4. The WCTU and Lynching, 1893
In the fall of 1893, the WCTU passed this anti-lynching resolution at its annual convention. Susan Fessenden, the Massachusetts WCTU leader who sponsored it, said later that the assembly accepted it without much controversy.
While the resolution says that some lynching victims might have committed crimes, it identifies and specifically condemns it. Compare its text to the resolution passed at the same time the following year.