Top 5 U.S. states with the most lynchings of black people from the 1880s

Alabama

347 lynchings were recorded in Alabama between 1882 and 1968 with 299 of the victims being black and 50 being white. Black men were lynched for “standing around”, for “annoying white girls”, for failing to call a policeman “mister”, among others. In 1940, Jesse Thornton, a 26-year-old black man was lynched for failing to address a police officer as “mister” in Luverne, Alabama. Records show that some of the Alabama counties that had the highest rates of lynchings across the United States were Jefferson County (about 30 lynchings) and Dallas County (25 lynchings).

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