“The Blood of Lynching Victims Is in the Soil”

In this chapter, the authors provide readers with some critical genealogical insights in order to argue that many of the twenty-first-century conundrums that confront the EJI’s consciousness-raising efforts about forgotten lynching legacies can be traced back to the time of the Reconstruction (1866–1877) and post-Reconstruction years. This was a time when anti-lynchers had to battle “unreconstructed” Southern defenders of white supremacy as well as some of their Northern allies.