New York City, 1936: From their headquarters at 69 5th Avenue, the NAACP flew a flag to report
lynchings until 1938, when the threat of losing its lease forced the association to discontinue the
practice.
http://www.pbs.org
TEXT: Throughout American history, many types of people have been lynched, from outlaws in the
American West to immigrants in American cities, but the vast majority of lynching victims have been
African-American men. (…)
By the late 1920s, 95 percent of U.S. lynchings occurred in the South. (…)
Ida B.Wells headed the Anti-Lynching League and was a member of the Committee of Forty which led to
the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
While the Constitution leaves law enforcement up to the states, a movement spearheaded by the NAACP
sought to pass anti-lynching laws at the federal level, since Southern state governments appeared
ineffective in fighting this crime. During the Great Depression, when Billie Holiday recorded Strange
Fruit, lynchings of African-Americans were again on the increase. Although a law at the federal level was
consistently blocked by Southern senators, lynchings virtually disappeared by 1950. In part this can be
attributed to improved economic conditions and the success of the anti-lynching campaign spearheaded
by the NAACP.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/jazzfreedom.htm#objectives
Free States and slave states before the Civil War