Mob mentality has spanned the course of human history. This psychological phenomenon, also called herd or hive mentality, is the human inclination to be part of a large group, often neglecting individual feelings in the process, and adopting the behaviors and actions of the people around them. Mob mentality triggered the crucifixion of Jesus. In the late 1600s, young women falsely accused of witchcraft were executed after mob mentality swept through Salem, Massachusetts. The uncontrolled excitement at a New Orleans Saints game generates mob mentality. I know firsthand. On social media, friends sometimes gather together to say and share vile, mean, and threatening words about others who are complete strangers to them. Too often, this survivalist attitude results in unintended conflict and unimaginable consequences.
Take for instance the case of Mack Charles Parker, a black WWII veteran from Lumberton. In 1959, a young pregnant white woman accused Parker of rape. In a matter of days, the story had swelled and mutated to the point that people wanted blood justice. Days before the trial, a throng of local people with assistance from sheriff’s deputies, raided the Pearl River County jail in Poplarville and dragged Parker kicking and screaming out of the jailhouse to an awaiting vehicle. The mob tortured and shot him, wrapped him in logging chains, and threw his body off a bridge into a river in Louisiana. A local jury and federal jury refused to indict the many perpetrators. The Department of Justice reopened the case 64 years later, in 2023, and closed it last October because too many witnesses had died.
Each time mob mentality appears, the participants close ranks around a perceived threat to their social order. They lash out in an echo chamber of raw emotion and are desensitized to the target of their ire. Which leads me to the saga of Episcopal priest Mariann Edgar Budde, the first woman to lead the diocese in Washington D.C. She chose to directly confront our duly elected President and asked him to have mercy on illegal immigrants and people in the gay/trans communities who are “scared.” The news pundits had a field day dissecting her words. But the mass hysteria, and threats to Budde’s life that followed, were the real news story. Ordinary folks, many in the Pine Belt, piled on a Christian priest who, in her own church, delivered a sermon on grace and love. When fair dialogue and criticism within the masses devolve into something sinister and potentially violent, we lose ourselves in the process.
My hope and prayer are that we in our community vigorously stay true to our convictions, reexamine our positions, and together oppose any path to mob mentality. We do not have to agree with or like Bishop Budde. But, we also must remain vigilant to protect the rights of all to free speech and to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of our brothers and sisters with whom we disagree. That is the American spirit.
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Clark Hicks is a lawyer who lives in Hattiesburg. His email is clark@hicksattorneys.com.
