Our team compiles biographies and accounts of lynchings by utilizing primary source databases and published secondary sources on racial violence. Please check with your local public library or university library for access to these databases. Explore below to learn more about these resources.
Looking for a place to start?
Our guiding document is Appendix A of George Wright’s Racial Violence in Kentucky: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and “Legal Lynchings.” Click here to download a PDF of Appendix A.
The Louisville Courier-Journal offers an online spreadsheet lynching victims in Kentucky. It is free of charge to view. Click here to be taken to the spreadsheet. It will open in a new window.
Newpapers
Readex African American Newspapers, 1827 to 1998
Online access to 280 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.
Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program
The Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program (KDNP) preserves and houses historic and contemporary digitized newspapers from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. They provide online access to nearly one million pages of Kentucky’s first draft of history.
Chronicling America: America’s Historic Newspapers
Online access to America’s historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963. This resource includes a Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky Research Guide
A research guide to aid interns working on the DRVK project. A collection of many articles and sources used throughout this project.
Kentucky Lynchings Spreadsheet (Online)
Lynchings that occurred in the state of Kentucky. Source: Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington. Created by Will Kantlehner IV.
Thirty Years of Lynching, 1889 to 1918
A digitally scanned book published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1919 documenting lynchings from 1889 to 1918.
Ancestry Library Edition
Genealogy collection from ancestry.com that includes census data, vital records, directories, and photos.
Tuskegee Institute News Clipping File
The Tuskegee Institute News Clippings File is a microfilm edition of hundreds of thousands of individual news clippings (1899–1966) compiled from more than 300 major national dailies, leading southeastern dailies, Afro-American newspapers, magazines, religious and special interest publications, and foreign newspapers. The collection represents an important resource for researching the 20th century Afro-American experience in the United States, Africa, and the world. 252 reels, 66-page guide.
Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News, New York Times Historical Edition, Pittsburgh Courier (ProQuest)
ProQuest houses primary source content from African American newspapers throughout history. The four newspapers listed above were utilized in this project.