At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

A powerful book that looks unflinchingly at the history of the lynching of Blacks in America. At times almost too horrific to read, I believe that all who doubt the heavy burden being Black in America should read it. It is unimaginable that simply being suspected of committing a crime, sometimes of a relatively minor sort, could lead to death by mob if you were Black. So many of the lynchings recounted in this book go beyond a simple hanging, and involve torture and bestial levels of physical abuse. It is hard to realize that lynchings were so common in the early 20th century that they occurred nearly every other day. We need to know this history so we will not ever let it happen again.

Amazing book about appalling history...As a history buff who has also read a lot about the death penalty in the United States, I was surprised by how many of the stories and names in this book were completely new to me. I was also surprised to learn how wrong I was in my prior assumptions about what a "typical" lynching looked like--I had no idea how often victims were killed by means other than hanging (especially being burned alive) or how often the body was further mistreated even after death.

Horrific though this history is, though, this is also the story of the people and organizations who courageously fought back through campaigns to raise public awareness and attempts to pass legislation to make lynching a federal crime. Though it show more is easy to become depressed while reading all the lynching stories depicting the worst of humanity, Dray consistently highlights the best of humanity as well through the contributions of those who risked everything to resist lynching culture and put an end to "the shame of America."

In short, I would definitely recommend this book to all those interested in American history or in having a better understanding of race relations in the United States. show less

This book is certainly one of the best crafted nonfiction books I have ever read. It's possible I wouldn't feel so strongly about that if I hadn't known so much, but by all mines not all, of what the book covers. On the other hand, it was knowing so much already that helped validate how extensive and accurate his overall reporting was. I will also point out that what the author uses as his own resources in writing the book, helps give what would arguably be labeled just "history" into a strong impression of more contemporary "investigative journalism," because, among other resources, he uses the investigative reporting by Ida B. Wells-Barnett and a few others, on the myriad of events documented in this book. In doing so with show more Wells-Barnett, he additionally provides an abbreviated biography of that extraordinary person. It was also quite disturbing, beyond the details of the book, to read the justifications given for those many despicable and horrendous acts, to hear very strong echoes of their justification in the many much more contemporary tweets and rally speeches by the former office holder of President of the United States. This book was written well before that person had taken office, while I was reading it just as that massive storm on American governance was receding. It was a bit like reading a scary novel while actually hearing someone breaking into my house. show less

An absolute must read! While I had to sort of force myself to read it at times, since the material was just so depressing and relentless, it was ultimately uplifting and inspiring. It should be required reading for students!

Americans at their ugliest. Compelling, outstanding history.