Vincent Roscigno Lisa Garoutte Ohio State University
Between 1882 and 1930, nearly 3,000 people were lynched in the U.S. South. This phenomenon has been of long standing interest to both sociologists and historians, yet sociologists have not fully incorporated historical insights into their modeling of lynching events. This project, drawing from prior sociological and historical work, addresses issues of class, gender, and race in the case of lynching. It is innovative in so much as the dynamics of social class divisions and gender ideology, clear in the historical record, are more clearly considered in the empirical analyses presented. The researchers ask two primary research questions: (1) Does the presence of a landed elite, historically dependent on racial exploitation and division, affect the geographic likelihood of lynching? (2) In what ways did race and gender intersect and, thus, bolster these crimes and their legitimation? The investigators employ a multi-method approach, one which makes use of unique quantitative and qualitative-historical data. Quantitative data are drawn from the historical census and Project HAL. Analyses are used to identify broader race competition and social class processes that led to the occurrence of lynching in the aggregate. The selection of cases for analyses also takes into account gendered-racist justifications for the violence. Qualitative and quantitative content coding of archival material, drawn from various archives and libraries in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee are then used to assess the ways in which local media and perpetrators used gender, race and class biases to frame actual lynching events. Such multi-method analyses will (1) improve understanding of an historically important method of subordination and social control; (2) speak to and inform sociological conceptions of class and the intersection of gender, race and class, and; (3) shed light on the formation of contemporary race relations. This project will have three broad impacts. First, undergraduate students will be trained in the collection and coding of data. This experience will provide valuable insights into what is involved in social science research. Second, the analysis will be made available to the public through publication in sociological journals and professional conferences. Finally, the analysis has the potential to provide valuable insights into issues of race and crime that have contemporary relevance. Indeed, recent research indicates that the contemporary murder of African-Americans at the hands of whites is positively and significantly related to historical patterns of lynching. Research also shows that the number of death sentences, even into the contemporary era, is higher where lynching was used more frequently in the past.
