Ida Wells-Barnett And Southern Horrors

Ida B. Wells also bought an interest in the _New York Age_ and wrote two weekly columns entitled "Iola's Southern Field," and kept increasing her oral and written campaign against lynching mainly through lectures and editorials. Some of these works by Ida B. Wells include _Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases_; _A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States_; and _Mob Rule in New Orleans_ (1900). In all of these works, Wells argues and contemplates the economic and political causes of racial oppression and injustices. In her writing she analyzes racist sexual tensions, and explains the relationship between terrorists and community leaders, and urges African-Americans to resist oppression through boycotts and emigration. Her

During the nineteenth century, lynching was brought to America by British Isles and after the Civil War white Americans lynching African American increased. Causing and bringing fear into their world. In the Southern United States, lynching became a method used by the whites to terrorize the Blacks and to remain in control with white supremacy. The hatred and fear that was installed into the white people’s head had caused them to turn to the lynch law. The term lynching means to be put to death by hanging by a mob action without legal sanction. So many white people were supportive of lynching because it was a sign of power that the white people had. “Lynching of the black people was used frequently by white people, their is no specific detail of how many times they had done it, but lynching of black people has lasted from 1882 to 1968. Lynching also is in fact a inhuman combination of racism and sadism which was used to support the south’s caste system,’’(Gandhi).

2. One of the texts most focused on educating readers about race and the challenges it presents to American culture is Ida B. Wells’ “Lynch Law in All its Phases.” As discussed in previous reading responses, Wells’ speech is made up primarily of evidence due to the limitations placed on women of colors’ speech but even more so due to her “deep-seated conviction that the country at large does not know the extent to which lynch law prevails in parts of the Republic” (189). In this way, Wells endeavours to educate the US both about lynching and about the repercussions of allowing lynch law to prevail. That is, Wells forces audiences to acknowledge the fact that lynching, and thus white supremacy and racism, actively threaten the moral pillars that the United States is built on.

In “The Case Stated” (1895), Ida B. Wells asserts that failure to speak up against racial injustices contributed to the lynch law phenomenon and the loss of many African American lives. Wells supports her claims by giving examples of injustices served to African Americans such as slavery, a constitution that fails to promote equity, and false accusations and lynching’s that resulted in the deaths of thousands of African Americans. In order to convey her passion and desire for change, Ida B. Wells pleads to all Americans, both black and white, to fight for change and stop “avow(ing) anarchy, condon(ing) murder, and defy(ing) the contempt of civilization” (74). Ida B. Wells is not asking for pity for African Americans, she is asking for all

Another way that white southerners were able to rolled back many of the rights held by African Americans is by lynching. Lynch is a mob of people killed, especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial. The primary source, ““Lynch Law in America” the author Ida B. Wells organized a national fight against lynching in the early twentieth century. Born a slave, Wells became a teacher and civil rights leader in Memphis, Tennessee. When a white mob lynched three of her friends, she helped organize a black boycott of white-owned businesses and wrote harsh editorials in her own newspaper. According to Wells, lynching “ It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is

Ida B. Wells lived during the late 19th and early 20th century, fighting for civil and women’s rights movements. She was a well-established journalist and most famous for her anti-lynching campaigns. Born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Ida lived with her parents until they and her youngest brother were killed by a severe yellow fever epidemic. Left with her five remaining siblings, she took the responsibility of being their primary caregiver. Deciding to move to Memphis with her aunt, Wells became a leading woman figure in the African-American community that she had been living in. “By her late twenties, Wells had become one of the preeminent female journalists of her day, and the editor and co-owner of the Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper Free Speech and Headlight” (page 4). Also launching a strong investigation into lynching and its conquests in the South, Wells found herself to become exiled from there forever.

According to Dr. Benjamin Rush’s, M.D., writings from 1773, one of the justifications for slavery stemmed from the misconception that African Americans’ dark skin tone was the result of being “descended from Cain, who was supposed to have been marked with this colour” [sic] (Cummings 49) and as such they sort of deserve to be enslaved since they weren’t descended from the better biblical brother like white Americans apparently were. This Biblical justification thus equated being black with the Cain’s immoral actions, some of which include murder, lust, and dishonesty. This type of stigma lasted until after the Civil War emancipated the slaves in which claims of black men raping white women were used to justify the lynching of African American men. However, NAACP co-founder Ida B. Wells writes that despite these claims, such rapes never happened during the entirety of Civil War (Bouie) as slaves mustered the courage to free themselves in order to fight along Union lines. When Brown v. Board of Education lead to the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, “the court-ordered enrollment of nine black students in 1957 caused a full-scale panic” in which parents feared that their white

The great majority of people lynched between 1882 and 1930 were black. During that period there were almost 4800 recorded lynchings in the United States. There were many more, no doubt, but we know about 4800. 3400 victims of this mob justice were black. The period from 1889 to 1893 accounted for the worst years. 579 blacks were lynched as opposed to 260 whites. That is a ration of 2.2 blacks lynched for every white. This is a significant difference already, but only part of the story. By the end of the century the racial nature of lynching had revealed itself, completely and unmistakably. Between 1899 and 1903, 543 people were lynched in the United States -- men and women. Of that number only 27 were white. That is a ratio of 22 blacks lynched for every white.

The first action Ida B Wells took to stop lynching was in 1892. She composed a pamphlet exposing the fear and brutal treatment of mob violence ("Biography for kids: Ida B. Wells”). Meanwhile Wells led an anti-lynching crusade in the late 1890s for the United States for thoses who did not get a fair trial for an alleged offence ("Biography”). By Wells being so devoted and interactive with the movement it became stronger because she dedicated an excessive amount of time and effort proving that the lynching of men, women, children were considered murders ("Woman Journalist Crusades Against Lynching”). Currently, because Wells stepped up and chose to be brave, lynching is banned today. Not only did Ida B Wells expose lynching as this country’s national crime, her efforts directly affected us

Wells-Barnett was an investigative journalist and was involved in researching, reporting, publishing pamphlets, and eventually campaigning against the historical tragedy known as lynching. She became aware of these atrocities occurring against African Americans at an alarming rate in the United States. Wells-Barnett had published a total of three pamphlets that had worked through the half-truths and outright lies to uncover the inhumane activity of lynching mob. In Mob Rule in New Orleans, Wells-Barnett stated, “Legal sanction was given to the mob or any man of the mob to kill Charles at sight by the Mayor of New Orleans, who publicly proclaimed a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, not for the arrest of Charles, not at all, but the reward was offered for Charles’ body, “dead or alive.” (Wells-Barnett 842) This statement reflects the mindset of the majority of white Americans during this turbulent time. Consequently, Ida B. Wells-Barnett became not just a reporter of the facts, but a crusader for the cause of justice for

The main excuse given for the mob lynchings of the Negroes was rape. Any blacks found to be involved intimately with a white woman were immediately accused of rape. Ida writes, “In numerous instances where colored men have been lynched on the charge of rape, it was positively known at the time of lynching, and indisputably proven after the victims’ death, that the relationship sustained between the man and the woman was voluntary and clandestine, and that in no court of law could even the charge of assault have been successfully maintained.” However, she also writes, “The Southern white man says it is impossible for a voluntary alliance to exist between a white woman and a colored man, and therefore, the act of an alliance is a proof of force.” Even though they know that the acts had been completely consensual, the white males continued this butchery of the blacks. Anything that could be thought up, even if it lacked truth or evidence, was used as excuses for these continued forms of slavery.

Before and during the Civil War it was not uncommon for masters to physically harm their slaves, often times hurting them just enough so that they didn't die. But now as slavery was abolished, harm still came to those who were free. The only difference was that it had a new name (lynching) and some of the reasoning behind it. White southern leaders felt threatened and thought that their rights were the ones being threatened. They saw the North trying to elevate the colored population in the South, holding the freedmens' rights above the white population. Those men then began retaliating against those freedmen and any of their supporters. Where slavery usually involved the harming of the slave, lynching involved both white and black people, men and women. Many massacres occurred during this time of Reconstruction, most of them could have been avoidable if the North had stricter laws and higher security in places with high

Ida Wells-Barnett is introduced early on in the film as an African-American journalist and suffragist. Barnett was denied the ability to march amongst white women in the women’s suffrage parade. However, Barnett did not throw in the towel when she was denied the ability to walk amongst white women. Barnett believed that African-American women should be allowed to march amongst the rest of the women in the parade. Originally Paul and Burns were terrified that they would lose the support that they received from Southern states if they allowed African-American women to march amongst white women. However, in the movie once Barnett and other African-American women’s suffrage protestors joined in men stormed the streets and assaulted the women marching in the parade. Policemen that were on standby to prevent a scenario like this from breaking out were seen turning the other way and ignoring the women’s cries for help. During the early 1900s African-Americans were still fighting for rights as well. Other than being a part of the women’ suffrage movement, Barnett was an activist for the civil rights movement. Barnett played a significant role in both movements since she was an editor for the local paper making it easier for both movements to spread through the press. Many historians believe that race tainted the women’s suffrage movement, due to segregation being a commodity during the early 1900s. Barnett was fighting two wars and was struggling to win both of them. People in the south were still lynching and killing people who belonged to the African descent. With the news being full of hate crimes it was hard to stretch the point across that the women’s suffrage movement was a serious concern and problem that was

Recently, an L.A. Times article (dated 2/13/00) reviewed a new book entitled "Without Sanctuary", a collection of photographs from lynchings throughout America. During the course of the article, the author, Benjamin Schwarz, outlined some very interesting and disturbing facts related to this gruesome act of violence: Between 1882 and 1930, more than 3,000 people were lynched in the U.S., with approximately 80% of them taking place in the South. Though most people think only African Americans were victims of lynchings, during those years, about 25% were white. Data indicates that mobs in the West lynched 447 whites and 38 blacks; in the Midwest there were 181 white victims and 79 black; and in the South, people lynched 291

Lynching was way of life in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. As Wells-Barnett points out, although most white people try to say that they did not want to discuss the noisy, because it will drag the reputation of angry white women, the vast majority of lynching had been completed, white people thought like lynching or burning some black people just to teach them their place. Wells intends to dissolve these myths and reasons into lynching, especially black rape white women. She repeats and the objectivity of the news proves that most black corpses killed black citizens are innocent and that their murders are not punished.