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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 27. Violence and Intimidation - 4. Trends and Outlook
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Chapter 27. Violence and Intimidation 565
4. Trends and Outlook
It is possible to speculate about the causes for the decline in lynching.
If our analysis of the background factors is correct, the rising standard of
living and the improved education must have been of importance. The
fundamentalism and emotionalism of Southern religion have been decreas-
ing. Cultural isolation is being broken by radio, improved highways and
cheap motor cars. There is more diversion from the drab and monotonous
small town life, and the sex taboos have been somewhat relaxed. The
national agitation around lynching, strengthened after the organization of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909,
has undoubtedly been of tremendous importance in awakening influential
people in the South to the urgency of stopping lynching. The sharp decline
in lynching since 1922 has undoubtedly something to do with the fact that
early in that year the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was put through the House
of Representatives. It was later killed in the Senate by the filibuster of the
Southern senators, and the sell-out of Western and Northern senators,
but the continuous discussion of the measure from then on has probably
been of great importance.® A prominent Negro leader confided to the
present author that, as a force to stamp out lynching, the agitation around
the bill is probably as effective, or more effective, than the law Itself
would be.
Southern organizations of whites have taken to condemning lynching.
Some religious denominations of the South declare against lynching at
their annual conventions and sponsor programs on racial matters for white
youth. One of the most active fights ^f the Commission for Interracial
Cooperation has been against lynching,*’ and, under its auspices, the Asso-
ciation of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching has collected
nearly 50,000 signatures of Southern white women and of a few hundred
peace officers to a pledge against lynching. Other womcn^s organizations in
the South also have been active in the propaganda against lynching. One
of the most notable changes has been in the attitudes of the press. Today
the great majority of Southern newspapers will come out openly against
lynching. State authorities usually try to prevent lynchings, and they have
an instrument in the state police systems which can be readily concentrated
in any community where people are congregating for a lynching. Behind
this movement is the growing strength of Southern liberalism, which we
have considered earlier.®®
* Bills against lynching have been introduced in Congress many times since 1922, but none
of them has come so close to passage. Southern congressmen center their strategy against
anti-Jynching legislation by claiming that it would be unconstitutional and an infringement
upon states’ rights.
"See Chapter 39, Section 11^
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