Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment

for the Humanities, and the Robert and Joseph Cornell Memorial Foundation.

From Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.

Welcome to backstory.

I'm Nathan Connolly.

If you're new to the show, each week my colleagues Brian Ballot, Ed Ayers, Joanne Freeman,

and I explore the history behind the headlines.

Now you may have heard our backstory prize show a few weeks ago, where we awarded the

first ever backstory prize for public history to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

in Montgomery, Alabama.

It opened in 2018 and is dedicated to the thousands of African Americans who were lynched

between 1877 and 1950.

The historian, Codata Williams studies racial violence targeting African Americans, including

the wave of lynching that began in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Over the course of her research, she came across many accounts of lynchings.

What is striking about lynching is that these weren't secret crimes.

Often accounts of lynching would be published not only in local papers, but in national outlets,

like the New York Times.

And while these accounts can give details on what happened the day of the lynching, they're

not usually sympathetic to the victim.

Davisboro, Georgia, May 18.

Charles Atkins, a Negro 15 years old, one of four taken into custody today in connection

...