James Brothers wrote, " I would also take exception to the idea that 
lynchings took place with the full support of the White community (as 
claimed in an
earlier post). They may have had the support of a substantial portion
of the local White community, but to go beyond that is unacceptable.
And given the activities of organizations like the KKK, some/many may
have gone along or at least not objected because they feared for
their own safety.

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Even in the 1960s most of the KKK members tried for murder were not freed 
because of a hung jury. Most juries found in their favor in less than an 
hour.
Newsreels show the jury members leaving with a smiles on their faces and 
patting themselves on the back. The "good people" of the U.S. were as silent 
as the "good people" of Germany. Now that we can accept this as being wrong 
(barbaric to some of us), it is time to stop making excuses, acknowledge how 
horrible it was and for historians to analyze how this developed. In some 
ways Germany managed to put their racist past behind them in a matter of a 
few decades because there was no one defending their awful past.
Paul