Black History Month: 20th Century Lynchings Still Costing Blacks Millions

At around midnight on May 24, 1911, Laura Nelson and her son L.D. were kidnapped from their county jail cell in Okemah, Oklahoma. The two were jailed after L.D. shot an officer trying to apprehend them for the investigation of a cow theft.

By some accounts Laura was raped in those wee hours in the jail cell by about 40 men as she tried to protect L.D. from the mob of attackers. Reports also indicate that she had a baby with her as all of this occurred.

After the rape, Laura and L.D. were hanged from a bridge over the North Canadian River. Laura is one of the few documented lynchings of a woman. A spectacle of onlookers and picnickers came to watch the “event.” There are some reports that there were even postcards created and sold.

A study by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) documents the organization’s multiyear investigation into lynching in 12 Southern states during the period between Reconstruction and World War II.

Researchers document nearly 4,000 of what EJI calls racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee, between 1877 and 1950.  This is about 700 more than these states previously reported.

Many analysts say modern-day society has not even scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the psychological and emotional impact this reign of terror had and is still having on black Americans.  What’s even less discussed is the disastrous and lasting economic effect.

Run for Your Life
Between 1910 and 1970, an estimated 6 million black people left the South in what’s called the Great Migration.  EJI researchers say fear of lynching played a much bigger role in the move North than history would like to acknowledge.  They say their research confirms that racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.  In addition, many of the victims of terror lynchings were murdered without being accused of any crime.  “Parents and spouses sent away loved ones who suddenly found themselves at risk of being lynched for social transgression,” the report states.

“It is imperative that we begin to talk about the Great Migration as a response to terror and trauma…not just the pursuit of economic opportunity,” says Bryan Stevenson, executive-director of the EJI and New York Times best-selling author.

“There’s no question that that kind of disruption–becoming a refugee and becoming an exile–takes away any accumulated wealth and stability.  Think of them as coming North as refugees burdened and stigmatized in ways that other immigrant communities were not,” Stevenson adds.

The Wealth We Left Behind
According to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund, land ownership among blacks peaked at 15 million acres in 1910, of which 218,000 black farmers were full or part owners.  A steady decline of landownership begins after that.

It is widely accepted that one of the primary ways to pass on generational wealth is through real estate.  In fact, a study by Brandeis University finds that among households whose wealth grew over a period of time, the number of years owning a home accounted for nearly 30% of the difference in the relative growth of wealth between white and black families.

(Continued on next page)

(Image: Reprinted with permission from Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America by William H. Frey—Brookings Press, 2014)

That difference in wealth is huge.  The Federal Reserve Consumer Finance Survey found the median white family had a net worth of $134,000 in 2013, while that of blacks was just $11,000.  That means for every $1 of wealth white families had, black families had just 12 cents.

Some historians wonder what would have happened if blacks did not feel they had to abandon the oppression of the South and move North.  What would have happened if we stayed with the land?

“You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars,” says Stevenson. “These folks were situated on some of the most fertile real estate in America.  The reason it’s called the Black Belt is

because the soil was so fertile.  In addition, some of these places were convenient for commercial shipping and provided the possibilities of an agrarian economy that could support itself and create wealth,” he adds.

Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of New York Times best-seller The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, says lynching also took an economic toll because many of the targets were the black community’s best and brightest.

“Lynchings were not just for things like talking to a white woman or some of the other reasons we commonly associate with these killings.  Many people were lynched because they were seen as getting out of their place in the caste system–people who were experiencing business success,”  Wilkerson says.  “There’s an economic consequence to the loss of human capital.”

Reverse Migration:  Going Home Stronger and Wiser
The North is no longer viewed as ‘the land of opportunity’ for blacks, and over the past two decades, demographers say there has been a big migration of African Americans back to the South.  Census Bureau data finds that 55% of blacks in the U.S. now live in the South.

“It’s a good thing for this younger generation of blacks to be moving to areas where there’s prosperity and more jobs created to welcome them and provide them with opportunities,” says William Frey, internationally recognized demographer, author of Diversity Explosion

, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.

“It’s also good for the South to be able to overcome an unfortunate history and now attract blacks striving for upward mobility,” he adds.

Still, blacks still continue to face barriers such as predatory lending practices when it comes to applying for loans and other racially based factors that make it hard to find financial footing.

“If we’re serious about truth and reconciliation, we’ve got to begin by first telling the truth of what happened in the reign of terror that was taking place in the South during the period of lynching and the economic consequences,” says Stevenson. “Hopefully people will feel some need to reconcile themselves with history and do something responsive, even at a policy level to make restitution.”

As blacks continue to face outside obstacles to building wealth, the answers needed to move forward may be found in the stories and struggles of those who faced unimaginable oppression.  As Wilkerson puts it, “The Great Migration is a story of 6 million people walking away from the caste system of the South against incredible odds.  They made individual commitments to lift themselves up economically and collectively created a middle-class that was not possible in the South.  We often forget that’s what we’re made of and how much grit that really took.”