Travels to europe, speaking about lynching in the american south. Plays on lynching by american women, edited by judith l. Wells protested the lynching in an editorial for the gate city press, a black newspaper in kansas city, mo. Wells emerged in the 1890s as the leading voice against the lynching of three of her friends.
In the 1890s, wells documented lynching in the united states through her. This was a woman who put her life on the line for decades to end lynching in the united states. The editorial was about lynching, a form of terrorism with which wells was painfully familiar. She was one of the founders of the national association for the advancement of colored people naacp. At the conclusion of the three volumes, the reader will find an array of photographs depicting lynching victims.
During the 1880s and 1890s, more than 100 african americans per year were lynched. In 1895 wells published a landmark book, a red record. Lynching refers to an instance when a person or group of people acting outside the law physically punishes another person, often resulting in death. Wells, as an early pioneer of investigative journalism and civil rights icon. Wellsbarnett delivered a passionate speech at the national negro conference in which she denounced lynching and called for the implementation of federal policies that would protect black lives. Wellss life work as a teacher, journalist, antilynch ing activist, community. Wells faced racism, sexism, bigotry, and succeeded to tell the tale of it all. Publishes a red record, a detailed account of lynching.
The term was named after a frontier judge named charles lynch. Her father, a skilled carpenter, and mother, a housekeeper, were struck down by yellow fever when ida was 16. Wells, police violence, and the legacy of lynching. Emboldened, wells furiously fought against those who participated in, or ignored, violence. The book follows ida from from a difficult upbringing in mississippi, where she was born into slavery and lost her parents at a young age, to her rise as a widely read and highly influential journalist and speaker whose anti. Wells took on lynching, threats forced her to leave memphis journalist ida b. Ida wells, the daughter of a carpenter, was born in holly springs. Notes includes bibliographical references and index. Wellsbarnett was an africanamerican woman of striking courage and conviction. Ida bell wellsbarnett july 16, 1862 march 25, 1931 was an american investigative. Her words ring as true today as they did more than one hundred years ago. Wells focuses on the repulsiveness of lynching and its executors in her book on lynchings. How the legendary black newspaper changed america because ida b.
Wells arguably became the most famous black woman in america, during a life that was centered on combating prejudice and violence, who. A skilled writer and speaker, she traveled the united states and europe lecturing on womens and civil rights, and wrote an influential antilynching pamphlet called southern. Wells went to heroic lengths in the late 1890s to document the horrifying practice of lynching blacks. Death threats drove wells from memphis, but she was not silenced and would find her home in chicago. Wellsbarnett, known for much of her public career as ida b. She denounces the idea of capitalism in america because of the unjust and prejudiced lynching that it has resulted to after the emancipation of the blacks.
Woman journalist crusades against lynching educational. Raised in mississippi after the civil war, wells worked her way through rust college and taught school in. Though the end of the civil war brought legal emancipation to blacks, it is a fact of history that their social oppression continued long after. After three of her acquaintances were lynched for standing up to an attack on their store, wellsbarnett became very active in her antilynching campaign. Wellsbarnett has 88 books on goodreads with 921 ratings. Wells, was an african american writer and activist famous for her work campaigning against lynching in the south. Wells, 18921900 bedford series in history and culture by jacqueline jones royster may 6, 2016 4.
Wells wrote editorials urging the black community to flee memphis. Ida b wells tells about lynchings download ebook pdf. Long before either my mothers or my resistance, there was ida b. So began the civil rights pioneers crusade against lynching. Wells barnett, the fiery journalist, lecturer and civil rights militant, is best known for her tireless crusade against lynching and her fearless efforts to expose violence against blacks. The pioneering african american reporter counted, investigated and reported lynchings in america as no one had done before lynching is colorline murder. Hardly had the sentences dried upon the statutebooks before one southern state after another. This was ida bell wellsbarnett, better known as ida b. In a sense, wells practiced what today is often lauded as data journalism, as she scrupulously kept records and was able to document the large numbers of lynchings which were taking place in america. On lynchings dover books on africanamericans wellsbarnett, ida b. Wells, was an antilynching activist, a muckraking journalist, a lecturer, and a militant activist for racial justice.
The play is inspired by the reallife events that compelled a 29yearold ida b. Wells became an editor and part owner of the memphis free speech, in which she furthered investigated the history of lynching ida b. Heralded as a landmark achievement upon publication, ida. This compilation features southern horrors, wellss first pamphlet on the subject of lynching, as well as its successors, a red record and mob rule in new orleans. Wells the author argues that not to protest lynching or try to stop it amounts to a crime, or what the law calls an accessory before and after the fact. Wells also published her findings in a series of bold editorials in her newspaper, the memphis free speech and headlight. Author paula giddings talks about the book and wells. Wells became a trailblazing journalist in 1895, wells published the red record. A sword among lions is a sweeping narrative about a country and a crusader embroiled in the struggle against lynchinga practice that imperiled not only the lives of black men and women, but also a nation based on law and riven by race. Though the end of the civil war brought legal emancipation to blacks.
Eliza woods was taken from the county jail and stripped naked. From a thinker who maya angelou has praised for shining a brilliant light on the lives of women left in the shadow of history, comes the definitive biography of ida b. Wells eventually ended up in chicago, where she continued to reveal the truth behind lynching and helped found the national association of colored. Wellscrusading journalist and pioneer in the fight for womens suffrage and against segregation and. Ida bell wellsbarnett july 16, 1862 march 25, 1931 was an american investigative journalist, educator, and an early leader in the civil rights movement. In that awful year, the twentythreeyearold ida b wells, the editor of a small newspaper for blacks in memphis, tennessee, raised one lone voice of protest. Wells honored by new lynching museum for fighting racial. Wells wrote several articles related to her opinions of lynching, but i will be focusing on her articlelynch. The broadest and most comprehensive collection of writings available by an early civil and womens rights pioneer seventyone years before rosa parkss courageous act of resistance, police dragged a young black journalist named ida b. While many readers were drawn to her indepth exposes, enraged white locals burned her press and drove her away from memphis.
On march 9, a white mob had murdered her friend thomas moss. Tabulated statistics and alleged causes of lynching in the united states, 18921894. Wells published a column on may 21, 1892, denouncing the old thread bare lie that lynching was used to protect white womanhood, a white mob marched to her office in. Wellsbarnett raised a lone voice of protest and was forced to flee for her life.
In 1901 ida published her book, lynching and the excuse for it. Wellsbarnetts achievements were the publication of a detailed book about lynching entitled a red record 1895, the cofounding of the national association for the advancement of colored people naacp, and the founding of what may have been the first black womens suffrage group. Wellsbarnett 18621931, a red record was a pamphlet designed to recount americas history of lynching african americans. The lynching of these men, well respected in the african american community of memphis, outraged wells.
A sword among lions is a sweeping narrative about a country and a crusader embroiled in the struggle. Iolas letter is published in the anthology strange fruit. Wells works for several newspapers, writing especially about racial discrimination and lynching in the south. Ida wells was the editor of a small newspaper when she wrote this excellent history of lynchings in the united states after the civil war. In the book she argued that the main aim of lynching was to intimidate blacks from becoming involved in politics and therefore maintaining white power in the south. Wells and the campaign against lynching isbn 9780060519216, 0060519215 description xii, 800 p. Wells 18621931 was born a slave in holly springs, mississippi. She grew up to be a journalist who fought to expose the injustice of lynching through her writing, lecturing, and political activism. Edition 1st ed language english variant title sword among lions ida b. Wells took on lynching, threats forced her to leave. Wells to launch an antilynching crusade from memphis in 1892 using her newspaper, free speech. Discovering historys heroes is a kidfriendly biography of one of the early pioneers of civil rights activism.
She achieved nationwide attention as leader of the antilynching crusade. The most virulent form of this ongoing persecution was the practice of lynching carried out by mob rule, often as local law enforcement officials looked the other way. Wellsbarnetts most popular book is southern horrors and other writings. She writes in her autobiography that there was a generation who didnt know who she was and didnt know about lynching. Wells, the antilynching activist and fearless investigative journalist who is the subject of my latest book, written with nibs stroupe. Wells made it her mission to let americans know about the suffering of africanamericans and the horrors of lynching.
Wellsbarnetts writings and her activism were cited throughout, and i wanted to get a more indepth look at her work. After working on various projects for over 30 years, it is exciting to finally see my greatgrandmothers sacrifice and legacy be fully recognized, duster. She went on to found and become integral in groups. Tabulated statistics and alleged causes of lynchings in the united states. This week, well look at wellss transition from educator to. Wells and her campaigns against lynching and for racial equality in the womens suffrage movement. Ida bell wells was born to slave parents in 1862 in holly springs, miss. Wells barnett 18621931 published in 1895, by journalist and activist, ida b. Wells was already out of town when she realized that an editorial shed written had caused a riot. Catapulted emotionally into the cause after three of her friends were lynched in tennessee, and after the destruction of her presses, wellsbarnett never stopped fighting for justice. Her groundbreaking work, which included collecting statistics in a practice that today is called data journalism, established that the lawless killing of blacks was a systematic practice, especially in the south in the era following reconstruction. This is because bystanders are aware of this widespread problem yet do nothing. Wells was an african american journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an antilynching crusade in the united states in the 1890s. Wells was a journalist, lecturer, civil rights leader, and the leading activist against lynching during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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