In 1901, a series of attempted lynchings and the courageous stands by a Georgia sheriff prompted Mark Twain to denounce the rise of mob violence.
By Warren Pritchard
This article is shared here with permission from the Winter 2017 issue of Georgia Backroads Magazine.
In the decades between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Great Depression, thousands of southern blacks were lynched. The terror engendered by lynching prolonged the economic, political, and social control established by the institution of slavery and perpetuated it into the 20th century. Old photographs showing white faces staring up at the...