Final answer:
Mississippi and other Southern states provided an unofficial approval of lynching due to systemic racism, the use of violence to maintain white supremacy, and the lack of federal intervention despite the obvious civil rights violations and repeated calls for anti-lynching legislation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks why Mississippi gave an official stamp of approval on lynching. Lynching, the killing of a person without trial, was a common and horrific practice, peaking with nearly two hundred lynchings annually between 1890 and 1910. This practice was rooted in racism and was used to enforce white supremacy, often against African Americans who were presumed guilty without evidence. The false justification was that most victims were guilty of committing , but in reality, it served as a means to terrorize black communities and maintain social control. Despite the clear violation of civil rights, many individuals in authority turned a blind eye, and cases involving Klan violence would often collapse, such as when all five witnesses ended up dead before a trial in Mississippi. The federal government, under pressure from white Southern Democrats, resisted involving the federal government in the states' affairs, such as murder and assault. This ultimately obstructed the passage of federal anti-lynching legislation despite repeated attempts and strong advocacy from black leaders like Ida Wells.
Racism led to community sanctioning of lynchings, as evidenced by the use of a lynching photograph as a postcard in Duluth, Minnesota. This combined with the racial violence, discrimination in voting, and the refusal of federal intervention, notably when Mississippi requested federal assistance to combat the Klan violence and was denied, contributed to an environment where lynching was effectively condoned. Furthermore, race riots and increasing incidents of lynching during the 1910s and 1920s, often against black veterans, reflected the deep-seated racism and fear among many whites of losing cheap labor and political power.