Date of Award
Spring 5-8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in History
Department
History
First Advisor
Ted Ownby
Second Advisor
Darren Grem
Third Advisor
Charles Ross
Fourth Advisor
Simone Delerme
School
School of Liberal Arts
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This dissertation explores the historical memory of the Claude Neal lynching, which occurred in Jackson County, Florida in October of 1934. The Neal lynching was a particularly gruesome public spectacle. After executing Neal at a local farm, vigilantes transported his body to the county courthouse and displayed it for hundreds of white onlookers. After 1934, civil rights activists, journalists, government officials, community leaders, and ordinary residents kept the memory of Claude Neal alive in public discourse. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, individuals invoked the Claude Neal lynching to draw attention to contemporary manifestations of racial violence and inequities in the criminal justice system. Individuals and organizations at both the national and local level activated memories of Claude Neal to illuminate how the racial biases that led to Neal’s death were subsequently appropriated and sanctioned by the criminal justice system. This dissertation argues that through this process, the Claude Neal lynching and its legacy became inextricably linked to the discourse of racial injustice and absorbed into movements for criminal justice reform. In addition, this project uses the historical memory of the Neal lynching to illuminate one southern county’s violent history from Reconstruction to the twenty-first century. The history of race and violence in Jackson County demonstrates how violence in the twentieth century gradually transitioned from Jim Crow-era extralegal violence to institutionalized forms of violence in the post-Jim Crow era.
Recommended Citation
Patterson, Travis, "The Claude Neal Lynching: Race, Memory, and a Southern County's Violent History" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3100.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3100
