In the early 1930s, according to Arthur Raper’s classic study of lynching, Mississippi officials prevented fourteen lynchings, more than they allowed to take place. Hortense Powdermaker, conducting her study of Sunflower County at the same time, concluded that the fear of outside opinion was a potent factor in reducing community support for the mob. By the thirties, newspapers in larger Southern cities typically criticized lynchings, at least in principle. By the forties, their criticisms were clearly linked to fear of outside scrutiny. In 1943, for example, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger warned
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