Violence, visibility, and the investigation of police torture in the American south, 1940-1955

Abstract

The vast archival records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Washington, D.C., contain a surprising and unsettling document: a color drawing made by an unknown person in the late 1940s. It is located in one of the hundreds of legal folders concerning the issue of “police brutality” (Figure 6.1). 1 The drawing shows the lashing of a prisoner by three men. One of the men is wearing a police uniform, including a sheriff’s hat and a badge. The nude body of the male prisoner in the middle of the picture is drawn in shades of gray. The prisoner is hanging from handcuffs affixed to a pipe above his head. His chest, back, and thighs are covered with wounds inflicted by the ongoing lashes from his three tormentors.