Weaver Job Talk

---

#Publicity and the Delegitimation of Lynching

Michael Weaver

The University of British Columbia

October 17, 2018

---

##Societies accept or tolerate some forms of violence while rejecting others.

---

###Domestic violence

###Dueling

###Police use of force

##How does violence become publicly unacceptable?

---

##Lynching in the United States
---
template:inverse

###Rebecca Felton, suffragette:

---
layout:false
class: left, middle

> "**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

---
template:inverse

---
template:inverse

*New York Times*. 5/7/1886

---

layout:false
class: left, middle

###According to Ida Wells:

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

---
template:inverse

---
template:inverse

*New York Age* 1/17/1931

---

template:inverse

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

---
template:inverse

##How did this transformation take place?

##How does violence move from acceptable to unacceptable?

---

---
template:inverse

##The argument

---

- (Black 1983, Fiske and Rai 2014)
  
### Which violence gets to be "legitimate" in a context/locally?
]

---

#### Motive

Perpetrators/Victim/Audience

#### Opportunity

Who has means to frame?

Who has means to deny framing to others?

What are the costs of framing?
]

---

1. Violence is publicly legitimated
2. Difficult to challenge because of reputational costs, risk of coercion
3. May be self-reinforcing dynamic
  - Determine both "facts" and norms

### How can this dynamic be challenged?
]

---
template:inverse

##Publicity Shocks

---

*Geographic scope of audience*

When it expands:
  
  * New audiences not share local norms on violence .red.bold[*]
  * Critics not silenced

### Inclusivity

*Inclusion of different voices in public debate*

When it expands:

* Victims and allies no longer silent .red.bold[*]
  * 'Facts' and justifications around violence contested

---

### Expanded publicity can

*Challenge hegemonic local pro-violence discourse*

#### and under [some conditions](#conditions):

*Increase reputational costs to violence*

*Lead to local efforts to stop violence*

]

---
template:inverse

##Lynching and Publicity

### Local critics silenced, but...

---

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technology + Economic/Political Integration `$\rightarrow$` greater reach
* Reach + activists `$\rightarrow$` inclusion of black voices

]

---

template:inverse

"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"

---

template:inverse

NAACP Investigations

---

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technology + Economic/Political Integration `$\rightarrow$` greater reach
* Reach + activists `$\rightarrow$` inclusion of black voices

###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal
]

---
template:inverse

Threatened by Wells's publicity campaign

---
class: left, middle

> "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*

---

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technology + Economic/Political Integration `$\rightarrow$` greater reach
* Reach + activists `$\rightarrow$` inclusion of black voices

###2. Publicity breeds criticism and scandal

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

]

---

template:inverse

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

---

template:inverse
<img src="./clippings/lynching_bad_for_business.png" width="75%" </img>

Lynching scares off investment and immigrants.

---

.right-column[
###1. Increase in publicity
* Technology + Economic/Political Integration `$\rightarrow$` greater reach
* Reach + activists `$\rightarrow$` 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
<img src="./clippings/governor_prosecutes_lynchers.png" width="50%" </img>

Maryland Governor uses National Guard to hunt down the lynch mob

---
template:inverse

## Testing the Argument

---

### saw massive expansion of ...

]

---

template:inverse

## Rail Networks

---
template:inverse
class: center, middle

## Telegraph

---

### ... which made the country smaller

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

]

---

### But, emergence of a national public sphere...

- result of many structural causes, highly endogenous
- grew monotonically over time

### Cannot look at *national* level

]

---

### *Local* **exposure** to publicity grew **uneven**ly

- Differential access to communication technology `$\rightarrow$`
- Differential exposure to new publicity

### What are observable implications at **subnational** level?

]

---

Access to communication technology expands reach of publicity.

**The probability that a lynching is reported:**

(1) **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper.

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

]

---

Greater reach yields criticism, fewer lynchings.

**Coverage** of lynching is **more critical**:

(3) as the **distance** from the lynching to the newspaper **increases**.

Lynching **declines faster**:

(4) in places with **more exposure** to national public sphere

]

---

template:inverse

##The data

---

template:inverse

## Reach of Publicity

---

template:inverse

---
name:newspaper_data

###"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
  
* 9 million+ unique issues between [1880 and 1940](#digitization_time)

* Searchable content
  * 1.2 million articles mention "lynching"
  * Words/phrases for [lynching discourse](#discourse_measure)
]

---

Digitized Newspaper Issues by State

---

template:inverse

## Communication Networks

---

class:center, middle

---

###Railroad networks

Yearly data from 1880 and 1900
  * Period of rapid growth (more than doubles)
  * Network centrality of counties
  * Travel time between counties
  * Proxy for telegraph network
]

---

template:inverse

## Lynching Events

---

###Lynching events
  
* 1880 to 1930s, ~ 4000 *reported* events
* Sources:
  * Historians, Sociologists
  * NAACP
  * Chicago Tribune

]

---

template:inverse

##Analysis

---

#### Observations
* newspapers issues appearing within a week of a lynching
* **Issue - lynching dyads**

#### Design
* **Panel analysis**, multi-way clustering
* Year, publication, lynching county fixed effects
* Publication-county, lynching-county covariates (population, agricultural and industrial output, local railroad network)

]

---

### Four implications of the argument

Access to communication technology expands reach of publicity.

**The probability that a lynching is reported:**

![check][] (1) **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper.

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

]

[check]:./check-mark-3-24.png

---

Probability of lynching coverage by travel time

---

### Four implications of the argument

Access to communication technology expands reach of publicity.

**The probability that a lynching is reported:**

![check][] (1) **increases** as travel times **decrease** between the lynching and the paper.

![check][] (2) **increases** when the lynching occurred in an area more **central in communication and transportation networks**.

]

[check]:./check-mark-3-24.png

---
class: center, middle

Probability of lynching mention betweenness centrality: Dyads

---

#### Observations
* newspapers issues **with coverage** appearing within a week of a lynching

#### Design
* Anti-Lynching minus Pro-Lynching Keywords
* Fixed effects for: total matching words; lynching event; year

]

---

Greater reach yields criticism, fewer lynchings.

**Coverage** of lynching is **more critical**:

![check][] (3) as the **distance** from the lynching to the newspaper **increases**.

Lynching **declines faster**:

(4) in places with **more exposure** to national public sphere

]

[check]:./check-mark-3-24.png

---

Anti-Lynching - Pro-Lynching Keywords (Normalized) across Distance

---

#### Observations
* county-years for 3109 counties from 1880 to 1900

#### Design
* Year Fixed Effects
* County FE or Lagged Dependent Variable
* Economic, demographic, and rail-construction covariates

]

---

Greater reach yields criticism, fewer lynchings.

**Coverage** of lynching is **more critical**:

![check][] (3) as the **distance** from the lynching to the newspaper **increases**.

Lynching **declines faster**:

![check][] (4) in places with **more exposure** to national public sphere

]

[check]:./check-mark-3-24.png

---

[Access](#access) to higher circulation daily papers inhibits lynching

---

Circulation, not population.

---
template:inverse

## What's next?

---

###Did **activists** change the frame?

###Did external **criticism** stop lynching?
  
###Can changes in publicity **legitimize** violence?
]

---
template:inverse
class: center, middle

---
template:inverse

## Scope

---

### Dimensions of Violence

<br>

||**State Violence**|**Non-state Violence**|
|:-|:-:|:-:|
|**Legitimation**<br>|Refugee/Immigrant Detention,<br>Nazi ethnic cleansing|'Stand Your Ground',<br>Rebel governance|
|**De-legitimation**<br>|Death penalty,<br>Due process|**Lynching**,<br>Widow burning|

]

---

### Agnostic on whether publicity

*Constrains state violence* in same way

### Mechanisms of *reach* and *inclusivity*

Help understand *Legitimation of state violence*

]

---

### Where might this argument travel?

#### Cases in which

1. *Violence relatively "local"*
2. *Power disparity is large*
3. *Perpetrators value their reputation*
  - Who are "peers"?
  - Economic/trade relations
  - Shared jurisdictions
]

---

- Publicity effective, but...
- Should not be overly sanguine
- "Law and Order"

]

---
template:inverse

### Du Bois: "The police is the mob. The courts are the lynchers."

---

template:inverse

#Thank you

---

---
template:inverse

#Extra slides

---

title: extras

#### Analysis

- [model specification](#equations)
- [coverage (not dyads)](#aggregate_result)
- [effects over distance](#distance_result)
- [access](#access)
- [limits](#limits)

#### Data
- [coverage validation (window)](#coverage_window)
- [coverage validation (accuracy)](#coverage_accuracy)
- [discourse measures](#keywords)
- [discourse extensions](#text_extension)
- 
- [railroad extensions](#railroad_extension)

#### Background

- [lynching discourses](#lynching_discourse)
- [newspaper partisanship](#partisanship)

---

1. **News of violence reaches new audience**
2. **New audience is interested**
3. **New audience is critical/persuaded by victims**
4. **News of criticism reaches locality**
5. Locals value relationship/reputation with audience

### ... increasing publicity can

1. **Challenge local hegemony of pro-violence discourses**

]

---

### ... increasing publicity can

1. Challenge local hegemony of pro-violence discourses
2. **Increase reputational costs to endorse or tacitly approve violence**

]

---

### ... increasing publicity can

1. Challenge local hegemony of pro-violence discourses
2. Increase reputational costs to endorse or tacitly approve violence
3. **Increase costs of permitting violence to occur**

]

---

#### Social, economic, political transformations

- Affect interest in distant events
- Changes in kinds of information produced

#### Technological change

- **produce** conditions for greater reach or inclusivity 
- shapes **exposure** to otherwise expanding publicity
]

---
name:limits

.right-column[
###Railroads Endogenous?
* but network attributes not locally determined
* conditioned on local railroad construction

###Alternative interpretations
* Importance, not information
  * Condition on population, economic output
  * Access to circulation, not to population
* Reduced or hidden lynchings?
* "Supply" or "demand"?

###Text
* Broad but limited depth
* Keywords are drastic simplification
  * Validation: manual coding, full text 
 
 ]

---
name:equations

##Equations

### Coverage Model

`$$\begin{equation}\label{eq:coverage_dyads}
\begin{split}
Y_{ijt} =& \alpha_{year} + \alpha_{county-i} + \alpha_{j} + \boldsymbol{\delta}\mathbf{Centrality_{it}} + \\ &\boldsymbol{\beta}\mathbf{Distance_{ijt}} + 
\boldsymbol{\gamma}\mathbf{X_{it}} + 
\boldsymbol{\lambda}\mathbf{W_{jt}} + \\ 
&\varepsilon_{county_i} + \varepsilon_{county_j}
\end{split}
\end{equation}$$`

### Lynching model
`$$\begin{equation}\label{eq:lynching}
\begin{split}
Lynchings_{it} = \alpha_i + \alpha_t + \beta_1 Access_{it} + \mathbf{X_{it}\beta} +  
 \varepsilon_{county_i}
\end{split}
\end{equation}$$`

[extras](#extras)

---
name:access

### Media Access

`$$MediaAccess_i = \sum\limits_{i \neq j}^{j} Circulation_j * \tau_{ij}^{-1}$$`

[extras](#extras)

[return](#access_table)

---

Centrality Results (aggregated to the event, fraction of papers)

[extras](#extras)

---
class: center, middle
name: coverage_over_distance

Probability of lynching mention by distance

---

[extras](#extras)

---

Digitized Newspaper Issues by Year

[back](#newspaper_data)

---

Fraction of daily Republican papers Republican by region

[extras](#extras)

---

Fraction of all papers Republican (south)

[extras](#extras)

---

name:coverage_window

Fraction of event-related articles from time of event

[extras](#extras)

---
name:coverage_accuracy

TPR of article-event matching over time from event

[extras](#extras)

---

PPV of article-event matching over time from event

[extras](#extras)

---
name:keywords

[extras](#extras)

---

[extras](#extras)

---

name:discourse_measure

### Discourse scaling

`$$\begin{equation}\label{eq:discourse_scale}
Discourse_j =  \left( \frac{1}{n_d} \sum_{i=1}^{n_d} discourseWord_i \right) - \left( \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} Word_i \right)
\end{equation}$$`

[extras](#extras)
[back](#newspaper_data)

---

name:railroad_extension

]

###Railroad networks

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

* Telegraph offices
  * Scanned lists
  * Digitizing text, geocoding

]

---
class: center, middle

[extras](#extras)

---

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

[extras](#extras)

---
name:text_extension

]

- Messy full text from ~85 million pages of news
- RAs classified discourses about ~2000 articles on lynching
- Look for spread and use of anti-lynching discourses across time and space

]
---

name:lynching_discourse

]

###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 discourse
   [extras](#extras)

]

###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

]

---

###Lynching discourse
  ###Antilynching discourse
   [extras](#extras)

]

###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
]

---