Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of …show more content…
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 numbers make a compelling case, but they do not tell the entire story because by themselves they reveal nothing of what lynching really involved. It was widely believed that lynching was spontaneous thing -- sudden and emotional acts of revenge committed by irrational mobs. But we know now that lynchings were often planned out in advance, and frequently with the sympathy and cooperation of local leaders and law enforcement officials. In some cases lynchings were even advertised. Days before they occurred men would move through neighborhoods and from town to town, distributing flyers by hand and sometimes printing announcements in newspapers. Transportation might be
During this time, lynching was used to control, intimidate, and manipulate a certain group of people, striking fear into their hearts.
Fire in A Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America by Laura Wexler is about the lynching of four African- Americans: Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, George Dorsey, and Mae Murray Dorsey. This occurred in Walton County on July 25, 1946 at the old Moore’s Ford Bridge. The lynching spurred a six month federal investigation in Walton and Oconee County, but eventually led to no convictions or arrest. The FBI had many prime suspects and prime witnesses, but the white community stuck together and the black community was too afraid to speak against their white counter parts. The reason for the lynching at Moore’s Ford Bridge was because the white community of Walton County wanted revenge for Barnette Hester’s stabbing, to keep interracial relationships separate, and to keep whites in control of the political power.
Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on Gregorian calendar month sixteen, 1862. Her father was a carpenter and her mother a cook. They were slaves owned by man named mister. Bolling. They were treated well by mister. Bolling, however they were still slaves. they'd to try and do no matter he told them and anybody of the family can be oversubscribed to a different slaver at any time.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a bold fight against lynching, suffragist, defender of the rights of women, journalist and speaker of international stature. It stands as one of the most intransigent leaders, and more determined to defend democracy. Born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and died in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of sixty-nine.
The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights "was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things" would be an understatement. Countless people made it their life's work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many
Ida B. Wells is a name that should always be synonymous with African American modern history. Being born during the Civil War in the South and living her life through Reconstruction, history would play a huge role with her life. So when given the choice of being a background character or to take center stage, Wells found her spot light and shone like the morning sun. The South would do its best to stifle her voice both as child, though she would not know it, and as an adult. Yet Wells would show the strength and determination of an African American woman and prove that she was as much a part of the large scale Civil Rights Movement as her male counterparts.
Her brothers found work as carpenter apprentices. For a time Ida continued her education at Fisk University in Nashville. A moment in My 1884 will change Ida’s life and goals forever. Having bought a first class ticket for a train ride to Nashville Tennessee she was denied the right to her seat and was forced to ride a car that was specifically for African Americans. Rightfully so she refused to give up her seat and ticket and fought the train crew and even bit one of the crew members, she later took the train company to court and won getting a 500$ settlement however the Supreme Court overruled the hearing and took her money away. After that Ida decided to start her own newspaper company named Memphis Free Speech and Highlight and begin to write her displeasure with the american government and america's prejudice practices.
The answer is yes, because the author had gathered statistics of the number of lynched victims with each categorized in what crimes was committed, where they lynched, and how many that died. The highest death toll was in Texas with ranging from 232-303 people. And cited numerous newspapers and editorials which brings in firsthand accounts that were excellent amounts of primary sources and having witnesses that experienced the violence themselves and give an accurate description of the Mexican Victims that died at the hands of the Anglo Americans. These numbers could not even be compared to the number of lynched African-American the US South During this time. The book also presented other points in time that Mexicans lynched other Mexicans, Mexicans getting along with Anglos, the impact on Mexican women, how the lynching was justified, and the roles of Ethnic prejudice in the territories of Texas, California, New Mexico, and
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
In the words of Miss Ida B. Wells: The student of American sociology will find the year of 1894 marked by a pronounced awakening of the public conscience to a system of anarchy and outlawry which had grown during a series of ten years to be so common, that scenes of unusual brutality failed to have any visible effect upon the humane sentiments of the people of our land. She is depicting a period of time in American history stained with the blood of hundreds of free African American men, women and children. These people were unjustly slaughtered through the practice of lynching within the South. Wells was an investigative journalist and was involved in exploring, reporting, publishing literature on, and eventually campaigning against the
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a newspaper editor and journalist who went on to lead the American anti-lynching crusade. Working closely with both African-American community leaders and American suffragists, Wells worked to raise gender issues within the "Race Question" and race issues within the "Woman Question." Wells was born the daughter of slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. During Reconstruction, she was educated at a Missouri Freedman's School, Rust University, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen. In 1884, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to teach while attending Fisk University during summer sessions. In Tennessee, especially, she was appalled at
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
She became a leading community activist through a sequence of events. In 1884 Ida was riding a train in a first class car, when she was asked to move to the smoking car. When she refused, two conductors tried to physically move her. She instead got off the train and filed a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit was initially won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict. After the train incident, in 1889, Ida went to The Free Speech paper; this is where her most promising worked developed. In 1892, three of her friends were brutally killed during a lynching. This one particular event opened the eyes of Wells and prompted her to write some of her most controversial works yet. However this type of writing got the Free Speech office ransacked and destroyed. The other owner of the Free Speech barely escaped with his life, but he carried the message that if Ida were to show her face ever again in Tennessee she would be killed. Now with all this ammunition based on personal experience, even as an African American woman, she had gained credibility to be able to speak with
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.
Having numerous records of wrongfully accused victims, the death penalty is an unjust form of punishment. According to Neil a. Lewis, of the New York Times, “publicity about cases other murder in which DNA testing resulted in freeing people who had been wrongfully convicted of crimes” has left a decrease in public acceptance of the death penalty. Other statistics show that in the early 1900’s, the death penalty was quite popular and was a time period of heavily racist communities, “53.5% of those executed were black Americans” (King). The death penalty was used as another form of racist lynching, like the unsuccessful Scottsboro trial. Two white southern women accused eight African American males of raping them, but there was no evidence showing of the rapes. Luckily, the men were released, but unlike many others instances racism created a strong ‘need’ for the death penalty. In other instances, such as the Clutter family