Lynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently against African-American men in the Southern US after the American Civil War and emancipation, and particularly from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in 1892. Lynchings were also very common in the Old West, where victims were primarily men of Mexican and Chinese minorities, although whites were also lynched. (Wikipedia)
6 Feb 2014
Soldiers in Central African Republic lynch suspected rebel moments after official ceremony
A military ceremony in the Central African Republic ended in violence Wednesday after soldiers lynched a man to death who they suspected of being a former rebel, according to AFP journalists. Minutes after the departure of officials from the ceremony in the capital Bangui, including interim President Catherine Samba Panza, the soldiers attacked a young man in civilian clothes, hitting, stabbing and throwing stones at him.
His body was then dragged though the streets as African Union troops looked on. Pictures showed a soldier stamping on the bloodied head of the man while another prepared to stab him in the side. The lynching was carried out under the noses of soldiers from the African Union-led MISCA mission, which was providing security at the event.
23 Jun 2013
Strange Fruit
Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa - The original Commodore single version by Billie Holiday. Recorded in New York. 20th April 1939.
PBS Documentary about the legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South.
The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.