name: inverse layout: true class: center, middle, inverse --- #Publicity and the Delegitimation of Lynching Michael Weaver Yale University March 12, 2016 --- -- ##Societies accept or tolerate some forms of violence while rejecting others. --- -- ##How does violence become publicly unacceptable? --- ##Lynching in the United States --- template:inverse ###Rebecca Felton, suffragette:
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*New York Times*. 5/7/1886 --- template:inverse
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*The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune* 1/15/1931 --- template:inverse ##How did this transformation take place? -- ##How does violence move from acceptable to unacceptable? --- layout:false .left-column[ ##Outline ] .right-column[ ### Publicity Shocks ### Historical big data ### Communication Technology ### Next steps ] --- template:inverse ##Publicity Shocks --- .left-column[ ##Argument ###Publicity ] .right-column[ ### Reach * Geographic scope of audience * Local justification for violence * New audiences => different interpretations * New critics => cannot be coerced ### Inclusivity * Inclusion of different voices * Perpetrators control narrative * Voice to victims => new narratives * 'Facts', justifications contested ] --- .left-column[ ##Argument ###Publicity ###Lynching] .right-column[ ###1. Increase in publicity * Technological change => greater reach * Social movements => inclusion of black voices ] --- .left-column[##Argument ###Publicity ###Lynching] .right-column[ ###1. Increase in publicity * Technological change => greater reach * Social movements => inclusion of black voices ###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal ] --- .left-column[##Argument ###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 ] --- template:inverse
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--- .left-column[##Argument ###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 ] --- template:inverse
--- template:inverse #Part 1: ##Technology & Publicity --- .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) ] --- template:inverse
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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 ] --- .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 ] --- .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**. ] --- template:inverse ##How do we test this? --- template:inverse ##The data --- .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 ] --- template:inverse ##Newspapers in sample over time
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--- .left-column[ ##Data ###Newspapers ###Railroads ] .right-column[ ###Railroad networks * Yearly data from 1880 and 1900 (1911) * Period of rapid growth (more than doubles) * 3109 counties in continental US * Network centrality of counties * Travel time between counties ] --- class:center, middle
--- .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 * Proximity to rail stations ] --- template:inverse
--- .left-column[ ##Data ###Newspapers ###Railroads ###Lynchings ] .right-column[ ###Lynching events * Compiling best possible national lynching database * 1880 to 1940s * Sources: historians, NAACP, and Chicago Tribune. ] --- template:inverse ##The analysis --- .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) ] --- class: center, middle Probability of lynching mention by distance
--- class: center, middle ###Reductions in travel time almost ~~exactly~~ offset effects of distance -- Even when compared to roads, canal, and riverboats --- class: center, middle Probability of lynching mention by betweenness centrality
(deciles)
--- class: center, middle Probability of lynching mention by eigenvector centrality
(deciles)
--- class: center,middle Effects are not concentrated at close distances:
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--- .left-column[ ## Analysis ### Design ### Results ] .right-column[ ###Three implications The probability that a lynching is reported in a newspaper: 1. **increases** as distance **decreases** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][] 2. **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper. ![check][] 3. **increases** when the lynching occurred in an area more **central in communication and transportation networks**. ![check][] ] [check]:http://servepapers247.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Checkmark-Red.png --- template:inverse ##What's next? --- .left-column[ ##Next steps ###Criticism ] .right-column[ ###Does publicity produce criticism? * Measure criticism: keywords/phrases ![check][] * Is press coverage of lynching is more critical when the paper: 1. is at a greater distance 2. is in a place without a history or culture of lynching ] --- .left-column[ ##Next steps ###Criticism ###Lynchings ] .right-column[ ###Does criticism stop lynching? After lynching with public backlash: * Lynchings prevented ![check][] * Local elites argue against lynching (newspapers) * Proposed anti-lynching legislation ] --- .left-column[ ##Conclusion ###Relevance ] .right-column[ ###Scope * Violence is "local" * Power disparity * Perpetrators care about reputation * Who are their peers? * Economic/trade relations * Shared jurisdiction Processes of national integration ] --- .left-column[ ##Conclusion ###Relevance ] .right-column[ ###Publicity as mechanism Can it legitimate violence? ] --- template:inverse #Thank you --- template:inverse #Extra slides --- ##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 `$$Y_{ijt} = \alpha_{year} + \alpha_{county i} + \alpha_{county j} + \beta_1*LandTravelTime$$` `$$ + \beta_2*RailTravelTime + \varepsilon_{i} + \varepsilon_{j}$$` --- class: center, middle Probability of lynching mention by distance (x) and travel time (y)
(darker = greater coverage)
--- template:inverse ## Social movements and inclusivity --- template:inverse
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--- --- .left-column[ ## Analysis ### Design ### Results ### Limits ] .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 ] --- .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 ] --- .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 ] --- .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 ]