The aftermath of George Floyd’s cruel death made it clear that many Americans are largely unaware of the history of racial lynchings in their own country. From this ignorance came the corrosive insensitivity displayed by numerous white television pundits, journalists, radio hosts, and podcasters who commented endlessly on the details of Floyd’s death and the protests it inspired with little or no attention given to why so many black people might have intense emotional reactions to the public killing of a black man. This antagonizing disconnect between white America and black America hinders overdue progress not only on the issue of police interactions with blacks but with overall race relations as well.

Tragic incidents such as the killing of George Floyd do not occur in a vacuum for most blacks, because they are more likely than whites to be aware of the long and horrific campaign of terror waged against black people in America. Understandably, blacks tend to include this layer of historical context—thousands of racially motivated lynchings—to news of a contemporary police killing. Anyone who knows this part of U.S. history is more likely to react with heightened concern.

Black people were lynched with the greatest frequency and severity in the South between the end of the Civil War and 1950. Approximately 4,000 were murdered in this manner, for a regional average of close to one black person lynched per week spread over nearly nine decades. Law enforcement and other government officials consistently participated in, encouraged, or tolerated the killings. These public celebrations of torture and murder are a painful and prominent element of the black experience in America, second only to slavery. And yet much of it remains a massive blind spot for too many white people who have never learned the terrible depths and details of this nightmare.

In my experience, having been born and raised in the South, studied history there, and written a book about race and racism, it is not enough to know the story of Emmitt Till or have heard Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit.” Passing glances of this sort leave too many Americans uninformed and unsympathetic to the haunting generational unease felt by many blacks today. For example, there is the common notion that lynchings of the past were the work of random racist mobs run amok or well-meaning vigilante groups motivated by justice—more aberrations than a persistent pattern with a larger purpose.

The reality is that racial lynchings were a frequent and normal feature of life in the South. This unique method of murder was a devastating form of terrorism that imposed a constant threat to all black people. The white authority structure did not only tolerate or encourage these killings but used the fear of lynchings to control and oppress black people. Common justifications given for lynching a black person included an accusation of committing a crime, deranged fears of interracial sex contaminating the pure white race, disagreeing with a white person, looking at or addressing a white person the “wrong way,” bumping into a white person, attempting to speak out or organize to improve black rights, or for simply being black. Lynchings were not only frequent and widespread in the South but also carried out with impunity. According to some research, a mere 1 percent of killers were convicted.

Even when one has studied this history, it can be a challenge to accept that it really was as bad as it was. Lynchings often were thrilling, joyful celebrations attended by entire white communities numbering in the hundreds or thousands. Refreshments and souvenirs were sold, postcards produced. Some took place on courthouse lawns or in town squares where the bodies of victims were displayed after death for all to see. White children not only watched but sometimes participated in the torture, mutilation, and burning of a victim. At home, white children often played popular lynching games with dolls or each other. Lynching was so pervasive and horrifying that it was a primary motivation for millions of black people to migrate to the North in the twentieth century, a population shift that could be described in large part as refugees fleeing for their lives. Keep in mind that this was not ancient times or the Middle Ages. This is very recent American history.

Lynchings in the past have significantly shaped race relations in the present. A killing such as Floyd’s lands on black people with a much heavier psychological weight because of lynching’s legacy. Too many white people fail to recognize this, and that needs to change. The hurt is too great, the simmering fear and anger too volatile, to bury forever. All Americans who would seek or demand a nation that is fairer to every citizen, less racist, and more peaceful have a responsibility to know this history in detail. Much as I believe in the power of historical knowledge, something more than reading a book or two may be required. Perhaps an effort along the lines of a national truth and reconciliation commission would open more eyes and raise awareness. Other countries that endured similar bloody chapters in their histories have had some success with such efforts. Confronting this ugliness would be difficult for everyone, of course, but it should be attempted. Ignorance and denial certainly have not worked, because this American wound still bleeds.