I am about to finish my undergraduate in History and I just finished writing my senior paper last week about lynching as a spectacle in Jim Crow America and the role of newspapers in understanding lynching culture and attitudes among white Americans. When I gave my oral presentation to my professor, one thing that came up that I think I could have done better on, is the nature of American press during the Progressive Era. I used two books extensively as secondary resources, Lynching and Spectacle and Popular Justice: A History of Lynching in America.

I believe I have a clear understanding of lynching culture, and I really got a lot from the books I read. For primary sources, I scoured ProQuest Journalism. I went through many articles describing mass lynchings (my focus was lynching spectacles, mass public events) but the newspapers rarely if ever tell you who the author of the article was and I'd like to understand the context of American journalism during that time period, especially when it comes to race relations. The book Popular Justice touches on class issues among the plantation class, poor whites, and the growing, urbanizing middle class, but unfortunately, I really couldn't find any articles touching on the incidents of lynching that I read about in the book.

I'd like to fill in the gaps that I missed here. I highly recommend reading both books I mentioned, I found them both really interesting in how they explain the gender and socioeconomic conditions that created lynching culture in America, as well as how lynching lost its power from over exposure in media... but I'd like to understand American newspapers better. Does anyone know anything more about journalism in the Progressive Era, especially within the scope of lynching reports? Do you believe that journalists were important historical figures in circulating lynching culture or do you believe they were just passively reporting the news? Do you agree with Amy Wood's opinion that lynching lost its power from over exposure and newspapers had a hand in making it less tolerable to white Americans?

I'm not interested in the reports made by Black journalists, I think that's been researched thoroughly and my focus is on understanding the white experience.

Also, has anyone read these books before? If you have, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.