THEME: Lynchings Flashcards
Who wrote “The Blaze”?
Sutton Griggs
What is the plot of “The Blaze”?
Bud & Foresta Crump try to use their education and industry to uplift the race, and are lynched
In “The Blaze”, what do the lynch mob want to use the lynching as?
An example to other African Americans
What is “The Blaze” a recreation of?
The 1904 lynching of Luther Holbert & his wife in Doddsville, Mississippi
Who wrote “Lynch Law in the South”?
Frederick Douglass
What was the purpose of “Lynch Law in the South”?
Asked the largely white audience to consider the consequences of American racial oppression
What is lynching evidence of, according to “Lynch Law in the South”?
That the Negro is making progress: rising in wealth, intelligence, and manly character
In “Lynch Law in the South”, what are the 2 opposing solutions?
- Hope: The South will reach a point where it wants no more blood
- Fear: Negro will act, if the law does not
Who wrote “Mob Rule in New Orleans”?
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
According to “Mob Rule in New Orleans”, what is lynching a form of?
State sponsored terrorism that allowed whites to kill with impunity, without the government intervening to protect black property or lives
What is “Mob Rule in New Orleans”?
A reconstruction of the facts behind Robert Charles’ supposed rampage
What is the aim of “Mob Rule in New Orleans”?
Show that Charles was not the “monster” of newspaper accounts, but had the characteristics of American heroism
Who wrote “The Haunted Oak”?
Paul Dunbar
In “The Haunted Oak”, who is the most sensitive and remorseful participant in the crime?
The tree
Who wrote “The Litany at Atlanta”?
W. E. B. DuBois
Where was “The Litany at Atlanta” written?
As DuBois sat in a Jim Crow car on his way to Atlanta, with the fate of his family in the race massacre unknown
What caused the 1906 Atlanta race riot?
Mass hysteria after newspaper reports of black men raping white women
In “The Litany at Atlanta”, what caused black crime?
White Oppression
What 2 ironies are pointed out in “The Litany at Atlanta”?
- Whites violate the fundamental tenets of Christianity in the name of God
- Negroes told to “work and rise”, but punished when they did
Who wrote “Christ Re-crucified”?
Countee Cullen
What are 2 main themes of “Christ Re-crucified’?
- Southern landscape is hell on earth
2. Lynching transfigured the ordinary person into Christ
What are 3 pieces of biblical imagery in “Christ Re-crucified”?
- Thorns
- Purple Robe
- Wine
In “Christ Re-crucified”, what is the irony of Christ’s crucifixion?
Christ supposedly died to redeem all sins, yet apparently being black was not redeemed
Who wrote “Christ in Alabama”?
Langston Hughes
What is the ‘South’ in “Christ in Alabama”?
The cross, Christ being a black man
Who wrote “The Race Problem in a Christian State”?
Reverdy C. Ransom
What is the irony pointed out in “The Race Problem in a Christian State”?
The USA is a nation that sympathises with other oppressed peoples
Who wrote “Crusade for Justice”?
Ida B. Wells
In “Crusade for Justice”, why did IBW refuse to give a tour?
She was told she couldn’t talk about lynching
In “Crusade for Justice”, how does IBW see herself?
As a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching
In “Clarence Darrow’s Speech”, how does he illustrate that the great cause fought for Post-Emancipation is dead?
A black man was lynched in the shadow of the monument built to the memory of Abraham Lincoln
According to “Clarence Darrow’s Speech”, under what circumstances would lynching be acceptable?
If a white man was lynched and executed for the assault on a colored woman
In “Clarence Darrow’s Speech”, what should the response be to lynch mobs?
Not punish, but enlighten
Who wrote “The Negro and Non-Resistance”?
E. Franklin Frazier
What is a stupid idea, n “The Negro and Non-Resistance”?
The idea that Southern white people love us when they lynch us
Who wrote “Black America Begins to Doubt”?
George S. Schuyler
In “Black America Begins to Doubt”, what do Negroes demand?
To know why they should revere a God who permits them to be lynched, Jim-Crowed, and disenfranchised
Who wrote “A Sunday Morning in the South”?
Georgia Douglas Johnson
What is special about “A Sunday Morning in the South”?
First play to deal truthfully with the issue of alleged interracial rape of white women and dramatise white women’s complicity in the lynching ritual
What is the plot of “A Sunday Morning in the South”?
Tom Griggs is lynched for the rape of a white woman he did not commit
Who wrote “Black Souls”?
Annie Nathan Meyer
What are 4 themes in “Black Souls”?
- White women’s desire for black men
- Sexual exploitation of black women by white men
- Contrasting ideas among black Americans on the most effective ways to work against the forces of repression & for self-affirmation
- Hypocrisy of a nation that will send black soldiers overseas to fight for freedom, but will permit lynching
What was the criticism of “Black Souls”?
Written by a white woman: unconvincing characters (esp. David Lewis)
What was the plot of “Black Souls”?
- Andrew Morgan trying to get money for his school (BTW model)
- Ulysses and Corinne thinking of starting their own school
- David accuses Andrew of succumbing to white supremacy
- David had previously had an affair with Luella
- Verne says Andrew cannot afford to stop the lynching
- Verne rapes Phyllis
- David lynched
Who wrote “Lawd, Does You Undabstan?”?
Ann Seymour Link
What is the plot of “Lawd, Does You Undabstan?”?
Doady poisons Jim to save him from being lynched, but they find the actual killer, so Jim dies in vain
What lynching inspired Mary Church Terrell in “A Colored Woman in a White World”?
1892 lynching of Tom Moss
Who wrote “A Colored Woman in a White World”?
Mary Church Terrell
In “A Colored Woman in a White World”, what does MCT marvel at about lynchings?
The colored man’s loyalty to the Christian religion despite the crimes committed against him
