Lynching, 1930 -Olivia Dixon

This picture makes me uncomfortable. I've viewed it several times; however, never for more than five seconds. Taken by the town photographer, "Lynching, 1930" depicts two African American teenagers, Tom Shipp and Abe Smith, being lynched for "the murder of a white man and the rape of a white woman." Without undergoing a proper trial, these two boys were pulled out of their jail cells and brutally beaten by an angry mob that left them to hang all night in order to "send a message to blacks who stepped out of line."

Were the two boys actually guilty for these crimes? Most likely not, and that's what sickens me. Even to this day a part of me wants to deny this picture, and deny how harshly African Americans were treated in the 1930's. It is hard to believe that people were treated so badly because of the color of their skin. An antilynching law was passed in 1931 but that was a small victory. The memories remain. As a result of photographs like the one above, lynching became a central feature of American history.