Rutgers University Press, 2003 eISBN: 978-0-8135-6033-5 | Cloth: 978-0-8135-3329-2 | Paper: 978-0-8135-3330-8 Library of Congress Classification PS509.L94W58 2003 Dewey Decimal Classification 810.8355
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Witnessing Lynching: American Writers Respond is the first anthology to gather poetry, essays, drama, and fiction from the height of the lynching era (1889–1935). During this time, the torture of a black person drew thousands of local onlookers and was replayed throughout the nation in lurid newspaper reports. The selections gathered here represent the courageous efforts of American writers to witness the trauma of lynching and to expose the truth about this uniquely American atrocity. Included are well-known authors and activists such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Ida B. Wells, and Theodore Dreiser, as well as many others. These writers respond to lynching in many different ways, using literature to protest and educate, to create a space of mourning in which to commemorate and rehumanize the dead, and as a cathartic release for personal and collective trauma. Their words provide today’s reader with a chance to witness lynching and better understand the current state of race relations in America.
An introduction by Anne P. Rice offers a broad historical and thematic framework to ground the selections.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Illustrations
Foreword: Passing, Lynching, and Jim Crow, by Michele Wallace
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Contest over Memory
1889-1900
Charles W. Chesnutt "The Sheriff's Children" (1889)
Frederick Douglass "Lynch Law in the South" (1892)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper "An Appeal to My Countrywomen" (1896)
Ida B. Wells-Bamett Excerpt from Mob Rule in New Orleans (1900)
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins "Will Smith's Defense of His Race,"
from Contending Forces (1900)
1901-1910
Susie Baker King Taylor "Thoughts on the Present Conditions," from
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United
States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers (1902)
Alice French (Octave Thanet) "Beyond the Limit" (1903)
Paul Laurence Dunbar "The Haunted Oak" (1903) and
"The Lynching of Jube Benson" (1904)
Mary Church Terrell Excerpt from "Lynching from a Negro's
Point of View" (1904)
Sutton E. Griggs "The Blaze," from The Hindered Hand; or,
The Reign of the Repressionist (1905)
W.E.B. Du Bois "A Litany at Atlanta" (1906)
Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer "Jim Crow Cars" (1907)
1911-1920
Bertha Johnston "I Met a Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
James Weldon Johnson Excerpt from The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man (1912) and "Brothers" (1916)
French Wilson "Jimmy" (1914) 135
"The Waco Horror" Supplement to the Crisis, July 1916 141
Theodore Dreiser "Nigger Jeff" (1918) 151
Carl Sandburg Excerpts from The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919
(1919) and "Man, the Man-Hunter" (1920) 171
Mary Powell Burrill Aftermath (1919) 178
Claude McKay "If We Must Die" (1919) and
"The Lynching" (1922) 188
Angelina Weld Grimke "Goldie" (1920) 191
1921-1930
William Pickens Excerpt from Lynching and Debt Slavery (1921) 209
Leslie Pinckney Hill "So Quietly" (1921) 216
Carrie Williams Clifford "The Black Draftee from Dixie" (1922) 218
Countee Cullen "Christ Recrucified" (1922) 220
Langston Hughes "The South" (1922) 223
Jean Toomer "Portrait in Georgia" and
"Blood-Burning Moon" (1923) 226
Anne Spencer "White Things" (1923) 235
Floyd J. Calvin "The Present South" (1923) 237
Robert Bagnal "The Unquenchable Fire" (1924) 240
Lola Ridge "Morning Ride" (1927) 247
Angelina Weld Grimke "Tenebris" (1927) 251
Walter Francis White "I Investigate Lynchings" (1929) 252
1931-1935
Sterling Brown "He Was a Man" (1932) and
"Let Us Suppose" (1935) 263
Langston Hughes "Christ in Alabama" (1932) 268
Nancy Clara Cunard Excerpt from "Scottsboro-and Other
Scottsboros" (1934) 270
Esther Popel "Flag Salute" (1934) 282
Erskine Caldwell "Kneel to the Rising Sun" (1935) 284
Richard Wright "Between the World and Me" (1935) 304
Bibliography 307
Permissions 313
Index 315
Rutgers University Press, 2003 eISBN: 978-0-8135-6033-5 Cloth: 978-0-8135-3329-2 Paper: 978-0-8135-3330-8
Witnessing Lynching: American Writers Respond is the first anthology to gather poetry, essays, drama, and fiction from the height of the lynching era (1889–1935). During this time, the torture of a black person drew thousands of local onlookers and was replayed throughout the nation in lurid newspaper reports. The selections gathered here represent the courageous efforts of American writers to witness the trauma of lynching and to expose the truth about this uniquely American atrocity. Included are well-known authors and activists such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Ida B. Wells, and Theodore Dreiser, as well as many others. These writers respond to lynching in many different ways, using literature to protest and educate, to create a space of mourning in which to commemorate and rehumanize the dead, and as a cathartic release for personal and collective trauma. Their words provide today’s reader with a chance to witness lynching and better understand the current state of race relations in America.
An introduction by Anne P. Rice offers a broad historical and thematic framework to ground the selections.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Illustrations
Foreword: Passing, Lynching, and Jim Crow, by Michele Wallace
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Contest over Memory
1889-1900
Charles W. Chesnutt "The Sheriff's Children" (1889)
Frederick Douglass "Lynch Law in the South" (1892)
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper "An Appeal to My Countrywomen" (1896)
Ida B. Wells-Bamett Excerpt from Mob Rule in New Orleans (1900)
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins "Will Smith's Defense of His Race,"
from Contending Forces (1900)
1901-1910
Susie Baker King Taylor "Thoughts on the Present Conditions," from
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United
States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers (1902)
Alice French (Octave Thanet) "Beyond the Limit" (1903)
Paul Laurence Dunbar "The Haunted Oak" (1903) and
"The Lynching of Jube Benson" (1904)
Mary Church Terrell Excerpt from "Lynching from a Negro's
Point of View" (1904)
Sutton E. Griggs "The Blaze," from The Hindered Hand; or,
The Reign of the Repressionist (1905)
W.E.B. Du Bois "A Litany at Atlanta" (1906)
Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer "Jim Crow Cars" (1907)
1911-1920
Bertha Johnston "I Met a Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
James Weldon Johnson Excerpt from The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man (1912) and "Brothers" (1916)
French Wilson "Jimmy" (1914) 135
"The Waco Horror" Supplement to the Crisis, July 1916 141
Theodore Dreiser "Nigger Jeff" (1918) 151
Carl Sandburg Excerpts from The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919
(1919) and "Man, the Man-Hunter" (1920) 171
Mary Powell Burrill Aftermath (1919) 178
Claude McKay "If We Must Die" (1919) and
"The Lynching" (1922) 188
Angelina Weld Grimke "Goldie" (1920) 191
1921-1930
William Pickens Excerpt from Lynching and Debt Slavery (1921) 209
Leslie Pinckney Hill "So Quietly" (1921) 216
Carrie Williams Clifford "The Black Draftee from Dixie" (1922) 218
Countee Cullen "Christ Recrucified" (1922) 220
Langston Hughes "The South" (1922) 223
Jean Toomer "Portrait in Georgia" and
"Blood-Burning Moon" (1923) 226
Anne Spencer "White Things" (1923) 235
Floyd J. Calvin "The Present South" (1923) 237
Robert Bagnal "The Unquenchable Fire" (1924) 240
Lola Ridge "Morning Ride" (1927) 247
Angelina Weld Grimke "Tenebris" (1927) 251
Walter Francis White "I Investigate Lynchings" (1929) 252
1931-1935
Sterling Brown "He Was a Man" (1932) and
"Let Us Suppose" (1935) 263
Langston Hughes "Christ in Alabama" (1932) 268
Nancy Clara Cunard Excerpt from "Scottsboro-and Other
Scottsboros" (1934) 270
Esther Popel "Flag Salute" (1934) 282
Erskine Caldwell "Kneel to the Rising Sun" (1935) 284
Richard Wright "Between the World and Me" (1935) 304
Bibliography 307
Permissions 313
Index 315