At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. Dray has done a magnificent job of exploring a very painful subject. Often times, while reading the book, I shook my head in disbelief, saying to myself: "This happened in America?" Too often the incidents described in the book smack of something one would expect to find in the Middle Ages. Dray explains "what" happened. But more important he explains "why" it happened. This book is a tremendous contribution to American history. Lynching is a subject most people know very little about. Dray raises the curtain and shows the world the shocking and devastating legacy of lynching. The impact was not just lost lives, but a message of fear and intimidation toward African-Americans. This book should be read by anyone interested in American history. You will find yourself in disbelief that these incidents happened in the United States of America. It's time to talk about slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, etc. How did this happen in the USA? It's mind-boggling.

Philip Dray has written a lively and readable study of a very difficult subject in At the Hands of Persons Unknown (The Lynching of Black America). The case studies are horrific and do not lose any of their impact as the stores build up over the course of the book, in fact they become more horrible. In contrast to these important, but terrible, aspects the author provides the reader with excellent portrayals of such courageous figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells. This is a perfect one volume place to begin to study and learn about this chapter of American history as it covers the entire history of the nation and puts the events in their political, social and economic context. This is a large, readable account that is gripping and illuminating into the darkness of this time not so long ago or far away. Highly recommended.

Dray notes that he knew very little about lynchings when he began his research for this book; I knew very little about this subject until after I read his book. Perhaps I am not unique in that much of what I think I know and understand about U.S. history has depended to a significant extent on films and television programs. ... Many of the lynchings described in Dray's book would be deemed today as "unsuitable for viewing" by the general public and thus would never be fully portrayed in a film or television program. And yet, for reasons Dray explains, many of the lynchings attracted large and enthusiastic crowds (which included women and small children) and were scheduled to accommodate as many people as possible. Several hangings were preceded by dismemberment and burning. Dray's book is not primarily about such situations, although he traces lynching back to the American Revolution when Charles Lynch literally took the law into his own hands and hanged Tories who had stolen from him. A local court then exonerated his behavior. Dray explains that before the Civil War, more whites than blacks were lynched; that is, hanged without due process. It was only during the decades after the war ended that lynching became inextricably bound with racial strife as blacks were hanged in a progressively greater number and higher percentage than whites. Dray's extensive research of this period (roughly 1865-1900) provides some of the most interesting material in the book and his analysis of it is both rigorous and revealing. In many instances, the identities of those who conducted lynchings were concealed by white sheets or masks. Later, it was common to place a hood over the heads of those executed (after due process) by military, federal, or state officials. I view Dray as both an historian and an anthropologist. He tries hard to understand (and to help his reader to understand) why human beings throughout U.S. history grabbed a rope and hanged another human being. (For a period of time, multiple hangings were not uncommon.) Obviously, some of the lynchers who ignored due process were absolutely convinced that they were agents of justice; the motives of others are also understandable, perhaps, but nonetheless contemptible. I am grateful to Dray for the extensive research he completed and even more for his analysis of what that research revealed. Some readers may quarrel with some of his conclusions. (I am unqualified to do so.) However, I think almost all readers will view this book as an important contribution to our understanding of a recurrent pattern of behavior which, until now (at least for me), has been neglected, ignored, or worse yet denied.

Philip Dray has beautifully written a book about a horrifying not-so-long-ago American past-time: the hanging, mutilating and burning of blacks in the US. At the Hands of Persons Unknown, the Lynching of Black America tells the story of this cruel activity in all of its lurid and gory detail. The pages drip with sweat and blood. The unremitting recounting leaves the reader frustrated at the injustice and deeply saddened that it could have happened. This is a smart and important book. Not to be read at night.

The words above these comments are from a 1920 essay written entitled, "The Sahara Of The Bozart", by H.L. Mencken. These words and those that followed come as close as any I have read to quantifying what was absent from vast areas of The United States where, "Lynch Law", was not only practiced, but defended and enthusiastically endorsed until the 1960's.I cannot comment with specificity on the events this book documents. The details are that vile. This book describes ritualistic murder that was routinely carried out from the latter part of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th. This in no way limits the genocide inflicted on blacks for centuries in this country, rather this focuses on particularly barbaric events that on many occasions took place with thousands or even 20,000 or 30,000 spectators. The spectators to these planned, public atrocities would learn of the events from newspapers, and would travel to the scene via free passage provided by railroads. Governors publicly endorsed these murders routinely together with other elected officials, and were largely ignored by the federal government. The 1965 murder of 3 persons working for Civil Rights finally got the attention of Washington, and actually lead to a real trial and convictions. It may sound cynical, but the fact remains that two of the victims were white, and Civil Rights Legislation was popular for the first time following the death of President Kennedy. The early laws that were passed followed on the heals of his assassination when a vote against what the murdered president had started was too risky for even the most committed racists in congress that had repeatedly blocked any form of federal law, including any law outlawing the lynching of citizens. Congress had company, as the legislation had no Presidential support whether it was FDR, or Eisenhower.Men, women, children, pregnant women, and entire families were lynched. Now that word brings to mind a rope and a victim. If those who inhabited the vacuity that Mr. Mencken described stopped at that, their hands would be fairly clean when compared to what repeatedly took place. The rituals that were carried out were limited in their cruelty only by the imaginations of those inflicting the torment. These acts could last for hours prior to ending in a holocaust. When the site had cooled, souvenirs were collected, sold, and displayed in shop windows on Main Street for weeks, or even months.No vile act practiced in medieval dungeons or The Concentration Camps of the Nazis surpassed these public events. These murderous spectacles were memorialized with postcards that The US Postal Service delivered for decades. Often the photographs would show nicely dressed children, wearing white dresses and ribbons and smiling, while within arms reach the remains of a victim were present. Some of this public butchering took place so recently that many of these young children are likely to be alive today.As destructive and demented as these