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Lynching is the execution of a person by the people of an area without the use of a court trial. Often people lynched have been hanged. Other forms of lynching such as being dragged to death behind a car, burning and use of a gun have been used. What makes the execution a lynching is the nature of it being done without a court trial by people who believe the accused is guilty of a crime. Lynchings have been used in the southern states of the United States of America against African Americans during the time of slavery but more commonly after the abolition of slavery during the time of civil rights activism and the times of the various Ku Klux Klans. Lynching is considered murder.