History of Lynching in the United States, Jana Evans Braziel

“Mob violence against African-Americans served four functions within southern society during the lynching era:

1. to eradicate specific persons accused of crimes against the white community;
2. as a mechanism of state-sanctioned terrorism designed to maintain a degree of leverage over the African-American population;
3. to eliminate or neutralize competitors for social, economic, or political rewards; and
4. as a symbolic manifestation of the unity of white supremacy” (50).

via History of Lynching in the United States, Jana Evans Braziel.