Lynching
What Does Lynching Mean?
According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1940, to be considered a lynching,
“there must be legal evidence that a person has been killed, and that they met their death illegally at the hands of a group (of three or more persons) acting under the pretext of service to justice, race, or tradition.”
​
While lynching is most commonly viewed as the act of hanging, however, as in the case of Gunn, it can go as far as burning victims. Gunn’s murder is considered a lynching because it was caused by a mob working outside of the legal system.
​Some of the well-known lynchings in the United States can be considered to be "spectacle" lynchings due to the scale and extremity of the killing.
"Spectacle" lynchings involved large mobs and onlookers. The lynchings were advertised prior; allowing information and interest to be spread and sensationalized. Finally, victims were tortured while still alive and when they finally met their end, parts of their dead body were taken as souvenirs.
​
Gunn's lynching can be categorized as a "spectacle" lynching because of the size of the mob, the large amount of media coverage, the gruesome method of murder, and the collection of souvenirs by members of the mob.
Photo of the town sheriff and lynching victim in Sherman, Texas. Similar to Gunn's case, George Hughes was burned alive in the courthouse. Picture from the Daily News Sun May 3, 1931.
Lynching in the United States
Lynchings have been a part of racial violence in the United States since the end of the Civil War. The reason behind the lynchings of African Americans was to enforce white supremacy and intimidate African American populations. Many lynchings in the United States occurred due to the desire to avenge violence toward white Americans, specifically white females. Most lynching victims were accused of murder or attempted murder with the second most common accusation being rape or attempted rape.
According to the NAACP, the “lynching era,” when frequent mob violence was most prevalent in the United States occurred from the 1880s through 1968 and there were 4,700 lynchings documented. Out of these lynchings, 3,446 were African Americans. The last documented lynching in the United States was in 1981 in Alabama.
​
Map showing the location of every reported lynching from 1883-1941.
Lynching in Missouri
​Between 1877 and 1950, 60 African Americans were lynched in Missouri. According to a study by the Equal Justice Initiative, Missouri had the second highest number of lynchings outside of the Southern United States when compared with other states like Oklahoma, Illinois, West Virginia, Maryland, Kansas, Indiana, and Ohio.
​
Gunn’s lynching in 1931 was the sixth case in Missouri since 1921. In these cases, all of the victims were African American men accused of assault or attempted assault of a white woman without prosecution. Gunn’s lynching received publicity because it occurred very late outside of the Southern “lynch belt” where the lynching of African Americans was most prevalent.
Newspaper clipping from The Sedalia Democrat in Sedalia, MO, January 12, 1933. The article identifies five additional lynchings that occurred in Missouri since 1921.