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The Duluth Lynchings Online Resource
facilitates access to a wealth of primary source materials
relating to the 1920 lynching of three young black men in
Duluth, Minnesota. Search an in-depth collection of historical
documents scanned from the Society’s library and archives,
including newspaper clippings, investigative reports, trial
transcripts, prison records, and photographs. Listen to oral
history interviews of blacks who lived in Duluth at the time
of the lynchings. Read background text, view a multimedia
timeline, and use the other features designed to complement
the primary source materials.
The website contains over 2,000 pages of
historical documents, mostly from the 1920s. The documents
are presented in four sections: The Lynchings, Legal Proceedings,
Incarcerations, and Afterwards. The Background section merely
provides information about the time period. It contains no
documents.
The Lynchings: Includes investigative reports,
the Governor’s correspondence, death certificates and
coroner’s reports of the three lynched men, newspaper
accounts and editorials, and other documents.
Legal Proceedings: Includes
indictment records, trial transcripts, documents relating
to Max Mason’s appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court,
newspaper accounts of the trials, and other documents.
Incarcerations: Includes
correspondence and medical records, parole and pardon applications,
commitment and discharge records, and other documents.
Afterwards: Includes Minnesota’s
anti-lynching bill, newspaper articles relating to the anti-lynching
campaign, and other documents.
The entire document collection can be searched
using the Basic Search or Advanced Search features.
The Basic Search finds documents based on
keywords. All of the documents have been full-text indexed.
Helpful Tips: Search for
keywords entering one or more words in the search box. Using
multiple words will help narrow your search.
Search for complete phrases by using quotation
marks. Words enclosed in double quotes (e.g. "John Robinson
Circus") will return only those results that appear in
the catalog record exactly as you entered them.
In every index the asterisk symbol '*' acts
as a wildcard. For example, entering 'lynch*' in the keyword
search box will return all items with the word lynch, lynchers,
lynching, lynchings, etc.
The advanced search permits a more defined
search. You can search by keyword, date, document type, government
record type, and event. Use these criteria independently or
in any combination.
Keyword: This field functions
in the same way as the basic search.
Date: To search documents
by date, you must define the time period you will be searching.
Enter the dates in the appropriate “To” and “From”
boxes. Year fields are required. To search for a single day,
month, or year, type the same date in both boxes. Some documents
are undated and cannot be searched by date.
Document Type: Choose the
type of document you want to search from the pull-down menu:
Correspondence, Government Record, Newspaper, Photograph,
Publication, Report, or 3-Dimensional Object.
Government Record Type:
Choose the type of government record you will search from
the pull-down menu (e.g. Coroner’s Report, Indictment
Record, Notice of Motion, Parole Record). Use this feature
only when "Gov't Records" is selected as the Document
Type.
Search by Event: Define
your search by event: The Lynchings, Incarcerations, Legal
Proceedings, and Afterwards. You can search by any combination
of events by checking or un-checking the appropriate boxes.
The Search Results page gives you a list
of the documents that met your search criteria. Click “Start
of Document” to view a document from its beginning.
Or click on the page numbers to view pages that contain the
information matching your search criteria.
You can limit the search results by document
type. Simply click on the appropriate icon in the left margin.
Use the “View Page As” feature
to view pages as images or text. To download a PDF version
of the document for printing, click “Complete Document.”
For more information on the PDF format see “Technical
Issues” below.
Navigate pages within a single document by
using the “Next Page >” and “<
Previous Page” buttons. Or use the “Go To Page”
feature to jump to a specific page within the document. Use
the “Next Document >|” and “|< Previous
Document” buttons to view other documents in your search
results.
Complete versions of documents in the collection
are available as PDF files for printing. To download PDF files
you need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on the
web browser you are using.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is
available for free download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
Please consult Adobe’s site if you have problems with
this installation process.
In order to use the interactive timeline
and listen to the oral histories, you need to have the Macromedia
Flash player, version 6, installed on the web browser you
are using. This will also allow you to view an animated introduction
at the top of the Duluth Lynchings Online Resource home page.
Flash Player 6 is available
for free download at http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/alternates/.
You will need to select and download the proper version of
Flash Player 6 for your computer’s operating system
and browser. Please consult Macromedia’s site if you
have problems with this installation process.
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