BHM: Teaching Lynching

There is a really good discussion on H-AFRO-AM (H-NET Discussion List for African American Studies) about the pedagogical implications for teaching classes that deal with the images of lynching. Since I while be discussing anti-lynching campaigns in my spring seminar, I find this conversation to be of particular interest as I too want to use images from the Without Sanctuary collection. They are highly disturbing but they reflect a reality that many in my generation and my students' generation just can't imagine. For me, and I hope anyone, the images are hard to look at but I think we must wrestle with the realities of the past--pretending these things did not happen continues the problem that we have in this nation of talking honestly about race.

The query that began the conversation was a post from an instructor who had been showing slides from the Without Sanctuary project for a number of years, but has recently experienced some negative reactions to the course. Here is an excerpt from the post:

When I first developed this lecture I was at a California university serving middle class students with very few African American students. I continued as an adjunct at a California working class community college with many black students and am now using the lecture in a working class university in the middle South with a 15% African American student population. Naturally, both at the community college and at my present institution, the classes are racially mixed. I've always had some few white students who have reacted negatively to the lynching presentation - and I've felt comfortable with that reaction - in part, because more white students have spoken of the value of seeing with their own eyes the mob brutality coupled with the party-like atmosphere of the lynchings. I've also had very favorable feedback from numbers of my African American students in all the places I've taught. But at my present institution, I've also had two African Americans who responded negatively to the slides and this concerns me greatly. I've only been able to speak to one of these African Americans and her reaction confirmed that the slides ARE terrifying and do have a tremendous emotional, disturbing impact.

I think it is important to always think about our audience of students and how the material that we teach may impact them not just intellectually, but also psychologically and emotionally. Several scholars have responded who use the same materials, noting that various students, of all races, have appreciated the material but at times have found it too disturbing--some even leaving the room to vomit. But overall, the student response seems to be that the materials, although harsh to deal with, reflect a history that is not often discussed and while many just express shock at the degree of racism at this time, many seem to grow and learn a great deal from the experience.

I am learning a number of things from the scholars who have used these materials that I will pass on to anyone else who would like to incorporate images of lynching into their classroom.

1. Make sure you as the instructor can handle it and have a feel for the psychological responses of the students. One scholar noted that she would not show the images in her class--"I have made the personal choice not to show direct images of lynching in class. But I also tell my students why I do not bring the images to class. I too find it hard to just see them as distant documents; I find it hard not to re-present the brutality in a way that is not offensive, even to me. The deeds, the history - these are offensive. One might call it the trace that the photograph leaves behind -- it is still all too real. I want my students to have the option to look or not look. But this is not based on student feedback but personal choices and my courses are not centered on lynching, rather this history is one aspect of the material covered." Another scholar suggests meeting with a trained psychologist in the area or on campus to make sure that you are up to the task.
2. Do a LOT of prep work. Although it seems a bit like common sense, it is critical to prep students for the extreme violence portrayed in these images. Too often we assume, I think, that gratuitous violence on television/movies means that the coming generations are desensitized and can handle this material. Seeing real violence enacted on real people is always difficult and this type of material should not be sprung on students. I personally would describe and have a discussion about the images before I show them, and give students the option to leave the room or close their eyes if they don't want to see. I agree with the scholars on the list who said they would not show a lot of the images in class, but give the links for those interested in seeing more.
3. Do a LOT of debriefing. It could be tempting to launch into a discussion of the politics or the implications for social movements after viewing these images, but there must be time set aside for students to respond and talk about how they feel and what they are thinking after seeing these images. One scholar noted that she always makes sure she has office hours that day for any students who just need to debrief a little longer.
4. Be prepared for unexpected responses--better yet, change your expectations. What is really at the heart of this query, for better or worse, is the response of African American students. This scholar was just not prepared for that given previous experiences with the course. This is obviously problematic--just like professors have called on me in the past to give the "Black response"--we should not expect Black students to respond the same things the same way every time, regardless of the subject. I think you have to go into a discussion like this open-minded and know that you will get a myriad of human responses from a diverse group of human beings. As a recent post by Histgrad shows--student responses to past racism really run the gamut, so you have to be open to deal with all of those responses--the good and the challenging.
   

As a Black women teaching in the South now, I know I'll get a wide range of responses in the spring when we talk about lynching. And as I read the commentaries from various scholars who teach the subject, far too many noted that students had little knowledge about what lynching was in the South. Only one said s/he had students who had been taught about the history of lynching in previous courses. This lets me know (on a small scale) that this is one of those historical subjects that folks assume students will learn about elsewhere, so I'm up to the challenge of talking about it in my seminar because this should be on the radar of students. As one scholar noted that while "it was good to pause over the deaths and injustices, and deal with our emotional reactions to these things, it was time to stop being intellectually *surprised* at racist violence in America." And clearly, we are not at that point yet.

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