Symbols of the Lynching Tree

“There existed a desire to preserve slavery in its original form as much as possible”. The enslavement of black people has yet to be abolished, has yet to be addressed on an institutional level. People will do anything to preserve what they see as the truth, and for white America, white identity, superiority, domination, and exploitation of black and brown individuals. From sharecropping, to convict leasing, and the racialization of criminality, black people have remained exploited, dehumanized, and oppressed economically, socially, mentally and physically. Deliberate actions by both the institution and foundations of America and its laws, people in power who sustain white supremacy, and the people who put them in power, have all contributed and continued slavery throughout generations. It is through racial bias within legislation and at the highest levels of power, that white supremacy has continued to economically oppress black communities and steady the white American economy. The dismantling of black communities has been the intention and continues to evolve with policy.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice was a very heavy, but touching tribute to those who have been victims of racial terror lynching. Over 4,000 black people have been lynched, in hundred of counties across the nation. Walking through, and reading all the names and counties actualized that number for me, actualized those people for me. In reflecting on lynching, I could not help but reflect on a novel I recently have been reading that has completely shifted my understanding on lynching as a symbolism both spiritually, and also in the lives of black Americans. Lynching was purposed to instil fear, but also maintain the social order and dominance of white people. Lynching was a public spectacle, to scare, and remind blacks of their powerlessness and inferiority. Innocent black people were used as an example to other blacks of what could be of them if they dare step out of the confinements given to them. While lynchings did instill fear, it also brought a message and symbol of hope and redemption to Christain black Americans, who’s savior, who’s God, was crucified, innocently, for all to watch and enjoy. The similarities in the crucifixion of Jesus and the lynchings of black Americans is vivid, and greatly explains how despite the lynching tree, black Americans were able to find hope in the cross. As described in James Cone’s novel “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”, the cross for black Americans was a religious symbol that “inverts the world’s value system with the news that hope comes by way of defeat, that suffering and death do not have the last words…” and that the lynching tree with the crucifixion cross were symbols that “represented both death and the promise of redemption, judgment and the offer of mercy, suffering and the power of hope”. To serve, believe and live for a religion where the salvation of man was granted as a result of a crucified God/savior, presents a new understanding of Jesus and the Christian faith to black Americans, who found the cross as a symbolism of power and life. The joining of the cross and the lynching tree also presents the theme of hypocrisy that reigns supreme throughout white supremacy. Cone highlights how contradictive, hypocritical, ignorant and evil it was for white Americans to support, enjoy and even perform acts of lynchings, in the name of a God, an individual, salvation and religion who’s foundation is in the crucifixion of their God. I believe that this understanding and use of comparing both the terror lynchings with Jesus Christ brings a deeper understanding of the horrors and pains of lynching, and also the influence faith has had on black perseverance and hope.

In all that I have read regarding the connections of the cross and lynching trees, and all that I know of the horrors of my people, my communities, I leave not only having a greater deal of faith in our continuous struggle and our ability to overcome, but continue to think about how my faith can be used to bring hope, life, and continued fight during such dark, terrible times of our nation.

Hope Hammond

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