January 1888

The 1880s record the highest annual lynching counts in American history. By one accounting, more than 100 Black men are lynched per year throughout the decade. Victims are killed for voting, economic success, alleged crimes, or perceived social infractions. Most are tortured before death; bodies are mutilated and photographed. Local law enforcement routinely participates or stands aside. No lyncher is prosecuted in any Southern state.

After Thibodaux, no organizing effort among Louisiana sugar workers succeeds for five decades. Survivors return to wages below $1.25/day. Planters reinstate debt peonage. Militia commanders face no legal consequences and are locally celebrated. The massacre's suppression of labor organizing is total and deliberate.

B.B. Comer, later Alabama governor, is among the industrialists whose coal companies lease Black convicts from the state at rates far below free labor costs. Convicts at Comer-connected facilities are whipped for production shortfalls, denied adequate food and medical care, and buried in unmarked graves when they die. The system makes Alabama's coal industry competitive while killing the workers who power it.

In the aftermath of the Thibodaux Massacre, no organizing effort among Louisiana sugar cane workers succeeds for five decades. Surviving strikers who return to the fields accept wages below the $1.25 per day they struck for. Planters reinstate debt peonage systems. Militia commanders who directed the massacre face no legal consequences and several are celebrated locally. The massacre's effect on labor organizing is total and deliberate.

B.B. Comer — later Alabama governor — is among industrialists whose coal companies lease Black convicts far below free labor costs. Convicts are whipped for production shortfalls, denied medical care, and buried in unmarked graves. The system makes Alabama's coal industry competitive while killing the workers who power it.

After Thibodaux, no organizing effort among Louisiana sugar workers succeeds for five decades. Survivors return to wages below $1.25/day. Planters reinstate debt peonage. Militia commanders who directed the massacre face no legal consequences and are locally celebrated. The massacre's suppression of labor organizing is total and deliberate.