How visible was lynching? There are thousands of lynching photographs, all hiding in plain sight. Not only were lynchings not a secret, but they were a common feature of American life.
Lynchings were festive events, meant to draw a crowd. People built stages, installed seating, and circulated advertisements. People made travel arrangements to attend. Studio photographers documented and commemorated the violent, celebratory event. The mob frequently desecrated the victim’s body by chopping off body parts (fingers and phalluses) to keep as mementoes. Quite often, photographs of the mob with their murder victim(s) – like photographs of “trophy kills” – were made into postcards, either for the witness-participants to keep as personal souvenirs or to send to family and friends.
Perhaps most striking is that these photographs were even taken. Many people in this mob are wearing their Sunday best, as if attending a church picnic, or as the couple stage-left in the accompanying photograph suggests, perhaps going on a nice date. And perhaps most tellingly, no one in this photograph is purposely hiding their face or averting their gaze, fearful of being caught in the act.
In fact, as critic Shawn Michelle Smith, writing about the mobs in these lynching photographs, has pointed out, not only does the white mob convey no shame, but in fact it telegraphs open celebration. The moment that the camera captures is not spontaneous or makeshift. It is staged and highly choreographed; everyone is posing, so that they might walk away with a record of a pleasurable, enjoyable, and eventful evening.
When Prophecy Fails - " A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World"
