"Sock It to Me"

[Wilson Gray]

Jon, I don't think that there's anyone who knows anything about
lynching who thinks that a lynching can be only a hanging. Emmitt Till
wasn't hanged. In a famous lynching in Omaha, the lynchee was to a
railroad crosstie and burned alive. There was a lynching in Missouri
in which the lynchee was tied to the roof of a building, which was
then burned down around him. During the Waco Horror, the lynchee was
suspended by chains from a tree limb and roasted to death over a slow
fire. Don't underestimate American ingenuity.

-Wilson

On 6/5/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Sock It to Me"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW, "lynching" has never been restricted to hanging, though in modern usage that does seem to be the usual connotation.  Undoubtedly it's been influenced by innumerable movie lynchings of hoss and cattle thieves who are uniformly hanged by vigilantes.
>
> JL
>
> Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3:03 AM -0400 6/5/05, Sam Clements wrote:
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Wilson Gray"
> >To:
> >Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 1:03 AM
> >Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>Jesus! - you should pardon the expression - how long have you been
> >>living in this country, Ben? Are you really so unaware of the way that
> >>things were and are? Don't you recall that, in the _'Sixties,_ the
> >>lynching of blacks and even of some Jews was still a commonplace
> >>practice?
> >>-Wilson
> >
> >Assuming you're referring to Goodman and Schwermer, I'd hardly call lynching
> >of Jews in the Sixties a "commonplace practice."
> >
> And technically, IIRC, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (along
> with James Chaney, who was of course black and not a Jew) were not
> lynched, nor was Violet Liuzzo (who was neither, but another murdered
> civil rights volunteer), although other whites working alongside
> blacks during those years may well have been murdered by lynching (as
> opposed to shooting, stabbing, burning, etc.) during the era of
> voting registrations drives and freedom riding. I can't recall
> hearing about any whites (Jewish or not) who were, though.
>
> Larry
>
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--
-Wilson Gray