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Disciples of Hatred, In Their Own Words and Images

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December 24, 2008
The New York Times editorial " Disciples of Hatred, In Their Own Words and Images " discusses the Atlanta Center for Civil and Human Rights acquisition of hundreds of postcards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that depict the lynching of African Americans and the massive crowds that gathered to watch. In the editorial Brent Staples writes about a man named  Joe that mailed a post card to his mother and marked where he was in the crowd of the brutal lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, in 1916.

Discussion Questions: 
  • Who is responsible for lynchings?  The lynchers, the spectators that watch, the public officials, the bystanders, the people who made the postcards?
  • Why might people have attended lynchings? What forces influence their decisions?
    The article sites a particularly graphic postcard sent by a son to his parents of a tortured and mutilated corpse, Jesse Washington.  How do you understand the actions of the people who committed the murder? Those who watched the murder happen? Those who took the photograph?  Joe, who sent this postcard to his parents?
  • What can we learn from studying photographs of lynchings? What effect can museums have on influencing our future choices? What examples can you cite for this?