Black Lynchings: The Power Threat Hypothesis Revisited

Abstract

Between 1889 and 1931 nearly 3,000 blacks were lynched in the American South. One of the few theory driven efforts to explain the lynching phenomenon has employed Blalock's threat hypothesis as a framework, arguing that southern whites lynched blacks to retain political hegemony. This paper reexamines the empirical support for a power threat interpretation of southern lynchings and finds it wanting. It is shown that previous analyses have been plagued by a variety of conceptual and methodological weaknesses including: sensitivity to extremely influential cases; sample selection truncation; an inappropriate measure of lynching; and possible model misspecification. Our alternative analyses, including corrections for these problems, reveal no support for the power threat explanation for lynching. Historically, southern whites have exploited an impressive arsenal of discriminatory tactics to subordinate the black minority. Lynching was one of the most brutal of these tactics. According to an inventory compiled by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 3,290 people were lynched in the South between 1889 and 1931 (NAACP