Laurence Leamer Quotes

There had not been a lynching in America in a quarter century, and no one standing looking at the body had ever seen such a crime, but they had heard about it from family members and read about it in social science books in school. And they believed they knew what had occurred. White men had lynched a black man, and they had done it to send a message of intimidation and terror. This was something they thought would never happy again, and many of the black onlookers wept, others fell to the ground beating their fists against the earth.

She told Figures that yes, the civil lawsuit against the Klan could be filed in her name. But she was still suspicious. She had learned long ago that the bigger a promise the less likely it would ever happen, and in her expertise that was doubly true when white men made the promise.