"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." In the books In the books Southern Horrors and Mob Rule in New Orleans, Ida documents the alarmingly high rates of lynching in the United States (which was at a peak from 1880 to 1930) and Robert Charles and his fight to death. The term lynch law refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law. Both terms are derived from the name of Charles Lynch (1736-96), a Virginia planter and justice of the peace who, during the American Revolution, headed an irregular court formed to punish loyalists.