According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, lynching is defined as a severe form of public racial violence. A new study published in Wiley Online Library’s journal Kyklos has found an association between counties in the Southern United States with a high incidence of historical lynchings and current poor economic opportunities for those counties’ Black residents.
The authors examined data from over 2,100 lynchings of Black individuals living in 875 counties across the southern United States to investigate whether increased counts of lynchings were associated with decreases in economic opportunities for Black residents. Their findings support their hypothesis, revealing that counties with the highest counts of historical lynchings had the lowest levels of economic mobility for Black residents.
In another phase of their study, the authors found empirical evidence that urbanization and the industrial revolution in the southern United States during the late 19th- and early 20th-century was accompanied by similar increases in the frequency of lynchings. This finding led the authors to suggest increases in Black and other immigrant populations during this time period resulted in escalated racial tensions. These tensions may still linger in present-day society, thereby adversely affecting present-day African Americans.
The authors believe their findings can bring awareness to the historical context of lynching on African Americans today, underscoring the need to strengthen anti-discrimination laws combat racial prejudice.
