“The Blood of Lynching Victims Is in the Soil”

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors provide readers with some critical genealogical insights in order to argue that many of the twenty-first-century conundrums that confront the EJI’s consciousness-raising efforts about forgotten lynching legacies can be traced back to the time of the Reconstruction (1866–1877) and post-Reconstruction years. This was a time when anti-lynchers had to battle “unreconstructed” Southern defenders of white supremacy as well as some of their Northern allies.