Today the 1st national #LynchingMemorial opens in Montgomery, Alabama. I have worked to create a national lynching data set from 1684 to 1983. What do we know about lynchings? 1/N
First, we know they were heavily concentrated in the Deep South from the late 1800's and in general. Here's a heat map of the entire data set from 1684 to 1983. 2/N 
We also know lynchings occurred throughout the United States. There were lynchings in all but 5 states + DC. 3/N
Lynching was horrible on its own. In a 2014 paper, I also show how devastating the horrific practice of lynching was to inventive activity, the backbone of economic growth: econpapers.repec.org/article/kapjec…; ungated -- lisadcook.net/wp-content/upl…. #LynchingMemorial 4/N
In a 2012 paper, I report on flaws of historical national lynching data series, such as Tuskegee, Chicago Tribune, NAACP, Ginzburg, etc., and the effort to create a national lynching data set, we have now completed: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… #LynchingMemorial 5/N
The new data suggest that the majority of lynching victims over time were African American. Yet, prior to 1879, they were mainly Asian (mostly Chinese), Hispanic/Mexican + Native American. In general, historical lynching series overestimate white lynchings. #LynchingMemorial 6/N
The NAACP tried desperately to record and get a federal law passed against these extra-legal killings. We are reminded in this pamphlet that the Senate never passed an anti-lynching bill, although it did offer an apology in 2005: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content…. #LynchingMemorial 7/N
Kudos to all visiting the @MemPeaceJustice on its opening day. I couldn't do this in Rwanda + Alsace, was barely able to at Goree Island + doubt if I'll have the emotional constitution to do this here. For now, this'll have to do: cbsnews.com/news/inside-th…. #LynchingMemorial 8/8
