Between 1865 and 1950, at least 6,500 Black people were victims of lynchings in the United States, where the abolition of chattel slavery was not accompanied by equal rights or protection and lethal violence was used to maintain white economic, political, and social control. Lynchings became the most public and notorious form of racial terrorism, and Black people were sometimes targeted for participating in politics, seeking economic independence, engaging in interracial relationships, allegedly violating arbitrary social norms, or being accused of crimes and presumed guilty without trial. White mob violence was tolerated and even encouraged by local media and elected officials, public officials and law enforcement often failed to protect Black people and sometimes facilitated lynchings, and mobs seized victims from jails, prisons, courtrooms, or police custody without fear of legal repercussions, causing terror and trauma throughout Black communities. In Anderson County, where five documented victims were among at least 207 Black people lynched in South Carolina between 1865 and 1950, white mobs lynched at least five Black people, including three teenagers, over 17 years. On December 12, 1894, nearly 500 white men abducted Edward Sullivan, a Black boy, from law enforcement and hanged him near Williamston after a white boy was found dead, and white press excused the killing in defense of those who took part. On May 20, 1898, after a white man's gin house burned down, a constable handed Elbert Harris, a Black teenager, to about 20 white men, who brutally whipped and beat him by the roadside; he died four days later in the Anderson County Jail. On November 24, 1901, at least 200 white people seized John Laddison, a Black farm worker, after a white woman reported being assaulted, denied him due process, hanged him in Rock Mills Township, and shot his body. On June 30, 1903, up to 50 white men fatally shot Reuben Elrod, an elderly Black man, then stripped, severely beat, and terrorized three Black women who were relatives and caregivers in the Elrod home. On October 10, 1911, after a reported assault on a white girl, a mob led by a South Carolina state representative lynched 17-year-old Willis Jackson in Honea Path. No one was ever held accountable for any of these lynchings.