Rather than viewing lynching as a frenzied abnormality, historians in recent years have sought to understand it as a tradition, a systematized reign of terror that was used to keep Blacks fearful and to forestall Black progress and miscegenation. The effect of the peculiar institution of slavery on Black Americans is well documented, but the institution less so, yet it was for many decades an awesome destructive power, murderous to some, menacing to a great many, a constant source of intimidation to all Black Southerners young and old and a daily reminder of their defenselessness.

Is it possible for white America to really understand Blacks’ distrust of the legal system, their fears of racial profiling and the police, without understanding how cheap a Black life was for so long a time in our nation’s history?