The following pamphlet explained the origins of lynching:
SUGGESTED POINTS IN PRESENTING PURPOSE OF A.S.W.P.L.
- Homogeneity of South--
- Religiously--predominantly Protestant
- Racially--predominantly of Anglo-Saxon in origin
- Industrially--predominantly agrarian and rural
- Politically--Democratic and
- Historically and traditionally results in the understanding of and acceptance of similar
- Institutions and government
- Customs and traditions.
- The South is looked upon as a unit historically, traditionally, and politically. Whatever happens in the South, anywhere, is the act of all the SOUTH, and is so classed.
- A fairly uniform public opinion, grown up out of this common heritage.
- Certain actions growing out of this heritage have become accepted as a code of conduct generally upheld and sanctioned or condoned by public opinion.
- Lynching of human beings--and the
- Acceptance of this crime as necessary for the protection of white women.
- Only one-sixth of all lynchings in forty years have been committed for alleged crimes involving the safety of white women.
-
- Emerging from political and industrial upheaval in society was in chaos which the law, with possibly a precedent in the Vigilantes committee of the early pioneer days which were necessary to supress enemies of society, the South had recourse to illegal methods to restore law and order.
- These methods so used were not abandoned by the succeeding generations after the re-establishment of stable government.
- Continued by certain classes apparently insecure in their own status.
- Lynching as a means of personal revenge or to punish certain groups of American citizens for
- Offenses against codes of conduct established by this unstable and insecure class in Southern life.
|
—Jessie Daniel Ames, "Suggested Points in Presenting Purposes of A.S.W.P.L.,"
[1931], Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching Papers
10. Explain what Ames meant when she wrote that the "Homogeneity of the South" led to lynching.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
11. According to Ames, how did societal upheaval lead to lynching?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________