Presented in Mississippi at Jackson State University, "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America" will be on view July 15 through February 27, 2005 at The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

"Without Sanctuary" was organized by The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History from the collection of James Allen and John Littlefield.

©2002 collection of James Allen and John Littelfield. All rights reserved. Without Sanctuary

Items from the collection are currently appearing in Mississippi at Jackson State University through July 7, 2004, and previously appeared at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh from September 22 through December 31 and then extended by popular demand through January 21, 2002, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta from May 1 through December 1, 2002.

©2002 collection of James Allen and John Littelfield. All rights reserved. Without Sanctuary

The exhibition initially opened briefly under the title "Witness" at the Roth Horowitz gallery in Manhattan in early 2000.

The New York Historical Society followed with a variance of the exhibition under the title "Without Sanctuary" from March 14 through July 9, 2000 and extended a number of times due to popular demand.

©2002 collection of James Allen and John Littelfield. All rights reserved. Without Sanctuary

Through photographic postcards, the museum's archives and artifacts, this exhibition chronicles one of the most horrific periods of terrorism, injustice and racial violence in our nation's history.

"Without Sanctuary" is also a provocative case study of human behavior as it relates to cause and effect. On one hand, everyday people when fueled by prejudice, insecurity and their own fears, are driven to commit thousands of heinous mob murders often with little or no legal evidence to support their claims. On the other hand, when confronted with unspeakable cruelty and torture, another group of ordinary people risked everything, including their lives to fight back and take a stand.

©2002 collection of James Allen and John Littelfield. All rights reserved. Without Sanctuary

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) led a tireless campaign to pass federal legislation that would ban lynching and punish perpetrators. Members of local chapters were encouraged to press legal action against lynchers, while the national office produced and circulated pamphlets and other publications that exposed those in positions of authority who refused to take action in prevention of, or who ignored lynching incidents. Another individual, Ida B. Wells-Barnett traveled and lectured widely in the United States and Europe urging people to speak out, stand up and demand justice against the lynch mobs. She even had the courage to produce the pamphlets, "Southern Horrors" and "A Red Record" each considered to be influential documents in American history.

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