Mexicans were second largest group targeted by violent lynch mobs in the US

The word “lynching” reflects some of the darkest and most hateful times in the United States, and it conjures up disturbing images of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and the vicious abuse and murder of thousands of innocent people. However, the history of lynching in America touches upon more than just one ethnic group and spreads far beyond the Southern states.

A new report released by the Equal Justice Initiative documents nearly 4,000 victims of “racial terror lynchings” in the South from 1877 to 1950. While the overwhelming majority of lynching victims were African Americans, a New York Times Op-Ed piece points out that most people are unaware that lynching in the U.S. also heavily targeted another racial group: Mexicans.

SEE ALSO: Lynchings and vigilantism in Argentina

The Op-Ed piece, written by William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, reveals that Mexicans were the second largest group targeted by lynch mobs from the mid-19th century through much of the 20th century.

Lynchings of Mexicans in the U.S.

From 1848 to 1920, there were 547 cases of documented murders of Mexicans by lynch mobs, although experts estimate that the number of victims is really in the thousands.

Unlike the lynchings of African Americans, however, the lynchings of Mexicans didn’t occur primarily in the South. Rather, they took place in the Southwest, in states like California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, but even spread as far as states like Wyoming and Nebraska.

The article highlights some of the more distressing cases of violence against Mexicans: In 1851, a mob of around 2,000 people gathered in Downieville, California to witness the hanging of Juana Loaiza, a Mexican woman accused of murdering a white man. Her guilt was never proven through the legal system.

In 1910, a mob brutally murdered Antonio Rodriguez, a Mexican laborer in Rock Springs, Texas, because he was accused of killing a local woman. Rodriguez was tied to a tree and burned alive.

In 1918, Texas Rangers and vigilantes executed 15 Mexican locals because they suspected these men of spying for a group of Mexican outlaws. This massacre became known as the “Hora de Sangra” or “Hour of Blood” amongst Mexican-Americans.

SEE ALSO: Librotraficante ? Keeping Mexican-American studies alive

“Southern blacks were the group most often targeted,” Carrigan and Webb wrote, “But comparing the histories of the South and the West strengthens our understanding of mob violence in both.”

“In today’s charged debate over immigration policy and the growth of the Latino population, the history of anti-Mexican violence reminds us of the costs and consequences of hate.”