The Migration of Lynch Victims’ Families, 1880–1930

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the lynching of African Americans in the southern United States and subsequent county out-migration of the victims’ sur-viv ing family members. Using U.S. census records and machine learning methods, we identify the place of residence for family members of Black individuals who were killed by lynch mobs between 1882 and 1929 in the U.S. South. Over the entire period, our anal­y­sis finds that lynch vic­tims’ fam­ily mem­bers expe­ri­enced a 10-per­cent­age-point increase in the probability of migrating to a different county by the next decennial census rel­a­tive to their same-race neigh­bors. We also find that sur­viv­ing fam­ily mem­bers had a 12-percentage-point increase in the probability of county out-migration compared with their neighbors when the household head was a lynch victim. The out-migration response of the fam­i­lies of lynch vic­tims was most pro­nounced between 1910 and 1930, suggesting that lynch vic­tims’ fam­ily mem­bers may have been dis­pro­por­tion­ately represented in the first Great Migration.