What does lynch him mean

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Grammar Thesaurus. To murder an accused person by mob action and without lawful trial, esp. To punish a person without legal process or authority, especially by hanging, for a perceived offense or as an act of bigotry. A surname. Origin of lynch. First attested , from Lynch law that appeared in There is a popular claim that it was named after William Lynch, but equally strong arguments would have it named after Charles Lynch. Lynch Sentence Examples. Various ethnic groups were victims of lynching , including Mexicans, Chinese, and European-Americans.

But from the late 19th century on, Black Americans were the primary target of lynching as white Americans sought to maintain racial control following the end of the Civil War. According to the Tuskegee Institute, 3, blacks were lynched between and During this period, lynching became closely associated with the hanging execution of Black people, whose bodies were typically left to hang in public spaces as a warning to others.

Often, lynchings were social occasions for white people. While lynching became less common into the 20th century, it still continued. However, the idea of lynching looms over the United States. In the 21st century, murders of Black Americans by white people, regardless of motive, are sometimes referred to as lynching. In February , for the first time in history, the U.

House of Representatives passed legislation making lynching a federal hate crime. Lynching is an American evil. Today, we send a strong message that violence—and race-based violence, in particular—has no place in America. Rush RepBobbyRush February 26, In contemporary discussions, lynching retains its historic sense—the execution of a Black person or other member of a minority group for a perceived crime by white people taking the law into their own hands.

For example, in May , Mississippi state representative Karl Oliver posted that those who supported the removal of Confederate monuments in Louisiana should be lynched. He later apologized. Some civil rights activists use lynching to refer more generally to the murder of Black people by white people based solely on the color of their skin.

Using the word lynching in this way attracts attention to the problem of hate crimes. Lynching can also refer to any kind of vigilante justice or extrajudicial murder, typically of a member of a minority group. Lynching is also sometimes figuratively used when someone is felt be wrongly persecuted, as if hounded by a metaphorical lynch mob.