| 1. | an unauthorized committee of citizens organized for the maintenance of order and the summary punishment of crime in the absence of regular or efficient courts. |
| 2. | History/Historical. (in the South) an organization of citizens using extralegal means to control or intimidate blacks and abolitionists and, during the Civil War, to suppress Union loyalists. |
| vigilance committee n. A volunteer group of citizens that without authority assumes powers such as pursuing and punishing those suspected of being criminals or offenders. |