Bob Avakian begins his talk Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, and What It's All About:
In the ugly history of this country, and all its horrors, selling postcards of the hanging, in particular, selling postcards of the lynchings of Black men was literally a pastime, a kind of social activity, in which all too many white people took part, for a hundred years and more, even after slavery was ended. (See the clip from the talk here.)
In her 2021 documentary Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day,” filmmaker Christine Turner forces viewers to look at that ugly history and the horror of white supremacy in its most visceral and hideous expression, by showing the actual postcards made from photographs of the lynchings of Black men. The 15-minute film includes the messages people wrote on those postcards to share the “pastime” they took part in with family and friends. A message on one of those lynching postcards said, “Well John—This is a token of a great day we had in Dallas...”
Between 1880 and 1968, over 4,700 Black men, and sometimes women and children, were lynched in the U.S.—hanged to death, their bodies often mutilated and sometimes set on fire. As the postcards reveal, many lynchings were organized and announced in advance. The Black scholars and historians who narrate the documentary explain that lynchings became a form of “leisure” with white people—young and old, men and women and children, from all social strata—taking part. They were “festivals of violence,” where a whole community would come together to participate in what were described at various times as “picnics” and “barbecues.” A 1916 newspaper article about a lynching in Texas was headlined “FIFTEEN THOUSAND SAW NEGRO BURN.”
Photographers would negotiate for privileged access to those public lynchings so they could capture the violence, knowing they could make money off of those pictures turned into postcards. A narrator in the documentary says the postcards “allowed viewers to reexperience that sense of power and control, over and over again.” The messages on one lynching postcard said, “This is the barbecue we had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it. Your son Joe.” Another said, “This is where they lynched the negro the other day. They don't know who done it. I guess they don't care much. I don't. Do you?”
Christine Turner said she wanted the audience to focus on the faces of the lynching participants and see their "sense of pride." A message with one lynching postcard says, “Do not look at the negro. Look at the 7 white children.” Turner also noted, "I think oftentimes we think that lynchings are these spontaneous events, right? That a group of men in the woods decide to suddenly lynch someone. But these were planned events.”
For over a century, 200 bills to make lynching illegal went before the U.S. Congress—and were rejected. It’s only now, in 2022, that Congress passed the very first anti-lynching law and Biden is about to sign it. But for me, watching this short documentary on postcards of lynchings underlined the reality of how deeply white supremacy has been woven into the fabric in America—and still is, down to today… why the fascists, who are aiming to ram their vicious agenda on society as a whole, are so determined to remove the truth about the real history of this country, including how lynchings were public spectacles, from textbooks, classrooms, and library shelves… and what's at stake in stopping this as part of fighting for a revolution to finally overthrow this horrific system and bring about a radically new, much better, world!