Listen Audio stories from generations affected by lynching.

Watch A film exploring one family’s painful past and journey south.

Explore Interactive maps on the impact of lynching.

Learn More Join our efforts to fight racial injustice today.

The Report The full report with additional research and materials for educators.

About More about the project and the Equal Justice Initiative.

Strange Fruit

This site features painful stories of America’s history of racial injustice. In order to heal the deep wounds of our present, we must face the truth of our past.



After slavery was formally abolished, lynching emerged as a vicious tool of racial control to reestablish white supremacy and suppress Black civil rights. More than 4,000 African Americans were lynched across twenty states between 1877 and 1950.



These lynchings were public acts of racial terrorism, intended to instill fear in entire Black communities. Government officials frequently turned a blind eye or condoned the mob violence.



The effects of racial terror lynchings are still felt today.