Lynching postcard

[4] Others were often accused of crimes and forcibly removed from their homes or jails[5] to be murdered by a white supremacist mob without due process or presumption of innocence.

[8] In a typical lynching postcard, the victim is displayed prominently at the center of the shot, while smiling spectators, often including children,[7] crowd the margins of the frame, posing for the camera to prove their presence.

[6] Still others collected them as historical objects or racist paraphernalia: their manufacture and continued distribution was part of white supremacist culture, and has been likened to "bigot pornography".

Richard Lacayo, writing for Time magazine, noted in 2000: Even the Nazis did not stoop to selling souvenirs of Auschwitz, but lynching scenes became a burgeoning subdepartment of the postcard industry.

By 1908, the trade had grown so large, and the practice of sending postcards featuring the victims of mob murderers had become so repugnant, that the U.S. Postmaster General banned the cards from the mails.