Research Paper on The Hanging Bridge and The Estill Springs Lynching

Introduction

Lynching is a form of extrajudicial murder committed by a group of people. Lynching rose mostly in the southern states of America after the civil war. The action was mostly done on the black African men. There were groups of people, such as Walter White, who fought against this inhuman act until their death. The hanging bridge, which is old and made of steel, symbolizes the injustices that were happening at Mississippi. In 1918, two young men and two pregnant women were lynched by whites here (Ward, 2016). The paper analyzes the African American lynches as well as showing the response of blacks and whites.

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Shubuta Bridge Symbolism

The bridge is a symbolic memorial of the brutality which happened here. The deaths of two young men and two pregnant women who were lynched in the bridge made it a historical one. The story was obscured by the media, which was promoting racism. According to Ward, the story would have been forgotten if it was not for Walter White, who did an investigation to document the Southern United States' lynching. He was an African-American, but he was fair-skinned. He obtained a lot of information from the whites because of his color. When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) officials requested the governor to carry out investigations related to the murder of the four, he told them to ‘go to hell’ (Ward, 2016). The statement shows that the government was for racism.

In 1942, two teenage boys were again lynched in the same location (Ward, 2016). The two lynching of 1918 and 1942 forms the basis of the bridge history by Ward. The events were happening after the civil war in America. Ward argues that whites could be showing their anxiety as a result of losing the slaves. The blacks were now fleeing to the North. The title of the book, “Hanging Bridge,” is a metaphor showing the murders that were happening due to racism. The women were hanged after being lynched. A bridge is supposed to remove the gap between the races, but the hanging bridge was different.

Local or Global Factors That Led to the Lynching

Many reasons led to lynching, particularly that of the two brothers and the two sisters in December 1918 (Ward, 2016). Walter White investigated and found that the four were murdered after their boss was shot some days ago. There are various reasons which could have led to the man being killed, but the mob concluded it was a conspiracy of the four. The two women who were killed were impregnated by their boss. Most of the time, men were accused of rape, but there were no such accusations in the cases of 1918 (Ward, 2016).

There are other general reasons which led to the lynching of the black becoming common, mostly in the South. The whites were feeling that it was right to protect their women against rape. Therefore, any man who was accused of rape was lynched. In the 1918 case, they were fighting for the white man who had been shot. The investigation by Walter White shows the injustices that were being met on the African-Americans ("1918 Estill Springs:The burning at the stake-including public genital mutilation," 2010). The two women were impregnated by the white men, but they had no one to fight for their rights; instead, they were murdered and hanged while still pregnant. Another factor that led to the lynching was the end of the civil war. The blacks were starting to free from the South. The whites were seeing the blacks as means of production, and hence they were not comfortable staying without slaves to work in their farms.

How Whites Responded to the Lynching

The lynching did not perturb the whites. The governor refused to conduct an investigation when NAACP requested him. Instead, he told them to go to hell. They continued with their everyday lives as usual. Others said that they gave the criminals what they deserved. The whites believed that they were doing justice. They were fighting supremacy battles. It was the aftermath of the civil war in America. There was a small proportion of the whites who started feeling that lynching was not the right way to go and started joining anti-lynching movements (Ward, 2016). However, the majority were African Americans in these movements.

How the Blacks Responded to the Lynching

There are many undocumented cases of lynching. Even the 1918 murder could not have been known if it was not for Walter White undercover investigations (Ward, 2016). The government was not willing to do such inquiries. The media also did not spread such news. Information is power, and they were not ready to pass it to the African Americans so that they could fight for their rights. As a result of the blacks understanding how their fellow people were being killed, they started forming anti-lynching movements. They would hold demonstrations in towns and in front of the Whitehouse with the message they want to pass to the government. The blacks also started publishing civil rights magazines and distributing them in the country to create awareness.

Walter White Fight Against Racism and Lynching

Walter White was an official at the NAACP of a high rank. He looked like a white man, and that was an advantage to his career. Ward described him as a light-skinned man though he was an African-American. His color made it possible for him to acquire information from the whites. He was in between such that he was not acceptable in the whites’ schools since they knew he was an African. On the other side, the Africans saw him as a white. He played the central role in investigating and recording of Lynching in South America. He was lucky since he could get the confidence of the whites and also blacks. He used to masquerade as a white salesman during his investigation. Sometimes he could pretend that he is a reporter so that he could get first-hand information where a black person was just killed ("1918 Estill Springs:The burning at the stake-including public genital mutilation," 2010). He helped in the fight against lynching and racism by finding information that would have been difficult to get.

How African Americans Challenged Lynching and Racial Violence

In 1920 to 1940s, African Americans were dressing respectably, and they came up with a form of protest whereby they would go out in public and remain silent just with one message; ‘am I next’? (Ward, 2016) The statement was sending a message that an African-American can be lynched anytime. They also targeted changing the minds of white people by talking about what happens to white children when the lynching is going on and essentially implying that when white people do these kinds of horrible crimes, they do it when their children are watching. Children learn mostly through observation, and so there is a high likelihood they would grew up to be lynchers also. It was an idea intended to change the Americans' minds out of love for their children. The methods were supposed to address the issue of lynching and racism psychologically. Other strategies used included paintings. The cartoons would portray the white people who were lynching as demons with evil eyes.

Conclusion

Lynching was most common in South America. There are activists like Walter White, who contributed immensely in the fight against racism and lynching. Shubuta Bridge is a symbol of the deaths of African Americans, mainly the four who were killed and hanged there in December 1918. Walter is the one who did an investigation to unravel the mystery of the killing of two brothers and two pregnant sisters. As a result, people started demonstrations to stop the Lynching of African Americans.

References

1918 Estill Springs: The burning at the stake-including public genital mutilation. (2010) https://tullahoma.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/1918-estill-springs/

Ward, J. M. (2016). Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America's Civil Rights Century. Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/jsh/article/53/4/1102/5381619