, whites of diverse political affiliations declared voting a “privilege” rather than a universal right, and even some whites who had opposed slavery were wary of measures that would lead to Black voting in the North. The largest numbers of lynchings were found in Jefferson County, Alabama Orange, Columbia, and Polk counties in Florida Fulton, Early, and Brooks counties in Georgia Caddo, Ouachita, Bossier, Iberia, and Tangipahoa parishes in Louisiana Hinds County, Mississippi Shelby County, Tennessee and Anderson County, Texas. Phillips County, Arkansas Lafourche and Tensas parishes in Louisiana Leflore and Carroll counties in Mississippi and New Hanover County, North Carolina, were sites of mass killings of African Americans in single-incident violence that mark them as notorious places in the history of racial terror violence. Lafayette, Hernando, Taylor, and Baker counties in Florida Early County, Georgia Fulton County, Kentucky and Lake and Moore Counties in Tennessee had the highest rates of terror lynchings in America. Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana had the highest number of lynchings. Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas, and Louisiana had the highest statewide rates of lynching in the United States. Some states and counties were particularly terrifying places for African Americans and had dramatically higher rates of lynching than other states and counties we reviewed. EJI has also documented more than 300 racial terror lynchings in other states during this time period.Ģ. EJI has documented 4084 racial terror lynchings in twelve Southern states between the end of Reconstruction in 18, which is at least 800 more lynchings in these states than previously reported. We reviewed local newspapers, historical archives, and court records conducted interviews with local historians, survivors, and victims’ descendants and exhaustively examined contemporaneously published reports in African American newspapers. EJI conducted extensive analysis of these data as well as supplemental research and investigation of lynchings in each of the subject states. These sources are widely viewed asthe most comprehensive collection of research data on the subject of lynching in America. Tolnay provided an invaluable resource, as did the research collected at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. EJI researchers have documented several hundred more lynchings than the number identified in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date. Racial terror lynching was much more prevalent than previously reported. The historical accuracy of many of the aspects of the John Henry legend are subject to debate, but nobody can deny the impact the story has had on generations of Americans.1. The story of John Henry was traditionally told through two types of songs: ballads, commonly called “The Ballad of John Henry,” and “hammer songs” (a type of work song). His story has been told in numerous books, television shows, films, video games and there is even a postage stamp with his likeness. When the contest was over, it is said that John Henry drilled 14-feet and the steam drill only nine! The tale of John Henry has been used as a symbol in many cultural movements, including the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement. John Henry struck a powerful blow with the sledgehammer, while the steam drill machine frequently broke down. The epic battle against the rock drilling machine involved John Henry as the “hammer man” working with a “shaker,” who would hold a chisel-like drill against mountain rock. When the contractor brought in the newly invented steam-powered drill in hope of cutting labor costs John Henry realized that his and hundreds more jobs would be lost if the steam drill was a success. In 1870 the formerly enslaved John Henry was employed as a steel driver by the contractor charged with building the Great Bend Tunnel in Talcott, West Virginia for the C&O Railway. Victorious over the machine, the legend goes that his heart gave out from the strain and he died with the hammer in his hand. His strength and skill were measured in a race against a steam-powered rock drilling machine. African American John Henry was known as the “steel driving man”.
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