Rating: 
Summary: At The Hands of Persons Unknown
Review: AT THE HANDS OF PERSONS UNKNOWN will change your view of American history and race relations. Mr. Dray's book is awesome. I have read more books on African-American history (Jim Crow, civil rights etc.) than I can count. Mr. Dray's book is simply the best. Be prepared to be shocked and have your emotions touched. Mr. Dray describes the most horrible shameful acts in graphic details. He destroys the all the popular myths such as:lynchings were isolated acts by fringe elements such as the KKK, lynchings were the result of rapes or murders and that guilty "men" were simply "hanged". The reality is much more gruesome, to the point that it makes one sick with shame. (Imagine the movie ROSEWOOD, intensified by 10X) Thousands of African-Americans (men, women and children) were tortured, mutilated, burned to death in the most sadistic ways a normal person in 2003 could not imagine. For many decades these lynchings did take place in the shadows by the KKK, but in picnic-like style in town squares in front of men, women and children! Southern politians defended lynching as a way to "protect the southern way of life" against the "black brutes". AT THE HANDS OF PERSONS UNKNOWN leaves know doubt as to who the real brutes were. Mr. Dray also includes the stories of many heroes such as Walter White, Ida B Wells and others who fought to expose lynching. One closing comment- if you are a non-African-American, PLEASE read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Perversions of "Justice"
Review: Dray notes that he knew very little about lynchings when he began his research for this book; I knew very little about this subject until after I read his book. Perhaps I am not unique in that much of what I think I know and understand about U.S. history has depended to a significant extent on films and television programs. ... Many of the lynchings described in Dray's book would be deemed today as "unsuitable for viewing" by the general public and thus would never be fully portrayed in a film or television program. And yet, for reasons Dray explains, many of the lynchings attracted large and enthusiastic crowds (which included women and small children) and were scheduled to accommodate as many people as possible. Several hangings were preceded by dismemberment and burning. ... Dray's book is not primarily about such situations, although he traces lynching back to the American Revolution when Charles Lynch literally took the law into his own hands and hanged Tories who had stolen from him. A local court then exonerated his behavior. Dray explains that before the Civil War, more whites than blacks were lynched; that is, hanged without due process. It was only during the decades after the war ended that lynching became inextricably bound with racial strife as blacks were hanged in a progressively greater number and higher percentage than whites. Dray's extensive research of this period (roughly 1865-1900) provides some of the most interesting material in the book and his analysis of it is both rigorous and revealing. In many instances, the identities of those who conducted lynchings were concealed by white sheets or masks. Later, it was common to place a hood over the heads of those executed (after due process) by military, federal, or state officials. I view Dray as both an historian and an anthropologist. He tries hard to understand (and to help his reader to understand) why human beings throughout U.S. history grabbed a rope and hanged another human being. (For a period of time, multiple hangings were not uncommon.) Obviously, some of the lynchers who ignored due process were absolutely convinced that they were agents of justice; the motives of others are also understandable, perhaps, but nonetheless contemptible. I am grateful to Dray for the extensive research he completed and even more for his analysis of what that research revealed. Some readers may quarrel with some of his conclusions. (I am unqualified to do so.) However, I think almost all readers will view this book as an important contribution to our understanding of a recurrent pattern of behavior which, until now (at least for me), has been neglected, ignored, or worse yet denied.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrible and Gripping Tale
Review: Even as one who has studied this subject for many years, I was impressed with the author's coherent and expansive treatment of the subject. Philip Dray covers the whole of U.S. history. He does an outstanding job of placing the barbaric and terrible practice of lynching in a historical and political context. Especially enlightnening and revealling in this work is the pure
heroism of African American activists such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Walter White and others in the fight against lynchings as contrasted with the craven political cowardice of the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The utter and consistent failure of
America's political leadership to bring this lawlessness and violence under control is a permanent stain on the history of this nation. You will not be able to put this book down. It should effect you deeply. This book would be required reading for every high school student in the U.S. if we were truly interested in preserving our democracy.
Rating:
Summary: Horror
Review: Philip Dray has beautifully written a book about a horrifying not-so-long-ago American past-time: the hanging, mutilating and burning of blacks in the US. At the Hands of Persons Unknown, the Lynching of Black America tells the story of this cruel activity in all of its lurid and gory detail. The pages drip with sweat and blood. The unremitting recounting leaves the reader frustrated at the injustice and deeply saddened that it could have happened. This is a smart and important book. Not to be read at night.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book on a Very Tough, Important Subject
Review: Philip Dray has written a lively and readable study of a very difficult subject in At the Hands of Persons Unknown (The Lynching of Black America). The case studies are horrific and do not lose any of their impact as the stores build up over the course of the book, in fact they become more horrible. In contrast to these important, but terrible, aspects the author provides the reader with excellent portrayals of such courageous figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells. This is a perfect one volume place to begin to study and learn about this chapter of American history as it covers the entire history of the nation and puts the events in their political, social and economic context. This is a large, readable account that is gripping and illuminating into the darkness of this time not so long ago or far away. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book on a Very Tough, Important Subject
Review: Philip Dray has written a lively and readable study of a very difficult subject in At the Hands of Persons Unknown (The Lynching of Black America). The case studies are horrific and do not lose any of their impact as the stores build up over the course of the book, in fact they become more horrible. In contrast to these important, but terrible, aspects the author provides the reader with excellent portrayals of such courageous figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells. This is a perfect one volume place to begin to study and learn about this chapter of American history as it covers the entire history of the nation and puts the events in their political, social and economic context. This is a large, readable account that is gripping and illuminating into the darkness of this time not so long ago or far away. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: At the Hands of Persons Unknown
Review: Philip Dray provides us with a vivid picture of a world that has been buried deep in society. The racial hate, the accusations, the feeling that the taking of an African Americans' life could mean so little, and yet so acceptable for the Afro American to live with on a day to day basis that they could be lynched at any time for no good reason. This unspeakable horror of lynching is clearly documented and will more than likely leave you searching, searching for reasons why this has happenned and what kind of world was this alien place that it would put such little value on the human life. You will be on the internet for hours trying to find answers as to WHY or How could this happen. Could Hate be that deep? How could you sleep at night? How did the victims family feel? This book is shocking, read it and weep.
Rating:
Summary: ?It is, indeed amazing to contemplate so vast a vacuity.?
Review: The words above these comments are from a 1920 essay written entitled, "The Sahara Of The Bozart", by H.L. Mencken. These words and those that followed come as close as any I have read to quantifying what was absent from vast areas of The United States where, "Lynch Law", was not only practiced, but defended and enthusiastically endorsed until the 1960's. I cannot comment with specificity on the events this book documents. The details are that vile. This book describes ritualistic murder that was routinely carried out from the latter part of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th. This in no way limits the genocide inflicted on blacks for centuries in this country, rather this focuses on particularly barbaric events that on many occasions took place with thousands or even 20,000 or 30,000 spectators. The spectators to these planned, public atrocities would learn of the events from newspapers, and would travel to the scene via free passage provided by railroads. Governors publicly endorsed these murders routinely together with other elected officials, and were largely ignored by the federal government. The 1965 murder of 3 persons working for Civil Rights finally got the attention of Washington, and actually lead to a real trial and convictions. It may sound cynical, but the fact remains that two of the victims were white, and Civil Rights Legislation was popular for the first time following the death of President Kennedy. The early laws that were passed followed on the heals of his assassination when a vote against what the murdered president had started was too risky for even the most committed racists in congress that had repeatedly blocked any form of federal law, including any law outlawing the lynching of citizens. Congress had company, as the legislation had no Presidential support whether it was FDR, or Eisenhower. Men, women, children, pregnant women, and entire families were lynched. Now that word brings to mind a rope and a victim. If those who inhabited the vacuity that Mr. Mencken described stopped at that, their hands would be fairly clean when compared to what repeatedly took place. The rituals that were carried out were limited in their cruelty only by the imaginations of those inflicting the torment. These acts could last for hours prior to ending in a holocaust. When the site had cooled, souvenirs were collected, sold, and displayed in shop windows on Main Street for weeks, or even months. No vile act practiced in medieval dungeons or The Concentration Camps of the Nazis surpassed these public events. These murderous spectacles were memorialized with postcards that The US Postal Service delivered for decades. Often the photographs would show nicely dressed children, wearing white dresses and ribbons and smiling, while within arms reach the remains of a victim were present. Some of this public butchering took place so recently that many of these young children are likely to be alive today. As destructive and demented as these acts were, they ultimately were defeated. This did not come about due to a decline of the perverse ideas of honor. Nor was there change to twisted logic that allowed slave owners to avail themselves of violent assault on their female slaves, which resulted in the production of children that were the same offspring the mobs would speak of when justifying the murder of black men. Mixing of the races was the canard used to justify killing black men, who were innocent of the very act their white killers were often the practitioners of. The vast majority of killings were based on false accusations of sexual assault even when a doctor determined that no such act had occurred. These examinations were just another pro forma step in, "trials" that would take 8 to 25 minutes from opening arguments to sentencing, and then the handing of the innocent over to the waiting mob outside. Change came about because of incredibly brave individuals that would place themselves at risk to document the killing and work for its end. Change came about as black men fought and died for this country in World War One and Two only to come home and find that which they fought for did not accrue to their benefit. The US was embarrassed and ridiculed for its hypocrisy-riddled stance when condemning the abuses of Germany in the early 1930's. The Japanese in WWII, distributed information about these racist crimes to populations in the Pacific Rim as evidence of what America would bring. Black men were good enough to fight and die for their country that would not allow them to sit at a counter with whites, drink from the same water fountain, or use the same bathroom. Ida B. Wells brought about change. While a petite four foot six, she was so feared by the defenders of certain states, she fled to continue her work from the north. Thurgood Marshall just survived being killed while working as a lawyer in the South. This country was fortunate he survived, as he became one of the great jurists of The United States Supreme Court. Clarence Darrow, who as a white lawyer would routinely ridicule and defeat those who brought their ignorance into a courtroom when he was present. The numerous people and organizations that forced the Federal Government to step in and crush the nonsense that was practiced in a variety of states is the part of the book that allows the reader to make it through the grisly history. The author points out that there are issues of flying The Confederate Battle Flag on top of State Capital Buildings, or on there grounds, but feels when put in perspective these issues are minor. If States want to continue to display the relic that they claim is a source of pride, let them. It is their choice to remain in, "that vast vacuity, that sterile, artistically, intellectually, and cultural Sahara Desert", of H.L. Mencken.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this book
Review: This book is easily the best book I have read so far this year. Dray explains how otherwise model citizens could murder, in the most brutal manners imaginable, Black (usually) Americans for imagined to minor transgressions (True, doubtless some of the lynched were guilty of the crimes they were accused of....Readers will be tempted to justify mob justice this way. Dray won't let you do this...the retribution is always excessive and driven by hate and fear, and completely devoid of anything resembling civilized justice). Coming from the South, I have taken classes on lynching before, so the pages Dray dedicated to explaining the origins of lynching were not nearly as compelling as his historical and legal analyses. Often one reads history books and still has trouble putting the events into context. Not so with this book. Dray captures the mood and hysteria of the times perfectly. Dray also does a wonderful job of showing that lynching was not merely an aberration of Southern justice inflicted on Black men. Instead, lynching is described as a national sickness, with Black men, women, and children, White civil rights sympathizers, and Jewish people being the victims of the mob violence, both in the North and the South. Dray shows how the international image of the United States was tarnished during a time when it was supposed to be the vangaurd of democracy, opposed to a German facism that was cruelly mimicked on its own soil. He also pays tribute to the men and women of the NAACP and other like-minded organizations who had the gall to oppose mob murder. The ultimate failure of any federal anti-lynching law is a startling example of how ingrained lynching was in the national (especially the Southern) psyche. This narration forced me to reexamine my own education about lynching. Before college (I'm from Georgia), I had never heard of Leo Frank, the 1906 Atlanta race riots, or Sam Hose. But I certainly had heard more than enough about the Salem witch trials. For these reasons it is required reading for Americans in general, and especially Southerners. (warning: obviously, some of this book is difficult to read, as recountings of the lynchings are appropriately graphic and monstrous)
Rating:
Summary: a disturbing page-turner
Review: This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. Dray has done a magnificent job of exploring a very painful subject. Often times, while reading the book, I shook my head in disbelief, saying to myself: "This happened in America?" Too often the incidents described in the book smack of something one would expect to find in the Middle Ages.
Dray explains "what" happened. But more important he explains "why" it happened. This book is a tremendous contribution to American history.
Lynching is a subject most people know very little about. Dray raises the curtain and shows the world the shocking and
devastating legacy of lynching. The impact was not just lost lives, but a message of fear and intimidation toward African-Americans.
This book should be read by anyone interested in American history. You will find yourself in disbelief that these incidents happened in the United States of America. It's time to talk about slavery, lynching, Jim Crow, etc. How did this happen in the USA? It's mind-boggling.
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