More black people were killed by US police in 2015 than were lynched in the worst year of Jim Crow

Two unarmed black men were killed by police in the US this week, sparking further outcry over systemic racism in law enforcement.

Quartz analysed data on lynchings from the last century and found, incredibly, that more black men were shot dead by police in 2015 than were lynched in the worst year of the Jim Crow era.

The Jim Crow laws, which were only removed in 1965 due to Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act, imposed segregation and the infamous 'separate but equal' approach to civil liberties.

The data was first found and broken down by Twitter user @such_A_frknlady:

Building on this, Quartz did their own investigation into lynchings. Using material kept by Tuskagee University, a historically black college in Alabama, they looked at the number of black people who were lynched during the Jim Crow era of 1890 - 1965.

In total 2,911 people were lynched in the 75 year period, on average 39 per year. The worst year was 1892, when 161 black people were lynched. In the same year 61 whites were lynched.

In 2015, the number of black people shot by police was 258, 26 per cent of all deaths. 38 of those casualties were unarmed.

The trend for 2016 will beat this record. As of 07/07/2016 the number of black people whom have been shot dead by police was 123.

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