Browse Exhibits (10 total)

Anti-Lynching Booklet "Mississippi and the Mob"

Mississippi and the Mob - comp J.N. Flowers (1926).pdf

This exhibit, curated by Paul Blom, focuses on Mississippi and the Mob, a paper book printed in 1926 and compiled by J. N. (James Nathaniel) Flowers, President of the Mississippi State Bar Association at the time of its composition in 1925. The book serves as a condemnation of lynching and mob violence and a call to local law enforcement officers to uphold their duties to protect prisoners, thereby preventing the execution of mob violence. It also calls for the Mississippi state legislature to afford powers to the governor to remove any law enforcement officials who fail to uphold their duties. Despite the book’s anti-lynching sentiment, its main concern seems to be not the loss of black lives but the threat of mob violence towards law and order in the state of Mississippi and the possible resultant intervention of the federal government into more local affairs. According to Flowers and the “prominent citizens” (35) he quotes, the ultimate victim of these lynchings is not black human beings but law and order, the very fabrics of civilized Mississippian society.

For a more thorough analysis of the context for and contents of Mississippi and the Mob, as well as a brief discussion of its public reception, enter the exhibit, where you can read the full text of the book as a .pdf, view images from the book, and learn more about this unique response to mob violence in the early twentieth century.

Navigation: This exhibit consists of two main pages. The "About" page provides an overview of the book, a physical description of the book, the current ways in which the book's contents can be accessed, its speculative provenance, a brief historical context of lynchings in general, and background information on the book and its compiler, J. N. Flowers. The "Analysis" page provides a thorough textual analysis of the book's contents, briefly touches upon responses to the book, provides a list of works cited in the exhibit, and consolidates all of the exhibit items into a single gallery for a chance to revisit any particular item of interest for further reflection and study.

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"Contempo: A Review of Books and Personalities" (Volume 1, Number 13)

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This exhibit examines the content and cultural contexts of a particular issue of "Contempo," which was a short-lived but innovative and controversial journal published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This particular issue comes from December 1931, and features discussions of the Scottsboro “legal lynching,” where nine African-American teenagers were sentenced to death for the alleged rape of two white women in a hasty trial. Poetry and articles by writers such as Langston Hughes and the defense attorney for the case expose various dynamics of this case, and demonstrate how ideas of Southern pride were being harnessed to try and press for social change in the region.

The digital item is curated and photographed by Martin Groff. The original physical item is held at the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the North Carolina Collection.

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Concord Times Newspaper Clipping of The Lynching of Eugene Daniels

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The exhibit, curated by Tyler Bunzey, is a critical fabulation or narrative exhibit of the lynching of Eugene Daniels in Pittsboro in 1921. This exhibit uses a newspaper article from the Concord Times as a foundation, and then rebuilds the narrative of Eugene's life and death through Federal Census records, marriage records, death certificates, draft cards, deed records, and photographs.

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Minutes from the 1935 Meeting of the AME Church

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Proceedings of the annual meetings of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church for the years 1935, 1937, 1940, 1943-1946, and 1950. The meetings were held in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Kinston, and Rich Square, N.C. Presiding bishop for most of them was Monroe H. Davis of Baltimore, Md., who was suspended by the National Conference in 1946. Minutes for annual conferences begin with a roll of elders, deacons, lay members, prominent visitors, and other groups present. The Journal of Proceedings documents the activities of the Conference in three sessions per day over the five days of the Conference. 

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An Exhibit on Networked Murder: A.W. Graham's Klan Case

AW Graham Letter.pdf

A presentation and analysis of correspondence regarding a suspected 1875 Klan lynching drawn from the papers of Augustus Washington Graham. 

Curated by Matt Duncan

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Lynching a Corpse: The Stories

Lynching a Corpse.pdf

This exhibition portrays an article on the lynching of Dock Rogers. It was published in the News & Observer on August 29, 1933. Curated by Ina Falkeid.

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Hale Aspacio Woodruff's "By Parties Unknown" (1935)

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This particular printing of Hale Aspacio Woodruff’s By Parties Unknown (1935) linocut was acquired by Ackland Art Museum in October of 2013. The sheet of paper it is printed on is 50 by 38 centimeters, while the block (where it is inked) is 30.5 by 23.3 cm. It deals with the theme of lynching and the hardships many African Americans experienced in the South in the 1930s.

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Hale Aspacio Woodruff's "Giddap" (1935)

Giddap

This exhibit, curated by Paul Blom, focuses on a linocut printing titled Giddap. The linocut block was created by artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff in Atlanta, Georgia circa 1935, and the print of this block was printed in 1996 by Robert Hamilton Blackburn in New York. The print features the image of a black man in a wooded area, standing on the back of a cart with a noose around his neck, about to be hanged, while a white crowd gathers around the man, watching and screaming at him. It is clearly a depiction of a lynching rather than a judicial execution.

For a more thorough analysis of the context for and contents of Giddap, as well as a brief discussion of people’s responses to the piece, enter the exhibit, where you can view the image closely, engage with its content, and learn more about its production and composition.

Navigation: This exhibit consists of two main pages. The “About” page provides an overview of the art work; a physical description of the piece; the current ways in which the piece can be accessed; background information on the piece, its production, its distribution, and the artists involved; and the art work’s provenance. The “Analysis” page provides a thorough analysis of the art work, briefly touches upon responses to the piece, provides a list of works cited in the exhibit, and consolidates all of the exhibit items into a single gallery for a chance to revisit any particular item of interest for further reflection and study.

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