Mississippi| unit_pref = Imperial | area_footnotes = | area_magnitude = | area_total_km2 = 125,443 | area_total_sq_mi = 48,430 | area_land_km2 = 121,607 | area_land_sq_mi = 46,952 | area_water_km2 = 3,940 | area_water_sq_mi = 1,521 | area_water_percent = 3 | area_rank = | dimensions_footnotes = | length_km = 545 | length_mi = 340 | width_km = 275 | width_mi = 170 | elevation_footnotes = | elevation_m = 90 | elevation_ft = 300 | elevation_point = | elevation_max_footnotes = | elevation_max_m = 246.
VigilantismVigilantism (vɪdʒɪˈlæntɪzəm) is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (borrowed from Spanish "vigilante", which means "sentinel" or "watcher", from Latin vigilāns) is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice without commission. According to political scientist Regina Bateson, vigilantism is "the extralegal prevention, investigation, or punishment of offenses.
Jim Crow lawsThe Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African-American. Such laws remained in force until 1965. Formal and informal segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well, even if several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting.
PogromA pogrom (погро́м) is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire (mostly within the Pale of Settlement). Similar attacks against Jews which also occurred at other times and places retrospectively became known as pogroms. Sometimes the word is used to describe publicly sanctioned purgative attacks against non-Jewish groups.
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together, they comprise the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The House's composition was established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The House is composed of representatives who, pursuant to the Uniform Congressional District Act, sit in single member congressional districts allocated to each state on the basis of population as measured by the United States census, with each district having one representative, provided that each state is entitled to at least one.
Racism in the United StatesRacism has been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions (including violence) at various times in the history of the United States against racial or ethnic groups. Throughout American history, white Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights, which have been denied to members of various ethnic or minority groups at various times. European Americans have enjoyed advantages in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure.
Nadir of American race relationsThe nadir of American race relations was the period in African-American history and the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the early 20th century, when racism in the country, especially anti-black racism, was more open and pronounced than it had ever been during any other period in the nation's history. During this period, African Americans lost access to many of the civil rights which they had gained during Reconstruction.
Tarring and featheringTarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishment used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance. The victim would be stripped naked, or stripped to the waist. Wood tar (sometimes hot) was then either poured or painted onto the person while they were immobilized. The victim then either had feathers thrown on them or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar.
NAACPThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells. Over the years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins. Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination".
Death squadA death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are formed by an insurgency, domestic or foreign governments actively participate in, support, or ignore the death squad's activities. Death squads are distinct from assassination from their permanent organization and the larger number of victims (typically thousands or more) who may not be prominent individuals.
