The Black Republican

There's a word with much baggage in American history and culture: lynching. The act of publicly murdering someone "(as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction". A despicable atrocity, casually practiced by despicable and atrocious people. Unfortunately - though you may not hear it said very often - lynching is not a concept confined by skin color as much as it is defined by it.

Or is it?

Today, we learn that it need not be defined by skin color at all. It can be practiced by some people upon others within their own ethnicity. For what? For daring to stand up to despicable and atrocious people, of course.

Where have I read this before?

In the early 1900’s Mary Turner was upset about the lynching of her husband. Mary was eight months pregnant and made a comment that she would get even with those who hung her husband and would sign arrest warrants against the killers. The white residents of Valdosta, Georgia decided to teach her a lesson for being uppity enough to be vocal about her pain. A mob found her tied her upside down to a tree, doused her with gasoline and burned her alive. One of the crowd members took a knife and split her belly open letting the baby fall out. Another member of the crowd smashed the baby’s head with his foot. Then the crowd took out their guns and filled the burning body of Mary Turner with bullets. The Associated Press wrote that Mary Turner had made unwise remarks about the execution of her husband.