Does the stigma of slavery explain the maltreatment of blacks by whites?: The case of lynchings

This paper explores whether the stigma of slavery can explain the maltreatment of blacks by whites by considering the effects former slave status had on a brutal form of maltreatment—lynching. Parameter estimates from shared frailty Cox proportional hazard specifications reveal that consistent with a theory of stigma in which former slave status conditions maltreatment, former slaves were frail—or more likely to be subjected to lynching. Overall, our parameter estimates suggest that while the stigma of slavery has some power in explaining the inferior outcomes blacks realize in their interactions with whites, race and the race discrimination engendered by job competition are more important explanatory factors.