Regarding the NAACP estimate of lynchings -- they actually kept a count as these things were happening. They listed date, place, and other information. You can probably find it online. I don't know how they came up with the number of lynchings prior to the founding of the group. See also "Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930" by Brundage, W. Fitzhugh (William Fitzhugh), University of Illinois Press, 1993. This just came across my desk: "The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane." ---Mark Twain, 1907 Henry Wiencek