Although those that were formerly enslaved, became emancipated, and eventually legally freed through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, making them thus entitled to all the rights that such a Constitution so stood for – the reality of the situation is that blacks were, especially in the South, in constant danger of their rights being trampled upon by the favored race, which so occurred on a fairly routine basis.
In order to instill terror into the black man’s hearts, those of the favored race, were prone to public displays of their impunity, by lynching blacks, purposely done for public display and through public mob participation as a way of demonstrating that the white race still had meaningful control of blacks, through the fact that such lynching was done in the open, and that the favored race was pretty much permitted to exact their type of justice with nary a worry that there would be negative consequences for them, ever, to face.
It is believed that the most common crime to accuse the black man of, that would rile up the white folks enough, to thus commit a lynching, was any sort of inappropriate alleged contact between a black man and a white woman. This then was often the trigger to get the emotions of the white man to run high, and for them then to find the presumed perpetrator and to then do their best to completely dehumanize the black man, so as to take an especially perverse joy and satisfaction in carrying out the lynching as a form of necessary community service.
Yet, the reality of lynchings, demonstrates that there was an often hidden economic reason for why particular persons were selected to be lynched, that had absolutely nothing to do with that black man, not knowing their place in regards to their dealing with a white woman; but rather had an awful lot to do with certain black businessmen, who were conducting their transactions mainly with non-white people, of which, through their hard work these black businessmen became successful within their black community; though, not infrequently, at the expense of white businessmen who felt that their business was losing out because of this competition, and thus felt the indignity of being fairly outplayed by a black businessman. In other words, the freed black men, living in segregated black communities, typically conducted their business with one another, which helped to strengthen that black community by keeping the little money that they had, flowing within that community – whereas, the white businessman felt that they were entitled to the black man’s money, and wanted such, in order to maintain their control and domination of those blacks.
So then, lynching was sometimes a form of economic retribution against successful black businessmen, so done to send a very specific signal to black people and their communities, that the money that they so had, should be spent in white-owned businesses, which might well have a front of a black proprietor, and such business, thereof, should not be transacted within black businesses, that were truly owned and operated by black people. That is to say, lynching, had an awful lot to do with the favored race maintaining their control of blacks, so accomplished, by not just keeping them terrorized, but also by wresting from the black businessman’s hand, the money that they had fairly earned.