1892 Marks Peak Year of Lynching with 161 Black Victims Recorded

The year 1892 saw 161 Black Americans lynched — the highest single-year total ever recorded. The Tuskegee Institute documented 3,446 Black lynchings between 1882 and 1968, with the worst years concentrated in the 1880s and 1890s. Lynching served as both punishment and terror: victims were frequently burned, mutilated, or photographed for souvenir postcards, with crowds of thousands attending as spectators.