South Carolina has never fully dealt with its history of racial violence and white supremacy.
Our coalition believes it is time to change.
At least 189 Black people were lynched in South Carolina. This number does not include those that occurred before 1877 and those for whom little documentation survives. The real number is likely much higher.
UCCRP’s History and Research Committee has documented a staggering total of 18 victims of lynching and racial violence in Union County so far. As we continue our research, we are committed to telling the stories of these individuals.
The very fabric of white supremacy that upheld not just the South but the entire nation, was threatened.
We understand that the history of lynching is inextricably tied to the history of race and class relations within the nation. Lynching was quite obviously racially motivated in Union County, but it was also motivated by economic and political power and corresponding suppression.
The lynchings that occurred during Reconstruction were almost entirely politically motivated, as Union was the seat of a well organized and increasingly powerful Black Republican party. White Democrats were losing political control as well as economic control, and as plantations declined and the earth itself became overworked, the very fabric of white supremacy that upheld not just the South but the entire nation, was threatened.
This was the motivation for race-based violence in Union and was one of the reasons why historian Elaine Frantz argues in her book Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan During Reconstruction that Union was one of the most violent and dangerous counties in America.
We see power in speaking true stories.
We are committed to documenting and amplifying the stories of those whose lives were ended by racism and hatred. We see power in speaking stories that move people beyond victimhood and explore the full extent of their humanity. By paying tribute to their legacy out loud, we not only honor their lives - we also honor the entire Black community that stands in power despite centuries of oppression.
Click above to watch the Equal Justice Initiative’s short video about the Community Remembrance Project in Abbeville, South Carolina that commemorated the lynching of Anthony Crawford.
