Disciples of Hatred, In Their Own Words and Images
December 24, 2008
The
New York Times editorial "
Disciples of Hatred, In Their Own Words and Images[1] " discusses the
Atlanta Center for Civil and Human Rights
acquisition of hundreds of postcards from the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century that depict the lynching of African Americans and the massive
crowds that gathered to watch. In the editorial Brent Staples writes about a
man named Joe that mailed a post card to
his mother and marked where he was in the crowd of the brutal lynching of Jesse
Washington in Waco, Texas, in 1916.
Discussion Questions:
Who is
responsible for lynchings? The lynchers, the spectators that watch, the
public officials, the bystanders, the people who made the postcards?
Why might people
have attended lynchings? What forces influence their decisions?
The article sites a particularly
graphic postcard sent by a son to his parents of a tortured and mutilated
corpse, Jesse Washington. How do you understand the actions of the people
who committed the murder? Those who watched the murder happen? Those who took
the photograph? Joe, who sent this postcard to his parents?
What can we learn
from studying photographs of lynchings? What effect can museums have on influencing
our future choices? What examples can you cite for this?
