A lynching is an execution that is based on prejudice, not evidence. There is no indication that this sad event was a racial lynching. If any such evidence ever emerges, it should and will be pursued with vigor. What this affair has been is a geographical lynching. Lynching a state is no more justified than lynching a person.
Geographical prejudice is no better than racial prejudice.
Robert S. McElvaine is a historian at Millsaps College. This column appeared originally in the Washington Post . The only national liberal arts college in Mississippi, Millsaps is a privately supported college founded in 1890 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church.