Randall Kennedy

Take a look at the antebellum period, period before the abolition of slavery.

Before the abolition of slavery and the locales where most black people resided, namely the slave states, in a lot of those areas, question, was there a crime called the murder of a black person?

answer for a long period the answer was no there might have been a tort you know of a white person killed the slave killed a slave that person could be sued because they had they had injured the property of another and would have to pay money to you know for that but had they committed a crime answer no

In the antebellum period, were black women protected against the crime of rape?

In most states, the answer was no.

There was no such crime.

Let's go to after.

You know, slavery is abolished.

Thank God.

Slavery is abolished.

Then let's see what happens.

So we hear lynching, lynching from 1890 until, let's say, 1930.

Well, in 1890, there was probably, I would say, there was probably on average a lynching every day in the United States, well over 300 lynchings.

It goes down.

That was the case in the 1890s, probably the first decade of the 20th century.

And then it starts going down.

What was lynching about?

Lynching was about black people being executed outside the law.

Did the legal system do anything about that?

Answer, no.