In the late Soviet years, starting from the fifties, the ideological struggle was difficult. Information about life in the United States was leaked under the Iron Curtain, international exhibitions, foreign films and the stories of the few lucky people who traveled abroad gave a certain idea of life in the "States", in many cases distorted, but almost always painted in fairy tones. The material and food abundance of the "countries of the free world" should be opposed. "In America, blacks are lynched!" This expression was one of the most serious arguments at political information and other public events designed to affirm the benefits of socialism in the mass consciousness .
Lynching and racism
So, in the United States there have been repeated judicial reprisals, more often colored citizens being the victims, now they are called African-Americans, and in our colloquial words they use the word “Negro,” without any “negative” connotation. In general terms, these actions give an idea of what the Lynch court is. There are cases when an angry mob killed a tram driver, whose wheels hit a pedestrian. Other recorded episodes showed racial or national prejudice, due to which, for one suspicion, the Italian (“they are all mafiosi”) or the Jew (“drink the blood of babies during their rituals” were to be killed immediately. But more often than not, black Americans were hanged or burned (and sometimes both). Such aggressive racism had its own background.
Lynch One, Charles
The morphology of the word is ambiguous. “Lynching” in English means beating with a stick, and in this version the concept of group mob is very close to the essence of the term. But the methods of killing the accused, as a rule, did not include such labor-intensive operations, they did it easier: they knit a loop, threw one end on the nearest branch, and the other on the prisoner's neck. But another version related to the historical figure, judge Charles Lynch, is more believable. In essence, he did not invent anything new, but simply applied a simplified trial in war conditions (the United States then fought for independence), with the only difference being that military and all other crimes were quickly dealt with in a regular district court, and not by a tribunal. According to one version, the locals who were present at the execution of the sentence said: “they are lynching.” This did not mean that the condemned was executed, the punishments were different, and Charles Lynch's decisions did not depend on the color of the skin.
William, Lynch the Second, and Planter, Lynch the Third
These stories also occurred during the War of Independence. Captain Lynch, being a military man and decisive, simply decided the gaps in the unformed justice system. He created his own court. The situation in the country was difficult, decisions needed quick and effective. He judged as best he could, but apparently not always fairly.
There was also a planter Lynch, who perceived blacks as working cattle, and also did not particularly suffer from doubts. His court was swift, the verdict was cruel, in general, the decisions did not differ much from those made by an embittered crowd. It is possible that it was he who gave his name to the process during which a person, not always guilty, is lynched. This means that there is no opportunity to justify. One can only prepare for death.
Lynch Court and Ku Klux Klan
Lynch's court reached its greatest distribution in the second half of the nineteenth century. The social tension that reigned in the United States after the end of the Civil War, the uncertainty of the position of the colorless people freed from slavery, and the defeat of white rights in the South together created a socio-ideological vacuum, which the racist organizations eagerly filled (John Birch Society, Ku Klux Klan) . They made it clear to everyone, and in the first place, to those in color, that, despite the equality enshrined in the Constitution, no one has canceled segregation, and if the rules of behavior are not respected, the perpetrators are lynched. That, in other words, meant: “niggas, know your place!”
This situation actually existed until the sixties of the last century, while US presidents Kennedy and Johnson began to fight segregation and racism. Today the meaning of the word “vigilante” requires clarification, it is used when they want to expose someone’s gross and cruel arbitrariness or the arbitrariness of an angry crowd.