The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States

In Chapter 5, Wells highlights lynchings that are tied to either misdemeanors or no crime at all. Among white citizens, domestic abuse elicits a fine, but for Dave Jackson, a Black man in Louisiana, the act led to a lynching. In Knox Point, Louisiana, a white mob lynched two Black men in connection with some stolen hogs; the two men were never afforded a trial. Five Black citizens were killed on suspicion of well poisoning after a white family became sick; no other evidence was provided. Wells explains that minor offenses are often all it takes to lead to a lynching, but the record proves that no real offense is necessary to lead to the vicious act:

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of this record of lynch law for the year 1893, is the remarkable fact that five hundred beings were lynched and that the matter was considered of so little importance that the powerful press bureaus of the country did not consider the matter of enough importance to ascertain the causes for which they were hanged (60).

Wells suggests that the public is so desensitized to lynching that nothing is done when a Black person is killed by a white mob, and society has little difficulty assuming Black people are guilty.