Some Say “Political Lynch Mobs” Are After Judge Roy Moore and Other Republicans-Are They Right?

If you didn’t know any better, when blacks like Henry Smith were lynched neither were they tortured and burned beyond recognition-their body parts sold as souvenirs. Nor would you believe the amount of lynchings in the South rose each decade after the Civil War until the 1920’s, or that lynching had become so common that Mark Twain renamed the country the “United States of Lyncherdom.”[1] But as George Orwell warned: “In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.”

Designed to Make Lies Sound Truthful and Murder Respectable
Led by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and FOX News contributor Sean Hannity, millions of conservatives are now claiming a “political lynch mob” is what’s really behind the allegations of sexual misconduct against U.S. Senatorial Candidate Judge Roy Moore.[2] This, despite five women who’ve consistently told stories about how the former Alabama Chief Justice assaulted and even tried raping them. So notorious was he as a sexual predator of underage teens that one shopping mall had to ban him.[3]

Meanwhile, does using such emotionally charged language discount history? And does it diminish the horrific nature of lynchings blacks had to endure? Indeed, 15,000 whites paraded Henry Smith through town tied to a mule cart. After torturing the 15-year-old for an hour on a 10-foot scaffold, built as a public spectacle for the cheering mob, they then lynched him, poured oil on him, and set him and the scaffold on fire. They finally sifted through the ashes to collect Henry Smith’s bones and charred remains as souvenirs.[4]

Who Controls the Past Controls the Future…
These kinds of mob lynchings weren’t that unusual. Whereas Henry Smith was accused of raping a white woman without a trial, the same lynchings could occur for public rudeness, obscene language, minor theft, or being drunk.[5] After black slaves were emancipated at the end of the Civil War, such forms of terrorism and collective violence became even more pervasive and politically motivated. In other words, racism, economic superiority, and White masculinity and supremacy drove thousands of mob lynchings.

Whites moreover engaged in political terrorism through the Ku Klux Klan, paramilitary groups, political parties, and various institutions like the media. Large numbers of freed slaves were not only executed in gruesome spectacles aimed at intimidation, submission, and loyalty, but the mass media gained by emphasizing ethnic stereotypes and distorting the historical record. It’s difficult to know just how many lynchings there were. The number of 3,220 blacks lynched between 1880 and as late as 1920 may be much higher.

…And Who Controls the Present Controls the Past
It’s often said that people commit the most hideous violence against others only when they first dehumanize their victims. Though the worst examples were the ritualistic lynching of blacks in the late and early twentieth centuries, including progrom-style riots and massacres where whites freely assaulted blacks while burning their neighborhoods to the ground, one must wonder if the same is being achieved by casually applying political-lynch-mob language (not to mention a white-washed history) to Judge Roy Moore.

As for victims of sexual abuse and assault, is trying to intimidate, demean, or shame young teenage girls and women who come forward a similar kind of mob violence and extrajudicial vigilantism? To be sure, it almost seems that some white males are still trying to cling to their sexist attitudes, economic privilege, and masculine dominance. Rest assured, too, that such gross and criminal-like encounters that dehumanize and injure are saved as trophies and souvenirs, at the expense of their victims of course.

If Language Corrupts Thought, Do Fake Histories Corrupt Ideologies
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if Judge Roy Moore and other Republicans continue to use the political-lynch-mob claim. In addition to preaching that American needs to come back to God, they’re floating a conspiracy that the Liberal Establishment wants to lynch those against homosexuality and Muslims, or who support neo-Confederates and white nationalism.[6] At issue, they claim, is a society based on Judeo-Christian moral laws and ethics, and maintaining a majority in both Houses of Congress.

Finally, it’s oddly coincidental that America’s first national memorial dedicated to victims of lynching will open next year in Montgomery, Alabama. Since The National Memorial for Peace and Justice will acknowledge an era of racial terror in the U.S. when thousands of blacks were lynched and tortured, perhaps the shadow of injustice will at last be lifted so the truth can shine on the destructive violence to the rule of law and equal justice. Might it also prevent more corrosive political language and faulty analogies?

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com//dallasdarling.)

(1) Gottesman, Ronald and Richard Maxwell Brown. Violence In America, An Encyclopedia. New York, New York: An Imprint of the Gale Group, 1999., p. 297-299.
(2) www.newyorker. “Locals Were Troubled by Roy Moore’s Interaction With Teen Girls at Gadsden Mall,” by Charles Bethea., November 13, 2017.
(3) See “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and “The Sean Hannity Show” transcripts. November 15, 2017.
(4) www.wikipedia.com. “Henry Smith (lynching victim).”
(5) Gottesman, Ronald and Richard Maxwell Brown. Violence In America, An Encyclopedia., p. 299.
(6) www.wikipedia.com. “Roy Moore.”