No matter that our laws presume every man innocent until he is proved guilty; no matter that it leaves a certain class of individuals completely at the mercy of another class; no matter that it encourages those criminally disposed to blacken their faces and commit any crime in the calendar so long as they can throw suspicion on some negro, as is frequently done, and then lead a mob to take his life; no matter that mobs make a farce of the law and a mockery of justice; no matter that hundreds of boys are being hardened in crime and schooled in vice by the repetition of such scenes before their eyesif a white woman declares herself insulted or assaulted, some life must pay the penalty, with all the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and all the barbarism of the Middle Ages. London :"Lux" Newspaper and Pub. If a colored man resented the imposition of a white man and the two came to blows, the colored man had to die, either at the hands of the white man then and there or later at the hands of a mob that speedily gathered. [1] In 1883, she moved to Memphis where her "love of liberty and self-sufficiency" founded her efforts in challenging systemic racism and institutional injustices suffered by Afro-Americans. In many instances the leading citizens aid and abet by their presence when they do not participate, and the leading journals inflame the public mind to the lynching point with scare-head articles and offers of rewards. Wells was a destroyer of narratives and would not hesitate to decimate our modern-day ones. Source: The Arena 23 (January 1900): 15-24. They are as follows: Rape 46 Attempted rape 11Murder. 58 Suspected robbery 4Rioting 3 Larceny. 1Race Prejudice.. 6 Self-defense.. 1No cause given.. 4 Insulting women2Incendiarism. 6 Desperadoes 6Robbery 6 Fraud 1Assault and battery 1 Attempted murder. The entire number is divided among the following States: Alabama 22 Montana. 4Arkansas.. 25 New York 1California 3 North Carolina 5Florida 11 North Dakota.. 1Georgia 17 Ohio. 3Idaho.. 8 South Carolina 5Illinois.. 1 Tennessee.. 28Kansas. 3 Texas 15Kentucky.. 9 Virginia 7Louisiana. 29 West Virginia. Our watchword has been the land of the free and the home of the brave. Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense. This collection of children's literature is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is funded by various grants. These executions were often carried out by lawless mobs, though police officers did participate, under the pretext of justice. This has been done in Texarkana and Paris, Tex., in Bardswell, Ky., and in Newman, Ga. Wells traveled through Great Britain in the summer of 1893 to promote the activities of her anti-lynching campaign, white leaders in Memphis, Tennessee, inundated England with dispatches and newspapers that were short on facts and heavy with ad hominem attacks. Second, on the ground of economy. Ida B. Wells-Barnett published "Lynch Law in Georgia" o n June 20, 1899, to raise public awareness about white racism and violence in the South, particularly with the act of lynching. She had to take care of her siblings, and she moved with them to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with an aunt. Far removed from and entirely without protection of the courts of civilized life, these fortune-seekers made laws to meet their varying emergencies. . Ida B. Wells-Barnett, born enslaved in Mississippi, was a pioneering activist and journalist. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. And she was certainly no stranger to death threats. No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders. In many cases there has been open expression that the fate meted out to the victim was only what he deserved. And in May 1892 the office of her newspaper, the Free Speech, was attacked by a white mob and burned. . Ida Wells, born a slave in 1862, organized in the early twentieth century a national crusade against lynching. Though her campaign against lynching did not stop the practice, her groundbreaking reporting and writing on the subject was a milestone in American journalism. Indeed, the record for the last twenty years shows exactly the same or a smaller proportion who have been charged with this horrible crime. Second: Crimes against women is the excuse . What does its concentration in the South and the predominance of African American victims tell us? The campaign Ida B. Wells in Chicago, Illinois, January, 1900," Civil Rights and Conflict in the United States: Selected Speeches, Lit2Go Edition, (1900), accessed March 01, 2023, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/185/civil-rights-and-conflict-in-the-united-states-selected-speeches/4375/speech-on-lynch-law-in-america-given-by-ida-b-wells-in-chicago-illinois-january-1900/. 1. She Believed in Marriage and Family. With all the powers of government in control; with all laws made by white men, administered by white judges, jurors, prosecuting attorneys, and sheriffs; with every office of the executive department filled by white menno excuse can be offered for exchanging the orderly administration of justice for barbarous lynchings and unwritten laws. Our country should be placed speedily above the plane of confessing herself a failure at self-government. In the case of the boy and girl above referred to, their father, named Hastings, was accused of the murder of a white man. Quite a number of the one-third alleged cases of assault that have been personally investigated by the writer have shown that there was no foundation in fact for the charges; yet the claim is not made that there were no real culprits among them. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Copyright 20062023 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. It is now no uncommon thing to read of lynchings north of Mason and Dixons line, and those most responsible for this fashion gleefully point to these instances and assert that the North is no better than the South. Web. On Feb. 13, 1893, Wells delivered a scathing rebuke of lynching in front of a mostly white and angry audience at Boston's Tremont Temple. Wells, "Lynch Law in America", January 1900 2 The second subsection presents Ida B. But since the world has accepted this false and unjust statement, and the burden of proof has been placed upon the negro to vindicate his race, he is taking steps to do so. Her writings infuriated a portion of the citys white population, who ransacked the office of her newspaper. Wells was an African American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. Southern horrors : lynch law in all its phases Names Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1862-1931 (Author) Dates / Origin Date Issued: 1892 Place: New York Publisher: New York Age Print Library locations Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division Shelf locator: Sc Rare 364.1-B (Barnett, I.B. She continued her work documenting lynchings. They lived in Chicago and had four children. The negro has been too long associated with the white man not to have copied his vices as well as his virtues. No scoffer at our boasted American civilization could say anything more harsh of it than does the American white man himself who says he is unable to protect the honor of his women without resort to such brutal, inhuman, and degrading exhibitions as characterize lynching bees. The cannibals of the South Sea Islands roast human beings alive to satisfy hunger. The New York Times reported on her speech: In 1895 Wells published a landmark book, A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings In the United States. "Of the Sons of Master and Man," from The Souls of "Of the Faith of the Fathers," from The Souls of B "Of the Sorrow Songs," from The Souls of Black Fol "The Afterthought," from The Souls of Black Folk. Rhetoric. The negro has been too long associated with the white man not to have copied his vices as well as his virtues. From the early 1890s she labored mostly alone in her effort to raise the nation's awareness and indignation about these usually unpunished murders. This condition of affairs were brutal enough and horrible enough if it were true that lynchings occurred only because of the commission of crimes against womenas is constantly declared by ministers, editors, lawyers, teachers, statesmen, and even by women themselves. It contains the reports of several lynchings and the results of an . Wells exposed the hypocrisy of lynching in the following excerpt, taken from The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, a pamphlet published in 1893 for the Chicago World's Fair. It is now no uncommon thing to read of lynchings north of Mason and Dixons line, and those most responsible for this fashion gleefully point to these instances and assert that the North is no better than the South. But the spirit of mob procedure seemed to have fastened itself upon the lawless classes, and the grim process that at first was invoked to declare justice was made the excuse to wreak vengeance and cover crime [in the South] . . Very scant notice is taken of the matter when this is the condition of affairs. This condition of affairs were brutal enough and horrible enough if it were true that lynchings occurred only because of the commission of crimes against womenas is constantly declared by ministers, editors, lawyers, teachers, statesmen, and even by women themselves. His savage, untutored mind suggested no better way than that of wreaking vengeance upon those who had wronged him. Slavery and Its ConsequencesA New Core Document Collection, Speech in the Senate on the Disenfranchisement of African Americans, Check out our collection of primary source readers. The sentiment of the country has been appealed to, in describing the isolated condition of white families in thickly populated negro districts; and the charge is made that these homes are in as great danger as if they were surrounded by wild beasts. The Problem of Japan: A Japanese Liberal's View. Wells View Writing Issues Filter Results Before Civils Rights Acts were put into place in the 60s, black Americans were subjugated by Jim Crow Laws, which are now paralleled by the absence of laws to protect LGBTQ individuals. It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is an unwritten law that justifies them in putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal. She became involved in local politics in Chicago and also with the nationwide drive for women's suffrage. Wells, notebook in hand, runs to the leader of the mob and questions the reasoning for this man's execution. Letter to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Lansings Memorandum of the Cabinet Meeting. under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal. If he showed a spirit of courageous manhood he was hanged for his pains, and the killing was justified by the declaration that he was a saucy nigger. Colored women have been murdered because they refused to tell the mobs where relatives could be found for lynching bees. Boys of fourteen years have been lynched by white representatives of American civilization. She refused and was ejected from the train. The Negros Place in World Reorganization, The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements, Some Reasons Why We Oppose Votes for Women, National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. The mayor gave the school children a holiday and the railroads ran excursion trains so that the people might see a human being burned to death. and more. There is however, this difference: in those old days the multitude that stood by was permitted only to guy or jeer. no matter'. . It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. Of this number, 160 were of negro descent. Those were busy days of busy men. The negro has been too long associated with the white man not to have copied his vices as well as his virtues. Speech on Lynch Law in America, Given by Ida B. without', 'no matter . Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Free Ebook Project Gutenberg 70,082 free ebooks 4 by Ida B. Wells-Barnett Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells-Barnett Download This eBook Similar Books Readers also downloaded In African American Writers In Crime Nonfiction Bibliographic Record For this reason they publish at every possible opportunity this excuse for lynching, hoping thereby not only to palliate their own crime but at the same time to prove the negro a moral monster and unworthy of the respect and sympathy of the civilized world. Born into slavery during the Civil War, Ida B. 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