Contested Terrain: The State versus Threatened Lynch Mob Violence

Beck, E. M.; Tolnay, Stewart E.; Bailey, Amy Kate

doi:10.1086/685473

Cited by 22 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Expulsion asserted their autonomy from the German emperor or other political elites who may have held rights over the Jews in their midst. Like the ambitious governments in the US South that intervened in mob violence (Beck, Tolnay, and Bailey 2016), for these city governments expulsion fit with their political self-image and their relative power. Cities politically dependent on a prince or territorial lord may not have felt like they could risk what could be perceived of as interference in the rights and economic interests of their overlords.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Diffusion of Exclusion: Medieval Expulsions of Jews

Doten-Snitker¹

2019

Preprint

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What social processes guide the spread of ethnic or racial exclusion? I investigate the diffusion of medieval expulsions of Jews from polities in the Holy Roman Empire. For medieval rulers, religious and material concerns were strong rationales against expulsion. Yet expulsions increase markedly in the fifteenth century. Did an expulsion by one government affect another government’s choices about expulsion? Using event history analysis methods, I document the limited spread of expulsion among over 500 polities in the western Holy Roman Empire, 1385-1520 CE. Temporal and spatial trends indicate that expulsions in politically and economically powerful cities spurred expulsions generally but suppressed them nearby. The adoption of expulsion followed political and economic incentives that were embedded in inter-city relationships, particularly after theological changes gave expulsion fresh political value. Social interdependence can spur as well as squelch racial extremism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Diffusion of Exclusion: Medieval Expulsions of Jews

Doten-Snitker¹

2019

Preprint

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“…We calculate the Logan-Parman measure of segregation for every county in the United States using the IPUMS 100 percent sample of the 1880 8. While Hagen et al (2013) and Beck et al (2016) use data on averted lynchings, the data on averted lynchings is not yet rich enough by race of victim to test for statistical differences by race, which is critical for the relationship with segregation. For this reason, we focus on completed lynchings.…”

Section: Methods and Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hagen et al (2013) shows that lynching intent, which they proxy with lynch mobs, was more related to local political events as opposed to economic factors. Beck et al (2016) argue that the state intervened to prevent lynchings in places where manufacturing took hold, such that political will to stop lynching was stronger in areas with greater political-economic connections. A key for the political theory of lynching is that African Americans be viewed as a threat to whites.…”

Section: Political Theories Of Lynchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Segregation and Southern Lynching

Cook¹,

Logan²,

Parman³

2018

Soc. sci. hist.

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The literature on ethnic fractionalization and conflict has yet to be extended to the American past. In particular, the empirical relationship between racial residential segregation and lynching is unknown. The existing economic, social, and political theories of lynching contain implicit hypotheses about the relationship between racial segregation and racial violence, consistent with more general theories of social conflict. Because Southern lynching occurred in rural and urban areas, traditional urban measures of racial segregation cannot be used to estimate the relationship. Earlier analysis has analyzed the relationship between lynching and racial proportions, a poor proxy for racial segregation. We use a newly developed household-level measure of residential segregation (Logan and Parman 2017) that can distinguish between the effects of increasing racial homogeneity of a location and the tendency to segregate within a location given a particular racial composition to estimate the correlation between racial segregation and lynching in the southern counties of the United States. We find that conditional on racial composition, racially segregated counties were much more likely to experience lynchings. Consistent with the hypothesis that segregation is related to interracial violence, we find that segregation is highly correlated with African American lynching but uncorrelated with white lynching. These results extend the analysis of racial/ethnic conflict into the past and show that the effects of social interactions and interracial proximity in rural areas are as important as those in urban areas.

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“…argue that lynching victims were socially isolated and Tolnay and Beck (1992a) argue that racial violence was related to black migration patterns in the early twentieth century. Recent historical scholarship by Loewen (2013), Jaspin (2008), Hagen et al (2013), Beck et al (2016) and Kantrowitz (2012) argues that lynching was only one small piece of a larger movement of racial violence in the United States in the late nineteenth century. This movement included the ethnic cleansing of entire counties and the prohibition of African American residents in certain towns (known as "sundown towns" as blacks found to be present after dark would be subject to violence).…”

Section: Theories Of Southern Lynchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings raised the possibility that lynchings could have been an attempt to reduce competition from black workers for white jobs, either through directly eliminating black workers via migration or through intimidating others thinking about competing for jobs held by white workers. More recently, Hagen et al (2013) and Beck et al (2016) have argued that mob formation, as opposed to successful lynchings, shows that political factors were dominant considerations.…”

Section: Theories Of Southern Lynchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Segregation and Southern Lynching

Cook¹,

Logan²,

Parman³

2017

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provided excellent research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

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Contested Terrain: The State versus Threatened Lynch Mob Violence

Cited by 22 publications

References 17 publications

The Diffusion of Exclusion: Medieval Expulsions of Jews

The Diffusion of Exclusion: Medieval Expulsions of Jews

Racial Segregation and Southern Lynching

Racial Segregation and Southern Lynching

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