Lynching: The mass murder of someone who might be considered a public delinquent. While Southern whites may have thought of themselves as vigilantes, they were actually murderers with partial intent. In the Southern United States during the 1960s, lynchings occurred frequently by standards like today's. While the lynching changed the lives of people directly connected to the victims, it also changed mindsets and actions where it occurred and across the nation. Thus, the racially based motivations for lynching and the crimes themselves influenced the people, legislature, and culture of the South for years to come. Part of the consequences of lynching in the South were the psychological consequences on the mobs involved. The entire culture of African Americans is marked by lynching because the main reason why white mobs lynched Southern African Americans was skin pigmentation. This means that blacks were lynched based on ignorant intolerance; however, the supposed basis of Southern white hatred is internalized by every person of color in the color of their skin. In the words of Lee H. Butler, Jr., "Unlike a single traumatic event experienced by one person, lynching is a trauma that marked an entire culture and several generations because it lasted more than eighty years." the psychological effects of lynching on African Americans and African Americans who have had family members lynched are important. The mental impact on family members of a lynching victim is life-changing. Often being responsible for recovering the body, families saw the representation of white hatred towards them and their family members embodied in their corpse (Lee H. Butler). More than 2,805 families have endured all this to...... middle of paper ......ching has changed the South and the people of the South, but accepting the truth and moving forward with history in mind is the way towards the racial race. comprehension. Works Cited Anti-lynching bill. 2014. April 27, 2014 .Brazil, Jana Evans. History of lynching in the United States. 2013. April 27, 2014. Everet, Dianna. Lynching. 2013. April 29, 2014. Lee H. Butler, Jr. Lynching: A Posttraumatic Stressor in a Long-Term Traumatic World. 2012. April 27, 2014. Zangrando, Robert L., John F Callahan, and Dickson D Bruce. Speaking of lynching. 2013. April 16 2014 .