withoutsanctuary.org

[andso]

You can come to this website and see these photographs and leave with whatever impression you want. The bottom line is that whether you are white, black, asian, hispanic, purple, or green...you will agree that human beings are capable of unimaginable cruelty.
I think most of us are missing the point. James Allen collected these images for you to understand what lynching meant to "AMERICANS" during those times. Lynching was a show...a neighborhood celebration. They sent these images as POSTCARDS!! If you look closely, you can see women and children dressed up to go see these disturbing killings...
I think the question you should all think about is how we (a so-called nation of liberty and freedom) allowed lynching to become a part of our popular culture! At what point did it become a spectacle to watch a person being butchered and hung? Oh, gather all your friends...we're going to watch a man cry...beg...be tortured...and burned alive...

The most disturbing issue at hand is that these photos were taken in the 1900's. There are still people alive from that generation. We're not talking about 2,000 years ago...or 500 or 300 years ago. This is not ancient history. These are your grandparents!!

This is not just a RACE issue...it's the horrifying idea that people in majorities can allow otrocities to occur without remorse....
Not only that...but you will never see these images in your kid's elementary school's history books. This dark side of America will never be seen and the sad truth is... "OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND"...

*you may not agree with everything I say...but please don't be ignorant when you analyze history and claim that "times are changing"....yes, times are changing...but as they change for the good...the bad will soon follow*

[AAH309]

After browsing many responses, I've decided that this one is THE ONE . These are pictures of groups of humans enjoying and encouraging the murder of other humans. I don't think I need to say more if you've read the previous post. On an emotional level, I cannot help but feel absolute rage and sorrow at the same time.

As I apply the meaning of the web-movie to my historical perspective of post-slavery American society, it is obvious that lynching and similar acts of violence were another way to maintain white supremacy. White men could no longer simply whip their property into submission. They had to find a way to keep Blacks "in their place" through physical oppression and horrendous spectacles in order to keep their white power intact. Sadly, the people who were involved in lynchings were not imprisoned or convicted, so pointless murders were allowed to continue in Southern America.

So many people have expressed the same ideas on this forum: these photos should not exist because these lynchings should have never taken place. As a white, female college student in 2006, I can only feel shame because of what the history of white privilege has done to other human beings.