Witnessing Lynching: American Writers Respond

by Anne Rice

Overview

In a unique anthology that collects essays, fiction, drama, and poetry from the main period of lynching in the US (1889-1935), Rice (black studies, Lehman College) provides sociohistorical context on 39 selections by Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Ida B. Wells, Carl Sandburg, and other authors/activists. Michele Wallace (City College of New York) provides further commentary on this horrific backdrop to current race relations. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900813533307
Publication date:	10/09/2003
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Among the most popular authors in recent American history, Anne Rice (1941-2021) was best known for The Vampire Chronicles, a gothic fiction series revolving around the vampire Lestat. Interview with the Vampire, the opening book in the series, appeared in 1976, and drew not just readers but also critical acclaim. The Chicago Tribune noted that Rice "penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth — the education of the vampire." Rice has also written erotica under various pen names and Christian fiction.

Hometown:

Rancho Mirage, California

Date of Birth:

October 4, 1941

Date of Death:

December 11, 2021

Place of Birth:

New Orleans, Louisiana

Place of Death:

Rancho Mirage, California

Education:

B.A., San Francisco State University, 1964; M.A., 1971

Website:

http://www.annerice.com

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	ix
	Foreword: Passing, Lynching, and Jim Crow	xi
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	Introduction: The Contest over Memory	1
	1889-1900
	"The Sheriff's Children" (1889)	27
	"Lynch Law in the South" (1892)	40
	"An Appeal to My Countrywomen" (1896)	43
	Excerpt from Mob Rule in New Orleans (1900)	46
	"Will Smith's Defense of His Race," from Contending Forces (1900)	61
	1901-1910
	"Thoughts on the Present Conditions," from Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers (1902)	69
	"Beyond the Limit" (1903)	77
	"The Haunted Oak" (1903) and "The Lynching of Jube Benson" (1904)	89
	Excerpt from "Lynching from a Negro's Point of View" (1904)	98
	"The Blaze," from The Hindered Hand; or, The Reign of the Repressionist (1905)	106
	"A Litany at Atlanta" (1906)	111
	"Jim Crow Cars" (1907)	117
	1911-1920
	"I Met a Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)	121
	Excerpt from The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) and "Brothers" (1916)	123
	"Jimmy" (1914)	135
	Supplement to the Crisis, July 1916	141
	"Nigger Jeff" (1918)	151
	Excerpts from The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919 (1919) and "Man, the Man-Hunter" (1920)	171
	Aftermath (1919)	178
	"If We Must Die" (1919) and "The Lynching" (1922)	188
	"Goldie" (1920)	191
	1921-1930
	Excerpt from Lynching and Debt Slavery (1921)	209
	"So Quietly" (1921)	216
	"The Black Draftee from Dixie" (1922)	218
	"Christ Recrucified" (1922)	220
	"The South" (1922)	223
	"Portrait in Georgia" and "Blood-Burning Moon" (1923)	226
	"White Things" (1923)	235
	"The Present South" (1923)	237
	"The Unquenchable Fire" (1924)	240
	"Morning Ride" (1927)	247
	"Tenebris" (1927)	251
	"I Investigate Lynchings" (1929)	252
	1931-1935
	"He Was a Man" (1932) and "Let Us Suppose" (1935)	263
	"Christ in Alabama" (1932)	268
	Excerpt from "Scottsboro--and Other Scottsboros" (1934)	270
	"Flag Salute" (1934)	282
	"Kneel to the Rising Sun" (1935)	284
	"Between the World and Me" (1935)	304
	Bibliography	307
	Permissions	313
	Index	315