Lynchings and Exodus

A reason why the Ozarks exists in the popular American mindset as a white region has to do with a long and, most likely, willfully forgotten history of policital violence against African Americans in the years following emancipation.

The first decade of the 20th century saw the simmering resentments held against African Americans errupt into a string of race-riots and lynchings across the major cities of the Ozarks. The fear and trauma caused by these events led to a mass exodus of African Americans from the region, with some estimates placing the figure as high as 40,000 people.