NCJ Number
130057
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 69 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1990) Pages: 395-421
Date Published
1990
Length
27 pages
Annotation
During the period 1882 through 1914, rates of racial violence rose when interracial competition intensified because of immigration, urbanization of blacks, economic contractions, and political challenges to white supremacy in the South.
Abstract
Event history and time-series analysis show that economic slumps, particularly those that affected the least skilled workers, appear to have increased rates of both forms of racial violence, as did rising competition from immigration. Lynching also appears to have been sensitive to political and economic upheavals in the post-Reconstruction South connected with Populism and the changing fortunes of the cotton economy. A rise in the intensity of racial competition indicated by increases in the supply of low-wage labor and economic contraction raised rates of both urban and rural violence against blacks. Periods of economic recovery had low rates of both urban violence against blacks and lynching. Political competition also appears to have affected racial violence. 2 tables, 1 figure, 14 notes, and 63 references (Author abstract modified)