today. Following the Civil War and the premature end of Reconstruction. white Southerners sought to uphold an ideology of white supremacy and used intimidation and fatal violence to re-enforce racial subordination and segregation. Lynching emerged as the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism. and state and federal officials largely tolerated these lawless killings of Black women. men. and children by not holding white mobs accountable for their crimes. Many African Americans were lynched for resisting economic exploitation. violating perceived social customs, engaging in interracial relationships. or being accused of crimes, even when there was no evidence tying the accused to any offense. Almost 25 percent of documented lynchings were sparked by charges of sexual assault, at a time when Black men were considered dangerous threats to white womanhood. White people's allegations against Black people were rarely subject to scrutiny and often sparked lethal violence without impartial investigation or trial. Many of the victims of these acts of racially motivated violence were not recorded and remain unknown, but at least 492 racial terror lynchings have been documented in Arkansas., Lynching in Little Rock. On May 4, 1927, a mob of armed white men captured a 22-year-old Black man named John Carter, hanged him from a telephone pole, and riddled his body with bullets in downtown Little Rock. Afterward, in a caravan of cars. the mob dragged Mr. Carter's corpse through the streets of Little Rock. They drove past city hall and the police station before stopping at the intersection of 9th and Broadway, then the heart of the city's African American community. There, the mob, now numbering in the thousands, ransacked neighboring Black businesses and churches, dragging out furniture and pulling off doors to serve as fuel for a bonfire they built in the street. In an act meant to instill fear in the African American community, the mob set Mr. Carter's mutilated body on fire as spectators watched. The mob had formed in response to rumors that a white woman and her daughter had been assaulted six miles west of downtown. Despite the absence of any evidence against Mr. Carter, the white mob terrorized the Black community causing extensive damage. The next day. photos of Mr. Carter's lynching were sold for fifteen cents apiece. Although the Governor and press criticized local law enforcement for not protecting Mr. Carter from the mob, no one was ever held accountable for their role in the lynching of John Carter. Racial bigotry and inequality were enforced through violence and lynchings during this time period causing great suffering and harm.