HISTORY
Why Racial Terror Lynchings Should Not Be Confined to Hidden History
An essay about The Lynching of the Julian Brothers (1893)
When the Senate signed a resolution apologizing to lynching victims and their descendants in 2005, representatives promised to “ensure that these tragedies will never be forgotten or repeated.” Yet, public high schools and universities do not traditionally include these narratives in their curriculum. And state-wide bans on so-called “divisive topics” have limited discussions on the nation’s legacy of racism. One consequence is that the victims of lynchings exist only as names on a page for many Americans. While these historical events were horrific, the nature of these crimes should not become the justification to silence their narratives. Doing so abandons the pledge to ensure these tragedies are remembered and never repeated. Thus, the details of their stories should be exposed and laid bare.
One such narrative is the Lynching of the Julian Brothers, which occurred on September 17, 1893, in the city of Jefferson, a neighborhood in modern-day New Orleans. According to The Daily Picayune, a Black man, Roselius Julian, shot and killed a White judge, Victor Estopinal, and later shot his son. This, however, is not the story of his lynching but those of his family members…
