Summary: Beyond being black and male, what characteristics put people at greater risk of being lynched in the Jim Crow South? A national team of sociologists has used genealogical research techniques and turn-of-the-century census records to help answer that question. Popular notions suggest that economically successful blacks were "made an example of" by lynch mobs. The current study, however, indicates that higher social and economic status offered protection from mob violence. The team used data representing more than 900 black men who were lynched between 1882 and 1929 and compared their census records to those of other black men living in the counties where they were lynched. They found that men who were lynched were less likely than other men in their communities to have been married, heads of household, or workers with skilled occupations. The risk of lynching also increased steadily from adolescence through early adulthood and declined after the mid-30s. The profile of black male lynch victims appears to have remained consistent during the time period studied; it varied little across southern communities despite differences in social conditions known to affect the rate of lynching, such as percent of the population that is black or prevalence of sharecropping. This research suggests that vulnerable men were at greatest risk of being targeted, regardless of the kind of community they lived in.
