“Mob violence against African-Americans served four functions within southern society during the lynching era:
- to eradicate specific persons accused of crimes against the white community;
- as a mechanism of state-sanctioned terrorism designed to maintain a degree of leverage over the African-American population;
- to eliminate or neutralize competitors for social, economic, or political rewards; and
- as a symbolic manifestation of the unity of white supremacy” (50).
via History of Lynching in the United States, Jana Evans Braziel.
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