Lecture To Focus On Violence And Vigilantism In Central Texas
Dr. William D. Carrigan, assistant professor of history at Rowan University in New Jersey, will lecture on "Why Ordinary People Lynched: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916" at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, in room 100 at Morrison Constitution Hall on the Baylor University campus. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Texas Collection.
A Waco native, Carrigan received his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his master's degree and doctorate from Emory University and has written and published on the U.S.-Mexican War and on slavery in Texas. He is the author of the recently released book The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916. Much of the research for his new book came from archival and other holdings in the Texas Collection. Using court records, newspaper accounts, oral histories and other sources, Carrigan's book shows how conventional notions of justice and historical memory were reshaped to glorify violence and foster a culture that legitimized lynching.
For more information, call 710-1268.