Week 4 Question

I had a good idea of what lynching was before taking this class. My eighth grade teacher, when going over U.S. history, was adamant about explaining to us what it was. At that age I was shocked at how people not only could do this to other people but how they took it as a spectacle. I also had learned that the people who lynched these African Americans were tried in court but never found to be guilty. We also looked at stories of specific African Americans who were lynched and beaten so brutally that their bodies were unrecognizable. I was aware of this cruelty that plagued our nation before watching "Without Sanctuary". However, from the specific stories I had learned of back in my eighth grade class, I had never heard of a female being lynched until the movie. I thought that it was primarily black males that were accused of rape. This movie also opened my eyes to the fact that kids and other African Americans watched these lynchings and not just other whites. From what I have learned, in the past and now, lynching marks one of the darkest and cruel periods in American history, and there was not one thing that could reasonably justify it in my mind.

-Sarah Pergine