Even model black success in 1891 did not shield a family from lynching-era violence.

Evidence

Tommie Moss was one of the first black postal workers in Memphis. In 1891 he earned 850 per year. At that time, “Negro skilled labor” earned three dollars a day on the high end, 1.10 at the lowest, and $1.75 on average. He made a good living with steady work, and it showed. The Mosses owned their own home at a time when only one in five black Americans were homeowners. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 289

Categorization

• CANDY: The 1-in-5 homeownership stat and $850 salary ground the portrait of middle-class Black respectability that lynching targeted.