Lynching in North Carolina

<p> From the end of the Civil War through 1941 a total of 168 North Carolinians lost their lives to lynching. This form of mob violence was often justified as a means of controlling the black population protecting white wives and daughters and defending family honor. Legal attempts to deter lynching--including an 1893 law that classified it as a felony and sought to hold a county liable for damages--generally failed because of a lack of local support and ineffectual enforcement by state officials.</p><p> After 1922 however in a phenomenon unique to North Carolina incidents of lynching inexplicably and rapidly declined prompting the state to head a national movement to end it. This history includes appendices providing an account of all 168 known lynching occurrences.</p>