Rowan History Professor to Discuss ?Lynching Culture? During Feb. 9 Lecture and Booksigning
Rowan History Professor to Discuss ?Lynching Culture? During Feb. 9 Lecture and Booksigning
February 1, 2005
Dr. William D. Carrigan, a Rowan University associate professor of history and author of "The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916," will discuss this unfortunate and ugly phenomenon of American political and social life during a Wednesday, February 9, lecture and booksigning at the Rowan University Bookstore on U.S. Route 322, Glassboro.
During the 10:45 a.m. program, Carrigan will reflect on the systematic use of vigilante justice to continue the oppression of African Americans after the abolition of slavery and post-Civil War Reconstruction. He also will delve into the culture of violence that nourished the practice of lynching, hopefully providing insight into how a ?lynching culture? could form and endure for so long among ordinary people.
In "The Making of a Lynching Culture" (University of Illinois Press, $35 in hardcover), Carrigan goes beyond a simple recounting of ?extralegal,? or vigilante violence to discussing how conventional notions of justice and historical memory were reshaped to glorify violence and foster a culture that legitimized lynching. ?It is not possible to understand the African American past without coming to grips with the degree to which white mobs used violence, lynching and terror to punish and control blacks in the United States,? Carrigan said.
Dr. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill history professor and author of Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930 lauds Carrigan?s work. ?In this ground-breaking study of extralegal violence in a racially and ethnically complex borderland of the South and Southwest, Carrigan makes a significant contribution to the literature on American violence and race relations,? he said.
Carrigan holds a bachelor?s degree from the University of Texas-Austin and master?s and doctoral degrees from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He teaches courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. Labor History and Historical Methods.
Sponsored by the Rowan History Department, the February 9 lecture and booksigning are being held in conjunction with the University?s 2005 African American History Month observance. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the event or to arrange an interview with author and history professor Dr. William Carrigan, contact the Rowan University Relations Department at 856-256-4583.
During the 10:45 a.m. program, Carrigan will reflect on the systematic use of vigilante justice to continue the oppression of African Americans after the abolition of slavery and post-Civil War Reconstruction. He also will delve into the culture of violence that nourished the practice of lynching, hopefully providing insight into how a ?lynching culture? could form and endure for so long among ordinary people.
In "The Making of a Lynching Culture" (University of Illinois Press, $35 in hardcover), Carrigan goes beyond a simple recounting of ?extralegal,? or vigilante violence to discussing how conventional notions of justice and historical memory were reshaped to glorify violence and foster a culture that legitimized lynching. ?It is not possible to understand the African American past without coming to grips with the degree to which white mobs used violence, lynching and terror to punish and control blacks in the United States,? Carrigan said.
Dr. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill history professor and author of Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930 lauds Carrigan?s work. ?In this ground-breaking study of extralegal violence in a racially and ethnically complex borderland of the South and Southwest, Carrigan makes a significant contribution to the literature on American violence and race relations,? he said.
Carrigan holds a bachelor?s degree from the University of Texas-Austin and master?s and doctoral degrees from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He teaches courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. Labor History and Historical Methods.
Sponsored by the Rowan History Department, the February 9 lecture and booksigning are being held in conjunction with the University?s 2005 African American History Month observance. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the event or to arrange an interview with author and history professor Dr. William Carrigan, contact the Rowan University Relations Department at 856-256-4583.