User:Wrigley79/sandbox

Legal Lynching

As a way to stop vigilante mobs from carrying out so many lynchings, and to curb the mistrust of the legal system in America, some courts pushed to give Black prisoners a fair trial. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1875, and this act outlawed race based discrimination in jury selection. However, this act was hardly ever followed, and juries made of all white people were common. Because of this, the white courts often found Black people guilty of the crime they were accused of, and their punishment was often the death penalty. This was especially true for those who were charged with rape or murder of a white person. This convicting of Black people for crimes in a court of law is what is known as "legal lynching", and it reinforced white people's trust in the court system by doing the exact same act of hanging someone for their crimes, but through legal methods.