We’ve talked about lynching several times this week and Joe Thompson referred to the site Without Sanctuary http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/. I discovered this site several years ago and happened upon an exhibition of the lynching postcards on tour at the Chicago Historical Society. If you haven’t seen the site, it is worth doing so. Seeing images as postcards makes the lynchings even more horrific. Several postcards were sent through the mail and have messages to family members. Even if the postcards are merely mementos or souvenirs of the murders, the mindset of people who wish visible proof to take with them is impossible to comprehend. When I look at the postcards, I examine the people participating and observing—men, women, and children. Postcard #65 is of a St. Louis lynching and #80 is the one we saw earlier in the week (it is actually of Omaha, Nebraska).
-- Patricia Miletich
