Our Past Betrays Us: Collective Memory, Homicide and Southern Lynching

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013

Lynch law in Georgia : a six-weeks' record in the center of southern civilization, as faithfully chronicled by the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution : also the full report of Louis P. Le Vin, the Chicago detective sent to investigate the burning of Samuel Hose, the torture and hanging of Elijah Strickland, the colored preacher, and the lynching of nine men for alleged arson /

"June 20, 1899"--P. [1].

The tragedy of lynching,

Mode of access: Internet.

A list of recent references on lynching and lynch law.

Mode of access: Internet.

Quest/ion of Identities in African American Feminist Postmodern Drama: A Study of Selected Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks

Innovative and unconventional, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks belongs to the continuum of African American playwrights who have contributed to the quest/ion – the quest for and question – of identities for African Americans. Her plays are sites in which the quest/ion of identities for African Americans is pursued, raised and enacted. She makes use of both page and stage to emphasize the exigency of reshaping African Americans’ identities through questioning the dominant ideologies and metanarratives, delegitimizing some of the prevailing stereotypes imposed on them, drawing out the complicity of the media in perpetuating racism, evoking slavery, lynching and their aftereffects, rehistoricizing African American history, catalyzing reflections on the various intersections of sex, race, class and gender orientations, and proffering alternative perspectives to help readers think more critically about issues facing African Americans. In my dissertation, I approach three plays by Parks – The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990), Venus (1996) and Fucking A (2000) – from the standpoints of postmodern drama and African American feminism with a focus on the terrains that reflect the quest/ion of identities for African Americans, especially African American women. I argue that postmodern drama and African American feminism provide the ground for Parks to promote the development of a political agenda in order to call into question a number of dominant ideologies and metanarratives with regard to African Americans and draw upon the roles of those metanarratives as a powerful apparatus of racial and sexual oppressions. I also explore how Parks engages with postmodern drama and African American feminism to incorporate her own mininarratives in the dominant discourses. I argue that Parks in these plays uses postmodern drama and African American feminism to encourage reflections on intersectionality in order to reveal the concerns of African Americans, particularly African American women. Her plays challenge the dominant order of hierarchy and patriarchy, while in some cases urging unity and solidarity between African American men and women by showing how unity and solidarity can help them confront race, class and gender oppressions. Furthermore, I discuss how the utilization of postmodern techniques and devices helps Parks to transform the conventional features of playwriting, to create incredulity toward the dominant systems of oppression and to incorporate her mininarratives within the context of dominant discourses.

Le blues et le jazz au service de la révolution? : les positions des communistes américains blancs à l’égard de la musique noire et son utilisation à des fins d’agit-prop durant l’entre-deux-guerres (1919-1941)

En 1936, l’American Music League publiait le recueil de chansons afro-américaines Negro Songs of Protest collectées par le folkloriste communiste Lawrence Gellert. Puis en 1938 et 1939, grâce au financement du mouvement communiste américain, le producteur John Hammond présentait deux concerts intitulés From Spirituals to Swing au Carnegie Hall de New York. En plus de rendre hommage à l’histoire de la musique noire américaine, ces deux concerts défiaient la ségrégation raciale, permettant au Noirs et aux Blancs d’être rassemblés sur une même scène et de s’asseoir ensemble dans l’assistance. Au même moment, la chanteuse jazz Billie Holiday faisait fureur au Café Society, premier club « intégré » de New York et lieu de rassemblement de la gauche radicale, en interprétant soir après soir la chanson ‘’Strange Fruit’’ qui dénonçait l’horreur du lynchage toujours en vigueur dans le Sud des États-Unis. C’était l’époque du Front Populaire, la plus importante période d’influence du mouvement communiste aux États-Unis et, de surcroît, le moment de l’histoire américaine durant lequel la gauche organisée détenait un pouvoir sans précédent sur la culture de masse. Partant d’une discussion sur le potentiel révolutionnaire de la musique noire américaine et cherchant à comprendre le positionnement des mouvements sociaux vis-à-vis la culture, ce mémoire met en lumière le point de vue des communistes américains blancs face à l’émergence et à la popularité grandissante du blues et du jazz noirs aux États-Unis. En fonction des trois principales phases politiques du Parti Communiste américain (CPUSA) – la phase du colorblind class (1919-1928); la phase du nationalisme noir (1928-1935); le Front Populaire (1935-1940) – ce mémoire retrace les changements d’attitude de la vieille gauche envers la culture populaire et suggère que le mouvement communiste américain a tenté d’utiliser le blues et le jazz à des fins d’agit-prop.

Prevención comunitaria del delito en América Latina: desafíos y oportunidades

En la última década la prevención del delito se ha colocado en el debate académico y político de seguridad en América Latina. El involucramiento de la comunidad en este tipo de iniciativas ha tenido especial énfasis, sin embargo, las mismas han sido enfrentadas de forma confusa. Esta situación permite la consolidación de un discurso autoritario sobre la delincuencia y, a su vez, la aparición de procesos negativos como los linchamientos de supuestos delincuentes, actos que se presentan en la mayoría de países latinoamericanos. En este marco, el presente artículo define una aproximación conceptual a la participación comunitaria del delito, rescatando algunas prácticas prometedoras, así como identificando los principales desafíos pendientes para lograr una perspectiva integral y efectiva en la disminución de la violencia y la delincuencia.-----The prevention of the crime has been placed in the center of the academic and political security debate in Latin America. The involvement of the community has had special emphasis in this type of initiatives, nevertheless it has been faced not in a clear form. This situation encourages the consolidation of an authoritarian discourse and at the same time the emergence of negative processes such as lynching of supposed delinquents in many Latin-American countries nowadays. The present article defines a conceptual framework for community crime prevention, including some promising practices as well as identifying the main pending challenges to achieve an integral and effective perspective on violence and crime prevention.

Justiça marginal: sociabilidades complexas subjacentes às práticas de linchamento

A comunicação a seguir resulta da pesquisa bibliográfica e de campo acerca das práticas de linchamento em Belém do Pará, neste aspecto a iniciativa primeira debruçou-se sobre a historiografia do ato, que forneceria suporte para posterior problematização do mesmo enquanto questão de cunho eminentemente social. Neste sentido, após todo o manancial de informações colhidas tanto dos livros como dos jornais populares, adentramos no campo minado dos linchamentos, ideamos nos lançar sem amarras no mundo das gentes, locais de onde advém as modalidades mais estarrecedoras do uso desenfreado da força bruta, visualizamos que os atores sociais neste universo elaboram suas próprias formas de enfrentamento do crime e ao mesmo tempo de manutenção de laços sociais comunitários e para tanto lançam mão tanto de artifícios legais como também cambam para a ilegalidade. A visualização de uma forma de sociabilidade gestada pelo medo e pela violência a que sempre foram submetidos corroboram para que as respostas a criminalidade violenta seja de igual modo utilizando-se da força bruta, a socialização entre os inúmeros indivíduos conhecidos ou não, vítimas ou mesmo expectadores de alguma forma de crime é capaz de impulsionar a decisão arbitrária de ceifar a vida de um criminoso contumaz ou eventual, o linchamento se ressignifica enquanto modalidade de vingança coletiva é assim uma forma avessa de aplicação popular da justiça, onde visualizamos a violência como último recurso ao alcance popular que fornece resposta imediata a uma transgressão perpetrada, o grau de pertencimento dos atores sociais autores destes crimes, as várias representações sociais envolvidas, a ausência de responsabilização de seus participantes, a crença de que reagiram a um acontecimento cruel. Assim, nossa intuição sociológica nos direcionou para a compreensão do mesmo tendo como ponto de partida os locais de onde os mesmos emanam e os atores sociais que fornecem aos linchamentos condições de existência e manutenção na atualidade.

Myrtle Smith Livingston

Myrtle Smith Livingston became a physical education instructor in 1928 at Lincoln University, and while at Lincoln she established several formal athletic programs for female students. Livingston’s contributions made it possible for females to engage in principal sports for the first time. Livingston was also very active as a dancer and formed the first chapter of the Orchesis Group in 1936; the first chapter to be formed at a black college. The group gave both indoor and outdoor performances in tap and interpretive dance. In addition to these activities, she taught first aid to Jefferson City citizens during World War II and wrote several plays during this time period. Livingston’s most famous play, For Unborn Children, was published in the July 1926 issue of The Crisis magazine after winning 3rd prize in a literary competition. The play, which is about miscegenation and lynching, reflects the historical movements that helped shape her generation. Since then, scholars of black drama have recognized the play’s value and have ensured its availability by including it in anthropologies. Livingston died in Hawaii, only one and a half years into her retirement. There is a park named in her honor on Lincoln University’s campus that remains open today. Livingston’s life reflected the movements of her time and her dedication to community centered art.

The southern South,

Materials.--The Southland.--The poor white.--Immigration.--Southern leadership.--Southern temperament.--Attitude toward history.--Negro character.--Negro life.--The Negro at work.--Is the Negro rising?--Race association.--Race separation.--Crime and its penalties.--Lynching.--Actual wealth.--Comparative wealth.--Making cotton.--Cotton hands.--Peonage.--White education.--Negro education.--Objections to education.--Postulates of the problem.--The wrong way out.--Material and political remedies.--Moral remedies.

Down the mother lode /

One Sunday in Stinson's Bar -- The Tom Bell stronghold -- The hanging of Charli Price -- Rattlesnake Dick -- Indian vengeance -- Grizzly Bob of Snake Gulch --Curley Coppers the Jack -- The race of the shoestring gamblers -- The dragon an the tomahawk -- The Barstow lynching.