Start the recall of judges with this one
The ghostly figure of a manic-looking man, labeled “Judge Lynch” and carrying a book labeled “Lynch Law” and a lighted torch, hovers over a procession of people. The procession is led by three solid citizens followed by farmers, unruly elements, and finally a long line of regular citizens including women, who look back at a small column of smoke in the distance – presumably a lynching. One of the unruly men shoots at a dog. (“Judge Lynch” was the personification of the practice, frequently found in the South, of executing African Americans suspected of crimes without the benefit of trial. In the second decade of the Twentieth Century, Progressives advocated various reforms designed to circumvent the state governments viewed as the tools of entrenched interests. The Recall was intended to allow the citizenry to directly vote officials out of office. The cartoonist suggests that this first be used to abolish the practice of lynching.)
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1912-02-21
