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AP Success - AP US History: Mary Church Terrell on Lynching

Lynchings were a common occurance in the American South in the early 20th century.

Source 1

Hanging, shooting, and burning black men, women and children in the United States have become so common that such occurrences create but little sensation and evoke but slight comment now… It is a great mistake to suppose that rape is the real cause of lynching in the South...the negro has been constantly subjected to some form of organized violence ever since he became free...A white planter was murdered at Doddsville, Miss., and a negro was charged with the crime. The negro fled, and his wife...fled with him to escape the fate which she knew awaited her...When the two negroes were captured, they were tied to trees, and while the funeral pyres were being prepared they were forced to suffer the most fiendish tortures.

Mary Church Terrell, "Lynching from a Negro's Point of View," North American Review, 178, (1904): 853-68.

Question 1

Short answer

Briefly identify ONE cause of lynching African Americans expressed in the excerpt.

Question 2

Short answer

Briefly explain ONE way besides lynching that groups such as the Ku Klux Klan used to intimidate African Americans.

Question 3

Short answer

Briefly explain ONE way African Americans reacted to the rise of lynching expressed in the excerpt.

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