Abstract
Wacquant (2001) and others have argued that social control efforts directed at racial and ethnic minorities frequently shift institutional form and become more nuanced as societies modernize, even as the underlying function persists. This study examines the connection between southern lynching and housing segregation. We argue that legal, political, social and demographic changes in the south made lynching dysfunctional as a means of control. Among other more nuanced control mechanisms, modern housing segregation helped serve as a replacement. We test this proposition by relating historical southern black lynching rates to recent levels of segregation in southern MSAs. We find that an MSA’s historical lynching rate is positively and significantly linked to the MSA’s current segregation levels after accounting for standard determinants of segregation. Thus, segregation does not just occur generally throughout the south, but follows a very particular pattern based on past lynching rates. Our findings add to a growing literature on the legacy of lynching, such as studies examining contemporaneous variation in support for and use of capital punishment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Housing segregation is, of course, observed across the country. Indeed, recent studies indicate that it is most pronounced in the northeast and upper Midwest (Iceland et al. 2002). We focus on southern segregation because of the historically disproportionate use of lynching in the south and our particular interest in the way southern race relations have evolved.
In a related vein, Darity et al (2001) also uncover evidence of the historical continuity of racial inequality. They concluded that the human capital attributes and discrimination experienced by individuals near the turn of the 20th century continued to affect labor force outcomes of members of the same ethnic and racial groups one hundred years later. Similarly, Jefferson and Pryor (1999) find that hate groups are more likely to be located in former Confederate states.
Darity (2005) notes, for example, that, “Stratification economics examines the structural and intentional processes generating hierarchy.” Particularly relevant for our analysis, he goes on to say, “…discriminatory practices to preserve privilege are likely to persist rather than fade out.” Our study emphasizes the notion that they will continue but change forms to best suit existing economic, political and social conditions.
The paper’s discussion of the historical aspects of slavery, lynching and social control of African Americans (i.e., the Black Codes and Jim Crow) draws on Woodward (2002), Foner (2002), Ayers (2007), Tolnay and Beck (1992), and Gibson (http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html, accessed November 3, 2010).
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/55/ accessed September 8, 2010.
A collection of photographs and post cards depicting lynching events can be found at http://withoutsanctuary.org/ (accessed November 3, 2010).
An anonymous reviewer pointed out that there is considerable variability in the stated justifications for black lynching (e.g. murder of a white, rape of a white, etc.). While our present objective is to examine the general relationship between lynching and contemporary segregation, future research might consider disaggregating the black lynching rate by stated justification.
The GLS random effects estimates are generated using the xtreg command of Stata 11.1. The Bruesch-Pagan test is done using the xttest0 command.
The Hausman-Taylor procedure requires ex-ante judgment about which regressors are likely endogenous and which are exogenous. Given a sufficient number of exogenous variables, these can serve as instruments for the endogenous variables, and no external exogenous instruments are needed as with a standard IV approach. See Hausman and Taylor (1981) or Greene (2003) for details. We conjectured that the functional specialization variables were endogenous, in that unmeasured forces driving an area’s function specialization would also drive the form of its housing market. This conjecture was supported by the Hausman specification test discussed in the text, as instrumenting these removed measured correlation with the α i . The estimates are generated using the xthtaylor command of Stata 11.1.
We do not present the full results in the interest of space. However, they are available on request.
References
Alexander M. The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press; 2010.
Ayers E. The promise of the New South: life after reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press; 2007.
Blalock H. Economic discrimination and Negro increase. Am Sociol Rev. 1956;21:584–8.
Blalock H. Percent non-white and discrimination in the South. Am Sociol Rev. 1957;22:667–82.
Blalock H. Toward a theory of minority group relations. New York: Wiley; 1967.
Breusch T, Pagan A. The LM test and its applications to model specification in econometrics. Rev Econ Stud. 1980;47:239–54.
Cha-Jua SK. ‘A warlike demonstration’: legalism, violent self-help and electoral politics, in Decatur, Illinois, 1894–1898. J Urban Hist. 2000;26:591–629.
Cutler D, Glaeser E, Vigdor J. The rise and decline of the American Ghetto. J Polit Econ. 1999;107:455–506.
Darity Jr W. The functionality of market-based discrimination. Int J Soc Econ. 2001;28:980–6.
Darity Jr W. Stratification economics: the role of intergroup inequality. J Econ Finance. 2005;29:149–53.
Darity Jr W, Dietrich J, Guilkey D. Persistent advantage or disadvantage? Am J Econ Sociol. 2001;60:435–70.
DeFina R, Hannon L. Diversity, racial threat and metropolitan housing segregation. Soc Forces. 2009;88:373–94.
Emerson M. Is it different in Dixie?: Percent black and residential segregation in the South and Non-south. Sociol Q. 1994;35:571–80.
Farley R, Frey W. Changes in the segregation of whites from blacks during the 1980s: small steps towards a more integrated society. Am Sociol Rev. 1994;59:23–45.
Fitzgerald F. Cities on a hill. New York: Simon and Schuster; 1981.
Foner E. Reconstruction: America’s unfinished revolution, 1863–1877. New York: HarperCollins Publishers; 2002.
Frey W, Farley R. Latino, Asian and back segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: are multiethnic metros different? Demography. 1996;33:35–50.
Greene WH. Econometric analysis. 5th ed. New York: Prentice Hall; 2003.
Hausman J. Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica. 1978;46:1251–71.
Hausman J, Taylor W. Panel data and unobservable individual effects. Econometrica. 1981;49:1377–98.
Hwang S, Murdock S. Population size and residential segregation: an empirical evaluation of two perspectives. Soc Sci Q. 1988;69:818–34.
Iceland J, Weinberg D, Steinmetz E. Racial and ethnic residential segregation in the United States: 1980–2000. Mimeo. 2002.
Jackson K. Crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press; 1985.
Jacobs D, Carmichael JT, Kent SL. Vigilantism, current racial threat, and death sentences. American Sociological Review. 2005;70:656–677.
Jefferson P, Pryor FL. On the geography of hate. Econ Lett. 1999;65:389–95.
Katznelson I. When affirmative action was white: an untold history of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company; 2005.
Krivo L, Kaufman R. How low can it go? Declining black-white segregation in a multiethnic context. Demography. 1999;36:93–109.
Logan J, Stults B, Farley R. Segregation of minorities in the metropolis: two decades of change. Demography. 2004;41:1–22.
Loury G. The anatomy of racial inequality. Boston: Harvard University Press; 2002.
Massey D, Denton N. The dimensions of racial segregation. Soc Forces. 1988;67:281–315.
Massey D, Denton N. American apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass. Boston: Harvard University Press; 1993.
Massey D, Gross A. Explaining trends in racial segregation, 1970–1980. Urban Aff Q. 1991;27:13–35.
Massey D. Categorically unequal. New York: The Russell Sage Foundation; 2007.
Massey D. Origins of economic disparities: the historical role of housing segregation. In: Carr J, Kutty N, editors. Segregation: the rising costs for America. New York: Routledge; 2008. p. 39–80.
Messner S, Baumer E, Rosenfeld R. Distrust of government, the vigilante tradition, and support for capital punishment. Law Soc Rev. 2006;40:559–90.
Messner S, Baller R, Zevenbergen M. The legacy of lynching and southern homicide. Am Sociol Rev. 2005;70:633–55.
Perkinson R. Texas tough. New York: Metropolitan Books; 2010.
Tilly C. Durable inequality. CA: University of California Press; 1999.
Tocqueville A. Democracy in America. New Jersey: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Clark; 1969 (1838).
Tolnay S, Beck E. A festival of violence: an analysis of southern lynchings, 1882–1930. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press; 1992.
Wacquant L. Deadly symbiosis. Punishment Soc. 2001;3:95–134.
Wells-Barnett I. Lynch law in America. Arena. 1900;23:15–24.
Willis J. Forgotten time: the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia; 2000.
Wineberg M. Changing distribution of the black population: Florida Cities, 1970–1980. Urban Aff Q. 1983;18:361–70.
Woodward C. The strange career of Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University Press; 2002.
Zimring F. The cultural contradictions of American capital punishment. New York: Oxford University Press; 2003.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Robert DeFina and Lance Hannon contributed equally to the article and are listed in alphabetical order.
About this article
Cite this article
DeFina, R., Hannon, L. The Legacy of Black Lynching and Contemporary Segregation in the South. Rev Black Polit Econ 38, 165–181 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-011-9089-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-011-9089-z