At the Hands of Persons Unknown Quotes

“Is it possible for white America to really understand blacks’ distrust of the legal system, their fears of racial profiling and the police, without understanding how cheap a black life was for so long a time in our nation’s history?”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“I tried to balance the sufferings of the miserable victim against the moral degradation of Memphis, and the truth flashed over me that in large measure the race question involves the saving of black America’s body and white America’s soul.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“[B]y far the majority of Negro murders are never recorded, never known except to the perpetrators and the bereaved survivors of the victim. Negro men and women leave their homes and are never seen alive again.…This is a well-known pattern of American culture.… Mass murder on the basis of race is a powerful source of constant terror, as it is intended to be, to the whole Negro people. As a result of the pattern of extra-legal violence in which they live out their lives, if they do live, the entire Negro people exists in a constant fear that cannot fail to cause serious bodily and mental harm.… Perennial, hour by hour, moment by moment lynching of the Negro’s soul in countless psychological, in myriad physical forms, that is the greatest and most enduring lynching of all. This is written into the spiritual hanging of all those millions, it is carved into their daily thinking, woven into their total living experience. They are lynched in the thousands of glances from white supremacists all over the land every day.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“Moore became the first of several decisions in the twentieth century that would provide stronger federal standards for what constituted a legitimate criminal trial. It also represented a serious blow to the power of mobs; no longer would it be legally acceptable for a boisterous crowd to sway a judicial hearing or threaten its participants. A criminal trial was to be immune from such overt emotionalism, and was not to be viewed by the public as a means of exacting revenge or dealing with social ills.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“I can think of no threat more evil for our democracy . . . [than] the spirit of independence gone drunk,” wrote Thomas Jefferson.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“Douglass, who often drew comparisons between Jews and blacks, noted that the “Jew is hated in Russia because he is thrifty,” while in America the “Negro meets no resistance when on a downward course. It is only when he rises in wealth, intelligence and manly character that he brings upon himself the heavy hand of persecution.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“The incorrigibles . . . still indulge in the swagger which was so customary before and during the war, and still hope for a time when the Southern confederacy will achieve its independence. This class consists mostly of young men, and comprise the loiterers of the towns and the idlers of the country.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

“The torture of the victim lasted almost half an hour. It began when a man stepped forward and very matter-of-factly sliced off Hose’s ears. Then several men grabbed Hose’s arms and held them forward so his fingers could be severed one by one and shown to the crowd. Finally, a blade was passed between his thighs, Hose cried in agony, and a moment later his genitals were held aloft.”
― Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America