SAN FRANCISCO, January 23, 2003 -- Over the past four years, San Francisco State University historian Christopher Waldrep has tried to make sense of the meaning of the word lynching in America. Why would citizens in the old West jump into action to "string him up" when the courts didn't go far enough or more than a century later Clarence Thomas call the questioning in his Supreme Court hearing a "high tech lynching?"
In his new book "The Many Faces of Judge Lynch; Extralegal Violence and Punishment in America" (Palgrave Macmillan), Waldrep traces the use and meaning of the word lynching from the colonial period to the present. He explains how lynching as a form of extralegal punishment sanctioned by the community did not alter over time but that the meaning of the word changed drastically as Americans dealt with race relations.
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Waldrep traced the origin of the word lynching to either a magistrate named Charles Lynch or farmer William Lynch, both of whom lived in Virginia about the time of the American Revolution. Migrating Virginians in the early 19th century often talked about "Judge Lynch" as a symbol of extralegal justice.
During his research Waldrep found that the city of Vicksburg in Mississippi drew the attention of the nation when residents executed five gamblers by hanging in 1885. Outraged against gambling, residents said they had to invoke the "lynch law." After that, lynching became even more widespread. Between 1899 and 1922 there were nearly 3,500 documented lynchings, including 29 in California, according to the NAACP. Although the majority of victims were black, some were white and others were Indian, Mexican and Chinese.
http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/prsrelea/fy02/058.htm
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