United We Lynch: Post-Racism and the (Re)Membering of Racial Violence in<i>Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America</i>

Abstract

In 2000, antique dealers James Allen and John Littlefield amassed Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, a collection of lynching images whose dates range from 1880 to 1960. The publication of this volume has facilitated considerable debate and challenges national conceptualizations of “post-racism” by offering a rhetorical space for the (re)construction of lynching public memory. Through an analysis of popular film and literature, we argue that Without Sanctuary provides counter-memory of lynching against post-racial discourses by enlarging the scope of racial violence, collapsing distinctions between spectators and the “mob,” and framing lynching through discourses of rationality. We conclude this essay by discussing the implications of Without Sanctuary's rhetorical intervention for public memory scholarship and the future of contemporary race relations.