Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2011
Abstract
This project employs a moral solidarity framework to explore the relationship between organized religion and lynching in the American South. The authors ask whether a county’s religious composition affected its rate of lynching, net of demographic and economic controls. The authors find evidence for the solidarity thesis, using three religious metrics. First, their findings show that counties with greater religious diversity experienced more lynching, supporting the notion that a pluralistic religious marketplace with competing religious denominations weakened the bonds of a cohesive moral community and might have enhanced white racial solidarity. Second, counties in which a larger share of the black population worshipped in churches controlled by blacks experienced higher levels of racial violence, indicating a threat to intergroup racially based solidarity. Finally, the authors find a lower incidence of lynching in counties where a larger share of church members belonged to racially mixed denominations, suggesting that cross-racial solidarity served to reduce racial violence.
Recommended Citation
Bailey, Amy K. and Karen A. Snedker. 2011. “Practicing What They Preach? Lynching and Religion in the American South 1890 - 1929.” American Journal of Sociology 117(3): 844-887. https://doi.org/10.1086/661985
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
The University of Chicago
Included in
Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Religion Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Regional Sociology Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in American Journal of Sociology, volume 117, issue 3, in 2011. https://doi.org/10.1086/661985