Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928

by William D. Carrigan, Clive Webb

Mob violence in the United States is usually associated with the southern lynch mobs who terrorized African Americans during the Jim Crow era. In Forgotten Dead, William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb uncover a comparatively neglected chapter in the story of American racial violence, the lynching of persons of Mexican origin or descent. Over eight decades lynch mobs murdered hundreds of Mexicans, mostly in the American Southwest. Racial prejudice, a lack of respect for local courts, and economic competition all fueled the actions of the mob. Sometimes ordinary citizens committed these acts because of the alleged failure of the criminal justice system; other times the culprits were law enforcement officers themselves. Violence also occurred against the backdrop of continuing tensions along the border between the United States and Mexico aggravated by criminal raids, military escalation, and political revolution.



Based on Spanish and English archival documents from both sides of the border, Forgotten Dead explores through detailed case studies the characteristics and causes of mob violence against Mexicans across time and place. It also relates the numerous acts of resistance by Mexicans, including armed self-defense, crusading journalism, and lobbying by diplomats who pressured the United States to honor its rhetorical commitment to democracy. Finally, it contains the first-ever inventory of Mexican victims of mob violence in the United States.

Carrigan and Webb assess how Mexican lynching victims came in the minds of many Americans to be the "forgotten dead" and provide a timely account of Latinos' historical struggle for recognition of civil and human rights.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, Race

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

William D. Carrigan is Professor of History at Rowan University. A native Texan, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. In 1999, he earned his PhD in American history from Emory University and joined the faculty in the Department of History at Rowan. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly essays, he is the author or editor of four books, including The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916 (University of Illinois Press, 2004), winner of the Richard Wentworth Prize. Since 1995, he has been collaborating with Clive Webb and studying the lynching of Mexicans in the United States. With the support of grants and fellowships from numerous institutions, including the Huntington, the National Science Foundation, and the Clements Center, they have published four essays on the subject as well as Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 (Oxford University Press, 2013). Professor Carrigan’s research has been cited in numerous publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Houston Chronicle. With his wife and two daughters, he lives in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

As many as 4,000-5,000 ethnic Mexicans may have been lynched in the US from 1850-1930. Carrigan and Webb's elegant work recovers this "forgotten" history. Their own database documents 500 of these by name, place, alleged crime, size and makeup of mob, and primary source. Without criticizing the work of the NAACP and Tuskegee lynching databases, the author's do point out that the prodigious (and important) work done on the lynching of African Americans perpetuates the assumptions that lynching was predominantly a regional and racially specific phenomenon. Their research demonstrates such a reading marginalizes the victimization of other racial minorities outside of the Deep South.

This is the fourth or fifth book I have read on the subject of racial violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, each more eloquent and moving than before. These books should be further addressed in higher education, in public education until the Porvenir Massacre is as well-known as the Tulsa Riots, until the name Rafael Benavides is as well known as Emmitt Till.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of mob violence against Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans in U.S. history

[Belen Reyes-Carrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a kid my dad ALWAYS told me ABOUT Mexicans being lynched from Az to Tx. I was ALWAYS curious but UNABLE to find any information on this subject, until I ran across this book and a couple of others. Great book, but what a horrific chapter in US History THAT IS NOT TAUGHT AND SHOULD BE!

[John Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written. Well researched. Great information on an oft-forgotten part of US history

[Derek Wilmott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lost American History, Rediscovered

Forgotten Dead explores the little known history of mob violence in the American Southwest. The authors meticulously research newspapers and other early sources to expertly craft a factual narrative of mob violence and lynchings of Mexican and Mexican American people, often at the hands of white mobs. The current political climate and anti immigration rhetoric harkens back to the racism displayed, primarily, in the American South and Southwest. This book should be required reading at high schools and colleges to build a better understanding of who we are as Americans and how we can do better as a nation.

[Andrea Mastromatteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 3rd great grandmother was, along with her 2nd husband and infant daughter, three of the lynched victims in this book. My 2nd great grandmother and her brother were survivors, and the event has defined that part of my family's lineage till present day.

I'm so thankful to this book for illuminating a part of history that so many Americans are ignorant of.

It's my opinion that it should be a part of history education for every American.

[José Angel Hernández · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading this book, I wrote the following to the authors: ' could not help but think of James Baldwin's review of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." I am not suggesting I am Baldwin, much less that this book is "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but it did recall the following quote: “Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty...the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent humanity, the mark of cruelty.”