Vigalante Justice (was) RE: Re[2]: [at-l] Vigilante Justice

[nealb at midlandstech.com (William Neal)]

True, but you probably find more racial lynchings in the South than in the
North.  First because more blacks live here than in the North.  Second,
because the KKK and its kith and kin started here.  Thrid, because
Reconstruction -- without Lincoln -- often turned into a kind of legalized
vigilante justice against the South -- or at least a kind of "Revenge is
mine sayeth the North".  Which is why the term "strange fruit" was common at
one time in the South.

Strange fruit refers to bodies (blacks mostly) hanging from trees.

I remember my father taking me by a tree "in town" where a man had been hung
when he was young.  Most people (including the law) were afraid to say or do
anything because the KKK was behind the lynching.  The reason he showed it
to me?  I said something "way too liberal" in front of some "leading
citizens" -- some of which were leading KKK members.  I guess the onlyh
reason I did not get a lesson was because my family was well respected and
liked and because I was too young to know better.

What did I say?  That I could not understand why anyone would be glad that a
president was murdered even if they disagreed with him.  

William, The Southern Born and Bread Turtle

HAVING SAID THAT: Let's take this thread or sub-thread off-list

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob C. [mailto:ellen@clinic.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 4:34 PM
To: W F Thorneloe
Cc: at-l@backcountry.net; Slyatpct@aol.com
Subject: Re[2]: [at-l] Vigilante Justice {WAS Trails as charity?}


>"...You are old enough and Southern enough to have knowledge of lynchings.
>Vigilantism is the slippery slope that leads to such outrages."

Despite speculation to the contrary, I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately,
in
both north and south, from time to time the vigilantes have been law
enforcement
officers, or had the concurrence of law enforcement.

Nor do we have to look to the past to find such occurrences .

Weary



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