Red Record of Lynching Map Analysis

This activity is appropriate during a unit on the Jim Crow era, lynching, early civil rights legislation, or Progressive Era muckraking. For grades 5-8. Approximate time needed is 20 minutes.

Students can work individually, in pairs, or as a full class. Direct them to begin the activity by taking a minute to examine the document, then responding to the questions.

They should proceed to answer the questions that follow, which will guide them through the process of map document analysis. If necessary, check in with your students at each step in the process and model analysis if required:

• Meet the document.
• Observe its parts.
• Try to make sense of it.
• Use it as historical evidence.

Provide additional contextual information as needed:

This map was submitted to Congress in 1922 to support an anti-lynching bill, H. R. 13, introduced by Representative Leonidas Dyer of Missouri. The Dyer bill had already passed in the House and awaited a vote in the Senate.

 

The map was created by a leader in the anti-lynching crusade, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and author of two anti-lynching texts, Southern Horrors and The Red Record. It was issued by the Colored Women’s Clubs of Michigan.

 

The map indicates the number of lynchings that occurred in each state from 1889 to 1921 (3,424 in 33 years), as well as the members of Congress in each state who voted against the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It specifically calls out Northern members of Congress who voted against the Dyer bill in red letters.

 

Dyer reintroduced the measure in each new Congress in the 1920s to no avail. Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress during the first half of the 20th century alone.

After students have answered all of the analysis questions, they should click on “When You’re Done.” Facilitate a class discussion based on the questions:

• Why do you think activists wanted to have Federal legislation against lynching?
• If it became law, how do you think this legislation would have affected the Jim Crow era?
• What does the fact that it was never in the Senate reveal about Congressional action on civil rights in the early 20th century?