Changes

According to the group Monroe Work Today, by 1835, lynchings were more common and more leathal. In the middle of the 19th century lynchings were “a crude form of frontier justice done by vigilantes ‘keeping the peace,’” and approximately 40% of lynchings in this period were done to white men.<ref>[http://www.monroeworktoday.org/lynching.html], Monroe Work Today], <i>The Rise of Lynchings</i>.</ref> Contrary to popular belief, lynchings frequently occurred in places where there were courthouses. Lynchings were not a symptom of lawlessness. Rather, as lynchings began to occur more frequently in the west, they were tools of violence used against non-white groups to challenge the slow pace of the legal system, in favor of immediate action. Before 1877 (the end of Reconstruction), most lynchings happened in the West. Lynching victims also varied by region. Those that occurred in the North typically targeted Italians, Jews, or other immigrants, while those in the west targeted Mexicans or Chinese. Nevertheless, beginning in the 1880s, approximately 90% of lynchings occurred in the South and happened to black men.

Lynchings began to be used more systematically in the South in the late 19th century. The late 19th century witnessed a social transformation for African Americans in the South. Newly-enfranchised, many African Americans began to exercise their legal and social rights. In the absence of system of legal subjugation that ensured white supremacy (i.e. slavery), lynchings were a constant and imminent threat that prevented African Americans in the South from truly being free. Lynchings served as a system of terror designed around reinforcing African-Americans’ second-class status.