Wells Documents: Only One-Third of Lynching Victims Even Accused of Rape

In her 1892 investigation, Wells demonstrates using white newspaper records that only one-third of Black lynching victims are even accused of rape — the crime cited to justify the practice. The rest are killed for alleged theft, economic competition, labor disputes, voting, or offending white sensibilities. The finding destroys the central public justification for lynching and reveals it as a system of racial terror and economic control.