Measuring Legacies of Collective Racial Violence

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211023091
• Subject Matter: Intergenerational Effects

122 ANNALS, AAPSS, 694, March 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211023091

Measuring

Legacies of

Collective

Racial Violence

By

SARAH GABY

1023091ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyMeasuring Legacies Of Collective Racial Violence

research-article2021

The “legacy effect” of lynchings and other forms of

racialized violence has shaped patterns of inequality in

America. While past studies have been relatively simi-

lar in their design—relating basic counts of lynchings to

various contemporary outcomes—I argue for and dem-

onstrate a more nuanced approach. I show that if we

think of racialized violence as more than just the act of

lynching, and consider both the temporal and spatial

proximity between historic events of racial violence and

contemporary inequality, we can establish this relation-

ship in a more fulsome way. In the case of this study,

the relationship is drawn to housing segregation. I

argue that expanding the conceptualization of racial

violence is critical for both empirical inquiry and shap-

ing community efforts around redress.

Keywords: collective violence; racial violence; lynch-

ing; housing segregation; measurement

Contemporary patterns of violence and ine-

quality are frequently attributed to enslave-

ment and racial violence in the nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries. These violent acts

left a “legacy effect” that has shaped inequality

in expansive temporal and spatial ways extend-

ing beyond specific events or eras. America’s

“original sin” and violent measures of racial

control not only produced immediate effects in

the form of death, bodily harm, separation of

families, and segregation of communities, but

supported the creation of persistent, centuries-

long patterns of inequality. Current rates of

violence, mortality, imprisonment, environ-

mental injustice, white supremacy, and residen-

tial segregation, to name a few, are empirically

Sarah Gaby is an assistant professor in the Department

of Sociology and Criminology at the University of

North Carolina, Wilmington. Her research focuses on

social movements, organizations, education, and ine-

quality with a particular focus on youth civic engage-

ment.

Correspondence: gabys@uncw.edu

MEASURING LEGACIES OF COLLECTIVE RACIAL VIOLENCE 123

tied to enslavement and early racial violence (e.g., Kramer etal. 2017; Black etal.

2015; Jacobs, Malone, and Iles 2012; DeFina and Hannon 2011; King, Messner,

and Baller 2009; Messner, Baller, and Zevenbergen 2005).

Scholars have consistently identified strong correlational effects: places with

higher historical levels of lynching also have more extensive contemporary racial

segregation, racial violence, and racial health disparities (Porter 2011; Messner,

Baller, and Zevenbergen 2005). Research in this vein enhances academic and

community understanding of the social processes that drive inequality. Scholarly

work on lynching and its correlates followed increasing attention to these phe-

nomena from communities, governments, and social justice organizations that

seek redress for the lasting impacts of these violent crimes (see Williams 2020).

Both to enhance the quality of social scientific research and due to the close con-

nection between academic work on legacies of racial violence and community

outcomes, scholars must understand whether and how data and measurement

impact the findings produced by this growing line of inquiry.

The majority of findings on the relationship between lynching and contempo-

rary patterns of violence and inequality are produced from count measures of

state or county lynching rates drawn from few available datasets. But research on

lynchings and their connection to contemporary inequality requires an in-depth

empirical examination of spatial and temporal, as well as an in-depth conceptual-

ization of historical racial violence. This study reexamines an existing analysis on

the relationship between lynching and Black/white housing segregation (DeFina

and Hannon 2011), reproducing the original data as well as including new data

and measures of racial violence.

Scholars of racial violence call for measures that include quotidian incidents of

racial violence as well as racial control measures for which lynching may function

as a proxy (Porter 2011). The analysis reported here closely parallels current

scholarship that seeks to extend the definition of historical racial violence beyond

completed lynching to include attempted lynching (Beck, Tolnay, and Bailey

2016) and averted lynching (Makovi, Hagen, and Bearman 2016). These prac-

tices mirror the type of racial control, threat, and fear that establish legacy

effects, which are not contingent on the completion of a lynching. In combina-

tion, the current study and these various approaches call into question assump-

tions about the relationship between lynching and contemporary inequalities,

while simultaneously generating resources and approaches to studying legacies of

racial violence that extend the field.

In this study, I also examine the highly contingent relationship between levels

of lynching measurement and findings on their effects. I argue for both consist-

ency in measuring lynching, generated by a collaborative approach to data collec-

tion, as well as for the importance of transparency in measurement. I argue that

data and methodological consistency are critical for both empirical inquiry and

shaping community efforts around redress. I suggest that studies should expand

correlates of historical racial violence to include and conceptualize various meas-

ures beyond completed lynching.