Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past

• Author: Hedwig Lee,David Cunningham,Geoff Ward
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211022712
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Introduction

8 ANNALS, AAPSS, 694, March 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211022712

Legacies of

Racial Violence:

Clarifying and

Addressing the

Presence of the

Past

By

DAVID CUNNINGHAM,

HEDWIG LEE,

and

GEOFF WARD

1022712ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyLegacies Of Racial Violence

research-article2021

Scholars increasingly agree that histories of racial vio-

lence relate to contemporary patterns of conflict and

inequality, and growing interest exists among civic lead-

ers in reckoning with these legacies today. This volume

examines the contributions and limitations of scientific

research on legacies of racial violence and suggests

implications for policy, practice, and other forms of

intervention aimed at redress.

Keywords: race; violence; lynching; historical trauma;

inequality; transformative justice

A

growing body of social science research

consistently establishes that histories of

racialized violence in the United States relate

to contemporary conflict and inequity. An ini-

tial wave of multivariate analyses demonstrated

that lynching and other forms of historical

violence significantly predicts patterns of

homicide, policing, sentencing, white suprem-

acist mobilization, and other contemporary

outcomes (Messner, Baller, and Zevenbergen

2005; King, Messner, and Baller 2009; Jacobs,

Carmichael, and Kent 2005; Cunningham

and Phillips 2007). Subsequent studies have

introduced methodological innovations, engaged

broader histories of racial violence, and otherwise

David Cunningham is a professor and chair of sociol-

ogy at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hedwig Lee is a professor of sociology and codirector of

the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity

at Washington University in St. Louis.

Geoff Ward is a professor of African and African

American studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

NOTE: All three authors contributed equally to this

work and are listed alphabetically. We would like to

thank Tom Kecskemethy and Emily Wood Babson for

their support, vision, and editing acumen as this vol-

ume was conceived and assembled. We also acknowl-

edge Washington University’s Weidenbaum Center for

the resources and support they provided to this project.

Correspondence: david.cunningham@wustl.edu