I also note a significant difference between lynching as racist murder and the kind of old west vigilantism J South describes: the presence or absence of institutions of law and order. In the case of the old west, it wasn't necessarily that the vigilantes didn't respect the institutions, they literally weren't available, or were too distant. In the places where racist lynchings occurred -- as part of an exercise in upholding white community standards -- there were institutions which were either ignored or which, by their inaction, were complicit and thus abdicated their proper role. David Kiracofe David Kiracofe History Tidewater Community College Chesapeake Campus 1428 Cedar Road Chesapeake, Virginia 23322 757-822-5136