Legacy of murder

In this post from a couple of months ago I spoke of the noose as a racist symbol. An article by Philip Dray sets out the terrible history of lynching in America that made it one. Lynching, he says, is not just a footnote to American history: 'In the 1890s, a black person was lynched almost every other day in America.' Which year of the 20th century was the first in which there was no recorded lynching? Dray says: 1952. As he writes:

[W]hile the strong words of disapproval [today] indicate a broad intellectual recognition that the noose, a symbol of lynching, is offensive, few Americans know the full story. The lynching of black America was not an occasional or aberrational event, the momentary outburst of an angry mob, but a sustained reign of terror visited on an entire people. It targeted blacks whose actions challenged white supremacy and killed them ritualistically, often publicly, in order to terrorize the black community at large. The threat of lynching - symbolized by the noose or the burning cross - was used to uproot black communities, suppress voting, and to intimidate blacks from acquiring land, aspiring to an education, or attaining success in business. The practice poisoned American society for generations, and left a powerful emotional legacy that many African-American families carry to this day.