Lynchings & Hangings - Page 11

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Anti-Lynch campaign, vintage postcard

In 1937 and again in 1940, yet two more anti-lynching bills passed through the House of Representatives, but were defeated in the Senate. Although the NAACP had failed to get a federal law passed, lynchings had almost disappeared by 1950. The NAACP's 30-year struggle to publicize the barbarity of lynch mobs had penetrated even the most backward and racist regions of the country.

It was not one single event alone that spurred the people to action when finally the Civil Rights Movement was born. Instead, the Movement developed out of the post-World War II society in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Instead, each individual struggle and its subsequent achievement altered the tone of society and the expectations of present and future generations.

But Beaulah Mae Donald was not yet done with her determination to obtain justice. She soon filed a civil suit against the United Klans of America. In February, 1987, an all-white jury found the Klan responsible for the lynching of Michael Donald and ordered it to pay 7 million dollars. This resulted in the Klan having to hand over all its assets including its national headquarters in Tuscaloosa.

After a long-drawn out legal struggle, Henry Hayes was executed on June 6, 1997. It was the first time a white man had been executed for a crime against an African American since 1913.

Through the years, other forms of capital punishment, such as the electric chair and more recently lethal injection, have largely replaced hanging in the U.S. today. The most recent hanging in the United States occurred on January 25, 1996 when Delaware hanged Billy Bailey; Delaware has since abolished the method. Hanging remains legal only in Washington State, which last used it to execute Charles Campbell on May 27, 1994. In 1996 the State legislature amended the law to make lethal injection the default death penalty unless the convicted person chooses hanging. Today, the gallows and firing squads are anything but public, and are rarely used in the United. States.

Michael Donald was lynched in Mobile, Alabama

on March 21, 1981. From Wikipedia, under Fair Use Policy

However, hanging remains the second most widely used method of execution in the world today (the first is shooting) and in some places they remain public. In 2002, at least 115 men and 5 women were hanged in 10 countries; in 2002, at least 99 men and 1 woman; and in 2004 at least 150 men and 7 women suffered this fate.

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated May, 2010

Hangings continue to be public in Iran

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