Nearly 5,000 Americans - mostly black males - are documented as having been lynched between 1880 and 1960. Far fewer Jews were lynched (one source estimates between 5 and 10) but, perhaps the most famous lynching case of all time involved a Jew, Leo Frank
On Monday, the United States Senate passed a resolution apologizing to Leo Frank, together with all of the many other victims, for the Senate's failure to stop lynching (three bills made it past the House between 1920 and 1940 only to die in the Senate.)
The apology resolution had wide support, and was co-sponsored by almost all of the Senators, but there were a few holdout Senators who couldn't quite bring themselves to say that lynching is wrong. They were (surprise!) all Republicans, and included Thad Cochran and Trent Lott who both are from the state responsible for the highest number of lynchings (MS with 581.)
