On Lynchings

How common was lynching? In a country of 76 million people in 1900, there were about 4800 lynchings, total, for the whole of US history, and at least a quarter of them were of white folk. 

Total lynchings: Approximately 4,700–4,800 lynchings occurred between 1882 and 1968 (NAACP and Tuskegee Institute records), or about 55 deaths per year. 

• Black victims: ~3,446 (~73%)
• White victims: ~1,297 (~27%)

125 of the lynchings recorded between 1882 and 1903 (the period with the most available data) or roughly or roughly 3% overall, were black crowds lynching black prisoners.

Meanwhile, lightning strikes often caused 100–450+ deaths per year, peaking around 300–400 in some years. So, during peak lynching years, the annual risk of lynching for a black person was in the same ballpark as (or somewhat lower than) the lightning death risk for the general population. 

Lynching wasn't very common. 

Largest Single Lynching East of the Mississippi River: 
The 1891 New Orleans lynching (Louisiana) — 11 Italian immigrants were lynched by a mob after the murder of a police chief. This is frequently cited as one of the largest single mass lynchings in U.S. history, but that isn't accurate. That distinction belongs to LA.

Largest Single Lynching West of the Mississippi River:
The 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre (California) — 18–19 Chinese men were lynched (hanged, shot, and beaten) in one of the deadliest attacks on Chinese immigrants in American history.