Overview

The practice of lynching in the United States has a long and bloody history. According to Manfred Berg in Popular Justice: A History of Lynching notes that some elements of the practice date to when the country was a collection of British colonies. The term can be traced to the punishment of those loyal to Great Britain by Colonel Charles Lynch when said colonies sought independence. Following American Independence, the practice became more fatal, with lynching being used against both enslaved persons and abolitionists. Lynching continued after the American Civil War well into the twentieth century with increased regularity and viciousness.

There were those opposed to this practice. Ashraf Rushdy reported in American Lynching that various figures denounced the practice in the nineteenth century from reporter Ida B. Wells to orator Frederick Douglass. Several attempts had been made to ban the practice, like Senator George Hoar’s attempt in 1901, which failed due to unknown constitutionality even from Hoar himself. Leonidas Dyer tried again in 1918, but this too was defeated by opponents of the bill. That was not to say that there was no progress legislatively, as several successful states passed laws against lynching such as Kentucky and Ohio in the late nineteenth century.

Then came Senator Robert F. Wagner, who sought to extirpate this morally abhorrent practice from modern American life. He described lynching as “shocking reversions to primitive brutality” and would aid Senator Thomas Costigan in attacking it legislatively in 1934. The bill proposed by Senators Costigan and Wagner would have set up fines for those who fail to prevent or aid in lynching and that lynching could be policed by the federal government, according to Jeffrey Jenkins, Justin Peck, and Vesla Weaver. Many interest groups testified as to the need of such legislation before Congress, with representatives of the NAACP and ACLU speaking out in legislative proceedings of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Many conveyed their support for Costigan and Wagner’s 1934 attempt to ban lynching, especially through the written word. Members of the NAACP like Brooklyn NAACP chapter President Alexander Miller wrote to express their support for the bill. In addition to civil rights advocates, labor representatives like John Edelman called for the destruction of the practice, citing lynching being used against them in their struggle. Another supporter of passing anti-lynching legislation was writer H.L. Mencken who wrote to NAACP Secretary Walter White to give advice on the testimony of individuals before Congress on the need for Anti-Lynching legislation. Members of churches wrote to Robert F. Wagner, like Pastor Roy L. Smith of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles to express their support for the bill. Scholars like Jenkins, Peck, and Weaver, have noted the significance of religious organizations in agitating for laws against lynching.

The bill was not the perfect tool to combat lynching as many of the advocates for anti-lynching legislation stated. H.L. Mencken wrote in a paper, relayed to Robert F. Wagner by L.F. Coles that one addition to the bill should be the possibility of compensation for those victims of lynching. Another, Harvard Professor Roscoe Pound discussed the section of the bill which stipulated that it only activates when the victim was taken from law enforcement, objecting to that section. Regardless of its flaws, it was an attack against a practice that had gone on for far too long.

Unfortunately, the bill was sidelined with a lack of support from President Roosevelt and southern opposition, according to Joseph J. Huthmacher in his biography of Robert F. Wagner, Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of Urban Liberalism.  Wagner tried again in 1935 with Senator Costigan to bring up the bill again, but this too fell apart, due in no small part once again to southern legislative resistance. Wagner tried again in 1937-1938 but he and his allies were no match for the use of the filibuster. He tried again giving a speech in 1940 on the need for anti-lynching legislation. He even attempted to pass one such bill in 1949 with Senators Wayne Morse and Hubert H. Humphrey, according to Humphrey’s biographer. This issue would take time to address. The passage of the Emmett Till Act in 2022 marked the end of this over a century long crusade to federally attack lynching, as reported by the BBC. 

The documents from Robert F. Wagner’s archives show the coordination between Civil Rights groups, influential figures, and interested citizens in the passage of Civil Rights legislation. This collection also shows the brutality of lynching and vigilante action as well as the ideas of such action as an assault upon modernity. With the inclusion of newspapers in this archive, one can see the coverage of such an attempt to ban lynching as it happened.