Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America Book

In his introduction to this horrifying photographic record of racial terrorism, historian and professor Leon F. Litwack writes: "Obviously, it is easier to choose the path of collective amnesia, to erase such memories, to sanitize our past. It is far easier to view what is depicted on these pages as so depraved and barbaric as to be beyond the realm of reason. That enables us to dismiss what we see as an aberration, as the work of crazed fiends and psychopaths"(33-34).

For anyone so inclined, for those who long for "the good old days," wax nostalgic about the "gallantry" of the Old South, or generally feel that racial oppression "wasn't that bad," this gut-wrenching record of brutality and savage inhumanity must surely function as a corrective. For my part, this book came upon me, as Kafka would have it, "like ill-fortune," and I found myself both fascinated and repelled by the record of human depravity that it chronicles. It prompted me to begin reading more about the history of lynching, an interest that culminated in a research project I undertook in one of my college classes on African-American history. I can honestly say that it was one of the most difficult experiences, both intellectually and emotionally, of my academic career.

Without Sanctuary provides a photographic record of the phenomenon of lynching, reproducing 98 images, many of them from postcards made as commemorative souvenirs. In addition to the brief foreword by Congressman John Lewis, a historical overview by Litwack, and a short personal reaction by Hilton Als, the book contains explanatory notes for each of the plates, and an afterword by James Allen, the man who amassed this most disturbing collection.

The extreme savagery of lynching may surprise those who had assumed that this activity involved "mere" hanging. The ways in which the victims' bodies were mutilated, both before and after death, makes for sickening reading and viewing. The hacking off of fingers and other body parts for souvenirs reads like some ghoulish detail of a horror novel. As always, fact is stranger and stronger, than the most bizarre of fictions. The very existence of these photographs, the fact that they were taken at all, is evidence of the almost pathological depravity of those who committed these terrible crimes. Not only were they not ashamed of their deeds, they recorded them for posterity, complete with "humorous" comments about "barbeques."

The only book I can think of, that comes even close to this in its up-front and photographic depiction of human evil, is The Auschwitz Album , which reproduces photographs that the Nazis took of Hungarian Jews as they arrived at the death camp. But even these photos do not depict the actual murder of the victims, the gas chamber, and the crematorium.

There can be no doubt that this book is deeply disturbing, traumatic even, to the reader. But as has so often been observed, it is necessary to arm ourselves with information about the atrocities of the past, in order to prevent their repetition. To that end, I recommend this to everyone. As William Pickens wrote in Lynching and Debt Slavery, an ACLU report published in 1921: "To cheapen the lives of any group of men, cheapens the lives of all men, even our own. This is a law of human psychology, or human nature. And it will not be repealed by our wishes nor will it be merciful to our blindness."