Practice Job Talk

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#Publicity and the Delegitimation of Lynching

Michael Weaver

Yale University

September 29, 2015
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##Societies accept or tolerate some forms of violence while rejecting others.

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###Domestic violence

###Dueling

###Police use of force

##How does violence become publicly unacceptable?

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##Lynching in the United States
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###Rebecca Felton, suffragette:

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> "**I led the mob** which lynched Nelse Patton and **I'm proud of it**. ... I
directed every movement of the mob. **I wanted him lynched**. I saw his body
dangling from a tree this morning, and I am glad of it. **I aroused the mob and
directed them to storm the jail**. I had my revolver but did not use it. I gave it to a deputy sheriff and **told him to shoot** Patton and shoot to kill."
>> William V. Sullivan, former United States Senator, Mississippi

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*New York Times*. 5/7/1886

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###According to Ida Wells:

> ####Frederick Douglass had "begun to believe it true that there was increasing lasciviousness on the part of Negroes"

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*New York Age* 1/17/1931

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*The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune* 1/15/1931

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##How did this transformation take place?

##How does violence move from acceptable to unacceptable?

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.left-column[
##Outline
]

.right-column[
### Publicity Shocks
### Historical big data
### Communication Technology
### Next steps
]

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template:inverse

##The argument

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.left-column[
##Argument
###Definitions
]

.right-column[
### Legitimation
  * Not "legitimacy"
  * public activity
  * explicit, implicit

### Public opinion
  * Not measuring attitudes
  * Not looking at "media effects"
  * What can be said publicly?
]

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.left-column[
##Argument
###Definitions
]

.right-column[
###Violence typology
##

||State Violence|Non-state Violence|
|:-|:-:|:-:|
|**Legitimation**<br>|US case?,<br>Nazi ethnic cleansing|'Stand Your Ground',<br>Rebel governance|
|**De-legitimation**<br>|Death penalty,<br>Due process|*Lynching*,<br>Widow burning|
]

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template:inverse

##Publicity Shocks

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.left-column[
##Argument
###Definitions
###Publicity
]

.right-column[
### Reach
  * Geographic scope of audience
  * New interpretations
  * Critics not silenced

### Inclusivity
  * Inclusion of different voices
  * Victims of violence no longer silent
  * 'Facts' of the case contested
]

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.left-column[
##Argument
###Definitions
###Publicity
###Lynching]

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technological change => greater reach
* Social movements => inclusion of black voices
]

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template:inverse

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<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8139153/presentation/clippings/ida_wells_speech_2.png" width="60%" </img>

"The negroes must have detectives who can go and find out the facts about each lynching and publish them side by side with the versions printed in the Southern newspapers"

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NAACP Investigations

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<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8139153/presentation/clippings/scottsboro.png" width="60%" </img>

Trials

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.left-column[##Argument
###Definitions
###Publicity
###Lynching]

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technological change => greater reach
* Social movements => inclusion of black voices

###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal
]

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Threatened by Wells's publicity campaign

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> "The Chattanooga News does not lift its voice in behalf of Sheriff Shipp, his deputies or any member of the mob that lynched Johnson. Its voice is merely raised in behalf of this community. It submits that even so high and mighty a person as the Attorney General of the United States has **not just cause to hold this community up in contempt of the world** and in effect **publish it abroad as lawless** and firmly set against the enforcement of law."
>> "An Official in Contempt of Chattanooga," *The Chattanooga News*

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.left-column[##Argument
###Definitions
###Publicity
###Lynching]

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technological change => greater reach
* Social movements => inclusion of black voices

###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal

###3. Bad publicity turns Southern elites against lynching

]

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"our lynching reputation ... is holding the state back in its development."

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<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8139153/presentation/clippings/lynching_bad_for_business.png" width="75%" </img>

Lynching scares off investment and immigrants.

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.left-column[##Argument
###Definitions
###Publicity
###Lynching]

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technological change => greater reach
* Social movements => inclusion of black voices

###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal

###3. Bad publicity turns Southern elites against lynching

###4. With opposition of local elites, lynching declines
]

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template:inverse
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8139153/presentation/clippings/governor_prosecutes_lynchers.png" width="50%" </img>

Maryland Governor uses National Guard to hunt down the lynch mob

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<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8139153/presentation/clippings/missouri_punish_mob.png" width="75%" </img>

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#Part 1:
##Technology & Publicity

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.left-column[
  ## Argument
  ###Publicity
]

.right-column[
###Turn of the century...

saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

]

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<iframe width='100%' height='95%' frameborder='0' src='http://mdweaver.github.io/station_map' allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

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class: center, middle

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.left-column[
  ## Argument
  ###Publicity
]

.right-column[
###Turn of the century...

saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

... which made the country smaller

- reduced travel times for people and information
- created a public eager for national news

]

---

---

.left-column[
  ## Argument
  ###Publicity
]

.right-column[
###Turn of the century...

saw massive expansion of

- transportation networks (railroads)
- communication networks (telegraph)
- news services (e.g., Associated Press)

... which made the country smaller

- reduced travel times for people and information
- created a public eager for national news

###Publicity of lynchings has greater reach
]

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.left-column[
  ## Argument
  ###Publicity
  ###Criticism
]

.right-column[
###Wider public

Breaking news of lynchings free from locality:

1. Loss of control over narrative

2. New audiences unsympathetic to lynchers

3. No ability to coerce critics

Lynching events could become national scandals
  * Reputation costs motivated politicians, business owners, sheriffs
]

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.left-column[
  ## Argument
  ###Publicity
  ###Criticism
  ###Implications
]

.right-column[

###Three implications

Difficult to test directly

The probability that a lynching is reported in a newspaper:

1. **increases** as distance **decreases** between the lynching and the paper.

2. **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper.

3. **increases** when the lynching occurred in an area more **central in communication and transportation networks**.

]

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##How do we test this?

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##The data

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.left-column[
  ##Data
  ###Newspapers
]

.right-column[

###"Big data" meets history

Cornerstone of the project

* Digitized historical newspapers

* More than 3,000 different papers
  * Nation-wide coverage
  * Big-city dailies, small town weeklies
  
* 8 million+ unique issues between 1880 and 1940

* Searchable content
  * 1.2 million articles mention "lynching"
  * Words/phrases for lynching discourse
]

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##Newspapers in sample over time

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.left-column[
  ##Data
  ###Newspapers
  ###Railroads
]

.right-column[

###Railroad networks

* Yearly data from 1880 and 1900
  * Period of rapid growth (more than doubles)
  * 3109 counties in continental US
  * Network centrality of counties
  * Travel time between counties
]

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class:center, middle

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.left-column[
  ##Data
  ###Newspapers
  ###Railroads
]

.right-column[

###Railroad networks

* Yearly data from 1880 and 1900
  * Period of rapid growth (more than doubles)
  * 3109 counties in continental US
  * Network centrality of counties
  * Travel time between counties

* Railroad stations for each year between 1880 and 1910
  * Scanned station lists for each year
  * Digitizing text, geocoding
  * Proximity to rail stations

]

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.left-column[
  ##Data
  ###Newspapers
  ###Railroads
  ###Lynchings
]

.right-column[

###Lynching events
  
* No complete national lynching database
* 1880 to 1930s
* Sources: historians, NAACP, and Tuskegee Institute.

]

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##The analysis

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.left-column[
  ## Analysis
  ### Design
]

.right-column[
 
###Observations
* Issues appearing within a week of a lynching
* Issue - lynching pairs

###Design
* Panel analysis, multi-way clustering
* Year, publication, lynching county fixed effects
* Publication-county, lynching-county covariates (population, GDP)
]

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Probability of lynching mention by distance

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Probability of lynching mention by betweenness centrality <br> (deciles)

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Probability of lynching mention by eigenvector centrality <br> (deciles)

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Probability of lynching mention by distance (x) and travel time (y)<br>(darker = greater coverage)

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.left-column[
  ## Analysis
  ### Design
  ### Results
  ### Limits
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.right-column[
###Endogeneity
* Network attributes not locally determined
* Instrument: landgrant railways

###Alternative interpretations
* Importance, not information
  * Population, economic output
  * Directly measure telegraph

###Text
* Broad but limited depth
* Keywords are simplification
  * Proquest 
 
 ]

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##What's next?

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.left-column[
  ##Next steps
  ###Criticism
]

.right-column[
###Does publicity produce criticism?
* Measure criticism: keywords/phrases
* Criticism greater at greater distances
]

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.left-column[
  ##Next steps
  ###Criticism
  ###Activists
]

.right-column[
###Did activists change the frame?
  * Interrupted time series:
    * Ida Wells
    * NAACP press releases
    * Scottsboro trials
    * Congressional hearings
  * NAACP investigations:
    * compare press coverage of lynchings 
]
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.left-column[
  ##Next steps
  ###Criticism
  ###Activists
  ###Lynchings
]

.right-column[
###Does criticism stop lynching?
After lynching with major public backlash:
* Lynchings foiled
* Local elites argue against lynching (newspapers)
* Proposed anti-lynching legislation
* Instrument for press scrutiny
  * Major national/global events immediately prior to lynching

After anti-lynching publicity campaigns:
* ASWPL pledges
* diff-in-diff
]

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.left-column[
  ##Conclusion
  ###Relevance
]

.right-column[

###Scope
  * Violence is "local"
  * Power disparities
  * Perpetrators care about reputation
    * Who are their peers?
    * Trade
    * Higher jurisdiction
]

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.left-column[
  ##Conclusion
  ###Relevance
  ###Example
]

.right-column[

###Policing
Graphic video of police killings

New project: police shootings, wireless networks, press coverage

]

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#Thank you

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#Extra slides

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##Equations

####Network centrality model
`$$Y_{ijt} =  \alpha_{year} + \alpha_{county i} + \alpha_{county j} + \boldsymbol{\beta}*\mathbf{CountyNetworkCentrality_{i}}$$`
`$$  + \boldsymbol{\gamma}*\mathbf{Distance_{ijt}} + \varepsilon_{i} + \varepsilon_{j}$$`

####Travel time model
`$$Y_{ijt} =  \alpha_{year} + \alpha_{county i} + \alpha_{county j} + \beta_1*LandTravelTime$$`
`$$ + \beta_2*RailTravelTime + \varepsilon_{i} +  \varepsilon_{j}$$`

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.left-column[
  ## Background

###Lynching
  ###Lynching discourse
]

.right-column[

###Arguments in favor
* Inefficiency/corruption of justice system
* Popular sovereignty
* Law does not deter criminals
* Threat of black criminality/sexuality
* 'Natural' response to rape

]

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.left-column[
  ## Background

###Lynching
  ###Lynching discourse
]

.right-column[

###Justificatory Narratives

* Protagonists
  * Sober, rational, all/leading citizens of town
  * Passive voice: no individuals did the lynching
  * Lynching was natural/unavoidable response
* Antagonists
  * Black men dehumanized: "savages", "brutes", "beasts"
  * Assumed to be guilty
  * By default shown as sexually aggressive, criminals
* Lynched *because* guilty

]

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.left-column[
  ## Background

###Lynching
  ###Lynching discourse
  ###Antilynching discourse
]

.right-column[

###Arguments

Refuted pro-lynching claims

* e.g. rape alleged in minority of cases
* Lynching a threat to law and order
* Lynching part of a system of racial violence
  * e.g. Du Bois: "The police is the mob. The courts are the lynchers."

###Narratives
  Black voices counter white narratives about lynching
  * NAACP investigations
  * Ida Wells publications
  * Scottsboro Trials
]