ABOUT THIS SERIES: In conjunction with the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, the Montgomery Advertiser is running a series of stories titled "Legacy of lynchings: America’s shameful history of racial terror." Between 1877 and 1950, more than 360 African-Americans were murdered by mobs in Alabama and more than 4,000 were killed nationwide. The acts of racial terrorism, conducted in the name of white supremacy, were almost never punished; created untold human suffering, and helped contribute to the Great Migration out of the South.