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While considerable attention has been drawn to "reproduction" theories of education, little empirical research has been conducted within this framework. This paper uses the reproduction perspective to examine how various mechanisms of the American educational structure contribute to the maintenance of the mental‐manual division of labor within class structure. Using a national, longitudinal sample of high school seniors, we look at the reproduction effects of public versus private schooling, the composition of school communities and curriculum tracking. We find that reproduction results from the schooling experiences of a majority of students and that tracking is the most important mechanism in this process. However, nonreproduction is apparent as well which points to some issues that reproduction theories must address to provide viable explanations of the role of education in society.

Prior research has revealed a great deal about the frequency of southern lynchings and how and why they varied in intensity across space and over time. In this study, we consider two characteristics of lynching incidents about which there has been much speculation, but little actual evidence: (1) whether the victim was tortured before death and (2) whether the victim's corpse was desecrated. We use data on 3,767 completed lynchings in 11 southern states between 1877 and 1950 to describe the frequency with which antemortem torture and postmortem desecration occurred and to determine what factors were most important in shaping the likelihood of both. We conclude that 7.7 percent of victims were physically tortured prior to death and that 8.2 percent had their bodies desecrated. Both torture and desecration were more likely to occur after 1910 and when lynchings were carried out by larger mobs. Victims accused of gender-related crimes were more likely than others to be tortured or desecrated.

Past empirical research into the history of racially motivated mob violence in the American South has relied almost exclusively on the record of completed lynchings. In this article, we propose that a better definition of "racialized terrorism" would also include the record of lynching threats. Using a newly available confirmed inventory of lynching threats for 11 Southern states from 1880 to 1929, we demonstrate that the total quantum of racialized terrorism nearly doubles when completed lynchings and lynching threats are combined, with some states and decades affected more than others. Parallel analyses suggest that previous conclusions regarding important environmental predictors of Southern mob violence, such as agricultural specialty, political party strength, and racial population composition, are robust to an expansion of racialized terrorism to include threatened lynchings. However, sufficient differences are found between the predictors of completed and threatened lynchings to suggest the need for future researchers to consider broadening the measurement of racialized terrorism.

After decades of relative residential stability, southern blacks began migrating in striking numbers following the turn of the twentieth century. Reconstruction and Redemption saw a fair amount of short-distance movement as black tenant farmers exchanged one landlord for another in search of favorable financial arrangements. Some blacks moved across state lines, generally toward the Southwest, in pursuit of King Cotton and the livelihood it promised. However, these population movements pale in comparison with the massive migration of southern blacks during the first half of this century.

Data on the number of black executions from 400+ counties in 6 states of the Cotton South 1890-1909 & 1910-1929 (representing pre- & postdisenfranchisement periods) are used to examine the utility of competition explanations, particularly Hubert M. Blalock's threat hypotheses (Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations, New York: Wiley, 1967; see SA 16:1/67C8904), for explaining geographic variation in the frequency of legal black executions (BEs). The relationship between black population concentration & BEs is assessed before & after introducing direct measures of racial competition. Findings for the earlier time period suggest that economic competition between the races had a substantial influence on the frequency of BEs within counties. However, a persistently strong relationship between black population concentration & BEs indicates the operation of social forces not included in the models. For the postdisenfranchisement period, the relationship between a county's racial composition & BE virtually disappears, & none of the direct measures of racial competition exerts a significant influence on BEs. The evidence from the earlier & later time periods combined indicates that a real variation in the propensity to execute blacks was shaped by both economic & political competition between the races. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 35 References. Adapted from the source document.