Lynching

An extrajudicial killing, historically most often carried out by hanging, committed by a mob or group of private individuals acting outside any lawful legal process, typically to punish an alleged offense or enforce a social or racial hierarchy without trial. In the United States, lynching is documented most extensively in the decades following Reconstruction, from the late nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century, overwhelmingly targeting Black Americans in the South, with organizations including the Tuskegee Institute and, more recently, the Equal Justice Initiative documenting several thousand recorded lynchings during this period. The United States Congress passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2022, making lynching a distinct federal hate crime offense for the first time after more than two hundred earlier attempts at federal antilynching legislation had failed over more than a century. Lynching is distinguished from an extrajudicial killing carried out by state security forces in that it is committed by private individuals or a mob rather than by an agent of the state.