Lynching in the United States

Lynching was the practice of murdering, usually by a hanging resulting from extrajudicial mob action. Lynchings in the United States occurred after the American Civil War in the late 1800s, the emancipation of slaves, and chiefly from the late 1800s through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently against African American men and women in the South. Lynchings occurred most frequently from 1890 to the 1920s, a time of political suppression of blacks by whites, with a peak in 1892. Lynchings were also very common in the Old West, where the victims were most frequently Natives, Mexicans, and Chinese, and to a lesser extent, African Americans.