Undoubtedly there are errors and inaccuracies in particular cases in the Tribune record.[[207]] Any one who has endeavored to sift the truth from conflicting newspaper reports will readily appreciate the difficulty of obtaining an accurate account of a lynching from such a source. For the purpose of this investigation, however, only the most general facts are required, and it is believed that in regard to these the reporter or the newspaper correspondent is less likely to indulge his imaginative powers. Furthermore, by reason of the popular excitement which usually attends lynching-bees and the extraordinary methods of execution oftentimes employed, it is fair to presume that but few lynchings escape the reporter; the details of most lynchings exhibit so clearly the journalistic idea of facts of contemporaneous human interest that the publication of such news is not often intentionally omitted. There is neither the motive nor the opportunity to keep lynchings from the newspapers that there often is in the case of suicides and murders; not only indeed is every such motive for secrecy absent, but there is usually, more or less strongly expressed, a public sentiment approving or excusing a lynching.
What the likelihood is of every lynching in the United States having been reported to the Chicago Tribune during the last twenty-two years, and whether the probability has been uniform throughout the period, there is no means of determining. The annual review of disasters and crimes has, however, been made a special feature throughout the period, and this gives at least a presumption in favor of fullness and completeness in the record. It is at any rate safe to say that the cases of lynching actually reported probably afford a fair average basis of cases for statistical investigation.
In view of these considerations, together with the corrections and verifications that have been made, it is believed that the Tribune record has reliability sufficient for its examination to lead to the deduction of trustworthy and valuable conclusions.
On January 1, 1904, the Chicago Tribune published the following “table of lynchings” covering the last nineteen years[[208]]:
| 1885 | 184 |
| 1886 | 138 |
| 1887 | 122 |
| 1888 | 142 |
| 1889 | 176 |
| 1890 | 127 |
| 1891 | 192 |
| 1892 | 235 |
| 1893 | 200 |
| 1894 | 190 |
| 1895 | 171 |
| 1896 | 131 |
| 1897 | 166 |
| 1898 | 127 |
| 1899 | 107 |
| 1900 | 115 |
| 1901 | 135 |
| 1902 | 96 |
| 1903 | 104 |
After carefully going over the lists of names, as published each year, of the persons lynched during the last twenty-two years, the writer obtained the following table which is based throughout on the number of persons lynched. If only the number of lynchings were taken into account the numbers given would be considerably smaller.[[209]]
| NUMBER OF PERSONS LYNCHED | |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 114 |
| 1883 | 134 |
| 1884 | 211 |
| 1885 | 184 |
| 1886 | 138 |
| 1887 | 122 |
| 1888 | 142 |
| 1889 | 176 |
| 1890 | 128 |
| 1891 | 195 |
| 1892 | 235 |
| 1893 | 200 |
| 1894 | 197 |
| 1895 | 180 |
| 1896 | 131 |
| 1897 | 165 |
| 1898 | 127 |
| 1899 | 107 |
| 1900 | 115 |
| 1901 | 135 |
| 1902 | 97 |
| 1903 | 104 |
| Total | 3337 |
This table agrees with the Tribune table for the nineteen years with the exception of the years 1890, 1891, 1894, 1895, 1897 and 1902. In some of these cases the difference is due merely to an error which had been made in footing up the lists. Some instances are given of a father and son being lynched, or of five horse thieves, or of two negroes, and each of these instances had been counted as one in making up the totals. In other cases an error was found in the instance reported. In 1902, a report of a negro having been lynched for murder in Alabama was found later to be untrue and his name was dropped from the list.[[210]] Two names have been added to the list for 1902 from information which the writer obtained through the newspaper clipping agency and subsequent correspondence.
In 1903 a record of persons lynched, kept by the writer from newspapers other than the Chicago Tribune,[[211]] contained sixty-three out of the one hundred and four reported by the Tribune, and corroborated the Tribune record with reference to these sixty-three. In the writer’s record seven lynchings were reported which did not appear in the Tribune record. Letters of inquiry in regard to these resulted in only four replies, one denying that the reported lynching had taken place, the remaining three not stating definitely whether any lynching whatsoever had taken place. No alteration, therefore, has been made in the Tribune record for 1903.
