Violence
James H. Cone uses the imagery of violence in this text, in order to inform his reader about the suffering African Americans experienced due to racism, slavery, and segregation. He describes the lynchings of African Americans in graphic detail, for example, "the death of thousands of black men and women strung up to die on a lampost or tree," and the "brutal legacy of slavery." In the introduction to The Cross and the Lynching Tree, Cone describes lynchings in detail: "It was a public spectacle, often announced in advance in newspapers and over radios, attracting crowds of up to twenty thousand people. An unspeakable crime, it is a memory that most white Americans would prefer to forget. For African Americans, the memory of disfigured black bodies "swinging in the southern breeze" is so painful."
Cone also uses imagery to describe racial violence as creating a "wound." This description uses the imagery of a wound to emphasize the pain that many African American's have felt throughout American history, and also suggests that this suffering has not been remedied. This violent image to describe the impact of racism over decades is fittingly an image that suggests pain and suffering.
Church
Cone describes the church he attended as a child, using imagery to emphasizes the feelings of inclusiveness and comfort he felt there. He describes how he was born in Arkansas, "a lynching state," and how the "rural black church" he attended gave him some sense of hope: "I heard a different message, as preachers proclaimed the message of the suffering Jesus and the salvation accomplished in his death on the cross." He describes the atmosphere of the church in the following passage: "People shouted, clapped their hands, and stomped their feet as if a powerful, living reality of God's Spirit had transformed them from nobodies in white society to somebodies in the black church."
Volcano
Cone uses the imagery of a volcano to describe how the memories of lynching have been repressed in the African American consciousness, only to explode in times of difficulty: "they try to keep these horrors buried deep down in their consciousness, until, like a dormant volcano, they erupt uncontrollably, causing profound agony and pain." Here, the image of a volcano is used to describe the destructive emotions that racism can cause to victims.
