The Lynching of Italian Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana March 14, 1891

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https://www.history.com/news/the-gri...rgest-lynching

https://shorturl.at/JDtkd A Lynching in the South

https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/pin-su-...9067809536686/ Slave Children From New Orleans

No wonder people want to lighten their skin!

A mob of tens of thousands of angry men surrounded a New Orleans jail, shouting angry slurs and calling for blood. By the time they were done, 11 men would be dead—shot and mutilated in an act of brutal mob violence that took place in front of a cheering crowd. It was 1891, and the crowd was about to participate in one of the largest lynchings in U.S. history.

Nearly 5,000 lynchings—vigilante murders that included shootings, hangings and other forms of mob “justice”—were recorded in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Most of their victims were African American men. But though the New Orleans lynch mob was driven by bigotry, its targets weren’t Black people.

“Sicilians were viewed by many Americans as culturally backward and racially suspect,” writes historian Manfred Berg. Because of their dark skin, they were often treated with the same contempt as Black people. They were also suspected of Mafia connections, and their family networks were closely watched by the New Orleans police.