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For my final paper proposal titled, “The Memory of Lynching: Analyzing the Culture Narratives of Lynching in the United States in the Late Nineteenth Century,” I will investigate the cultural narratives expressed through white participates and African American antilynching activists. Specifically, how each narrative differed from each other and justified their position for or against lynching. Through my initial research on the historiography of this topic I plan to use the book of historian Edwin T. Arnold author of “What Virtue There Is in Fire: Cultural Memory and the Lynching of Sam Hose” which investigates the lynching of Sam Hose on April 23, 1899, in Newman Georgia. What brought attention to this particular lynching was the brutal torture of Hose by mutilating him, tying him to a tree, burning him alive, and carrying off parts of his remains as souvenirs. One primary source I will be using is white southern newspapers the help answer my historical question, how the language propagated justification of lynching that nourished violence from the white community to become judge and executioner of alleged black criminality. A potential archive I would like to access is the Tuskegee University Archives Repository. This archive has an extensive collection of southern newspapers which focuses on lynching in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Here is a link of a sample of their newspaper collection. To gain a culture perspective of the antilynching activist I will use the online collection from “African American Perspectives, Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection” in partnership with the Library of Congress American Memory project. This collection includes pamphlets, journals, songs, and sermons of antilynching activists.
I would also like to investigate how lynching became a grand spectacle for the white southern community. Collector James Allen’s online exhibit, “Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America” is a collection of photographs and postcards of lynchings taken as souvenirs. The online exhibit accompanies Allen’s book with the same name, “Without Sanctuary”. I would like to reveal the reason why white southerners needed to have lynching photograph and postcards. An additional source I would like to use is historian Amy Louise Wood book “Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940” which uncovers spectators who created a community bond by witnessing lynchings together. To help add context to my paper I will refer to Michael J Pfeifer author of “The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching” as he explores the chronology of collective violence from early nineteenth century, Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Lastly in my paper, I would like to bring to light new arguments that can be added to this historiography.