Ministers often preached sermons about Jesus’ crucifixion, as if they were telling the story of black people’s tragedy and triumph in America. The symbol of the cross spoke to the lives of blacks because the likeness between the cross and the lynching tree created an eerie feeling of mystery and the supernatural. Like Jesus, blacks knew torture and abandonment, with no community or government capable or willing to protect them from crazed mobs. “Oh, way down yonder by myself,” in Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, “and I couldn’t hear nobody pray. In the valley, on my knees, with my burden,” “O
...more
