Chapter 9 Flashcards
What does the ash falling on the townspeople’s homes near Sachsenhausen symbolize?
The pervasive presence of evil and the complicity of bystanders who lived near atrocities yet chose silence and inaction.
What was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s quote about silence in the face of evil?
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil… Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
How does Wilkerson use the metaphor of the lynching tree in a Southern town?
As a symbol of public terror used to enforce caste hierarchy and social order, even at the cost of public safety and moral decency.
Who was Wylie McNeely and what happened to him?
A 19-year-old Black man burned alive in 1921 by a mob in Texas; body parts were taken as souvenirs.
What does Wilkerson say about lynchings being “part carnival, part torture chamber”?
That lynchings were public spectacles, normalized by society, and even commercialized with photos and souvenirs.
What made lynching postcards uniquely American, according to Wilkerson?
Their normalization and commercialization, with photos sold and mailed like keepsakes—something “even the Nazis did not do.”
What was Will Brown accused of, and what happened to him in Omaha, 1919?
Accused of assaulting a white woman, he was lynched, shot, burned, and dragged through the streets by a white mob of 15,000.
What role did Henry Fonda play in the memory of the Will Brown lynching?
As a boy, he witnessed the lynching and later starred in films where he became the voice of moral justice.
What is the chapter’s central thesis about silence?
That silence enables systemic evil to grow; complicity is found not only in perpetrators but also in those who choose not to resist.
How does Wilkerson tie this chapter to the broader concept of caste?
By showing how public spectacles of violence were used to reinforce caste hierarchy and how silence from the dominant caste sustained the system.
