Shazbot wrote:
Were the lynching victims back then usually black?
Probably so, but keep in mind that crimes were often times committed by blacks in part due to poverty and lack of education. Remember most blacks came out of slavery will no formal education and work was hard to come by.
I know many blacks were accused of crimes they didn't commit and like today people tended to assume it was committed by a black person. It was just a fucked up situation and still is, but I still say that lynching was not as common as many are lead to believe.
Edit:
You know the south could have shipped all the freed slaves back to Africa or could have done a mass extermination like Hitler did, but they didn't did they.