Ringleaders camouflaged by a crowd smash their way into the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.
Ringleaders camouflaged by a crowd smash their way into the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.
4,580 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
The Fake News
With one voice, the mass media — radio, newspapers, and newsreel reports (disseminated via motion picture theaters) — played a key role in the lynchings and their aftermath. (more…)
San Francisco Chronicle Extra: “Kidnappers Lynched!” Royce Brier’s eyewitness account of the lynchings in the left-hand column, “Mob Storms Jail, Hangs Slayers in San Jose Square,” won the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting.
San Francisco Chronicle Extra: “Kidnappers Lynched!” Royce Brier’s eyewitness account of the lynchings in the left-hand column, “Mob Storms Jail, Hangs Slayers in San Jose Square,” won the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting.
3,977 words
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Although most Americans probably equate the term “lynch mob” with an image of a band of Southern whites hell-bent on punishing their black victims, readers of Swift Justice [1992] quickly learn that dark skin and southern geography are not prerequisites for the hangman’s noose. Power, prestige, and the press played critical roles. — Book review in 5 Western Legal History 256 (Summer/Fall 1992). (more…)