Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Lynching in America
http://forum.gayleturner.net/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4768		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  sandra peterson [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Lynching in America
Every time I view pictures or read about how black people were treated in America, I still feel shock and disbelief. It is hard to comprehend how people could so easily stand by and watch the suffering of other people. People attended these lynchings and treated them as if they were going to a Sunday afternoon picnic with their neighbors. I look at society today and often wonder how we have become so "warped" in so many areas, and then I look back and think, have we always been warped in our thinking, it just changes in form?
Author:  Michael Robbins [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
First off I need to ask . . . "Why in the .... are we looking at this stuff?" What a horrible way to spend a Sunday afternoon! I'll admit that I did not look at all of the pages, maybe the first three or so. I stopped when I got to the lynching photo of Leo Frank. I had read Sandra's post before visiting the site, so I was a little suprised to see a such a close-up photo of a white man's lynching. I thought that maybe the article pertained only to the unfair and unjust treatment of black people. Maybe Sandra felt the same way I did about looking at such horrendous pictures and didn't make it as far I did. Anyway, the picture describe Frank's lynching to have "pitted Jews against Christians, industrialists against workers, northerners against southeners, and city against country folk." Even the dean of the Atlanta Theological Seminary, at the time, praised the murderers saying that the men that had removed Leo Frank from his prison hospital were "a sifted band of men, sober, intelligent, of established good name and character - good American citizens." The men responsible for Frank's lynching included Superior Court justices, an ex-sheriff, and a clergyman. Just goes to show some of the other ways prejudice can show it's mean and nasty ways. Class, race, religion, creed . . . doesn't matter to me . . . were all people created and loved by the same God. Unfortunately, there are people then and now that can't get over it or make space in this world for an ounce of acceptance. Ridiculous, but to each his own . . . I guess . . . must be tolerant (to some extent)!
Author:  sandra peterson [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
Michael, you are right. I totally missed the pic about the white man being lynched. I looked at several of them and read the descriptions. All of the ones I viewed were about blacks being lynched. I assumed the whole point was about the unjust treatment of blacks. Anyway, I wonder what we will look back 100 years from now and be ashamed of in regards to how we treat people today.
Author:  Michael Robbins [ Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
Unfortunately, the thoughts will most likely be very much the same as those we're experiencing today. Kozol made mention of what it could possibly take to "reform" our country's inequalities, and I don't think he has a real clue of what that would be, nor does anyone else! The magnitude of it all is just too BIG ... too little too late, I guess you can say. :(
Author:  Holly McClure [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
This was a horrible page in our history. Yes, people did treat it as entertainment then, but, I think about our entertainment now. TV and movies are full of graphic pictures. At least those are not real people. For some reason people seam drawn to blood and gore.
Author:  Callie Grubb [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
I agree. People love "blood and guts". TV shows, movies, video games, and even songs make violence so common place. This results in nonchalant attitudes toward crimes.
Author:  pamelabare [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:56 pm ]
Post subject:  sad
These pictures are very sad. Not only are the actuality of them sad, but the fact that people kept these photos to commemorate the time. The photo comments said that some where found in family albums, like the lynching was something that signified their family ancestry.
Author:  Travis Richardson [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
I agree what a terrible time in history that was for our country and for mankind in general. I thought a lot about how Sandra questioned if we had changed since that time and I think we probably have not because any time there is an accident people cause other accidents by staring so hard at the first accident. It's like we are sometimes drawn to look at things we know we really shouldn't.
Author:  dustin farmer [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:31 pm ]
Post subject: 
I can't really add to anything that has been said. It was a sad time. Had I have been one of these people who had been involved in these horrible situations I would have been ashamed, and the last thing I would have done is posed for the camera. I guess while we are not physically lynching our students (although we may feel like it sometimes), we may actually be causing them a death from testing and testing that they may never be able to recover from. Those who are being left behind, often are left to lead a life that is hell on earth.
Author:  Deby Johnson [ Wed Dec 03, 2008 2:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
I guess the thing that struck me most about the way the people stood and watched and in fact, celebrated the lynchings was the fact that it was accepted "just because". It was commonplace and people dressed for the occasion for what reason? It was accepted without any question. In many of our books and discussions we see people so accepting of discrimination and mistreatment of others "just because" other people do it and it seems to be normal. Who sets the norm and who decides these things are ok??
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