Lynching in America
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Lynching in Montevallo

Lynching in America, also, Lynching in Montevallo. Community Remembrance Project. , Lynching in America. Thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States between the Civil War and World War II. Lynching, a form of racial terrorism used to intimidate black people and to enforce white supremacy, was most prevalent in the South. In Alabama alone, more than 360 African Americans were killed by white lynch mobs, with at least nine in Shelby County. Following the collapse of Reconstruction, resistance to equal rights for African Americans led to horrific mob violence against black women, men, and children. Lynching victims accused of crimes or perceived violations of racial customs were consistently denied due process and the protection of the law. Many were pulled from jails or handed over to mobs by officials legally required to protect them. Millions of African Americans fled the South to escape the climate of terror. Those who remained faced continuing humiliation, intimidation, and trauma. Little has been done to address the legacy of lynching. Understanding the history of racial terrorism is critical to confronting challenges created by mass incarceration, excessive punishment, unjustified police violence, and the presumption of guilt and dangerousness that continue to burden African Americans and people of color today. , Lynching in Montevallo. Across the street from this marker, two African American men were lynched by a white mob on August 31, 1889. Their names are unknown. During this era, deep racial hostility in the South permitted suspicion and presumptions of guilt against black people to flourish without serious scrutiny. After a white man was killed while interrupting a burglary, a group of armed white men searched the area and apprehended the two unidentified black men as suspects. When the two men were brought to town, hundreds of angry white citizens gathered demanding revenge. Before the two men could be transferred to the Columbiana jail, local officers turned them over to the mob, claiming they feared a “bloody riot" if they did not allow the mob to abduct the two men. Under the threat of lynching, one of the men reportedly confessed to the crime. Often, African Americans accused of crimes were beaten and tortured to obtain confessions that would be used to justify lynchings. The other man, known only as “Big Six," insisted upon his innocence. Despite this, the mob hanged both men from a tree. These two unidentified black men were denied their constitutional right to stand trial, and were killed by a lawless mob that never faced prosecution. They were two of at least nine African American victims of racial terror lynching killed in Shelby County between 1889 and 1923.