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Southern Horror s: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells took me on a journey through our nations violent past. This book voices how strong the practice of lynching is sewn into the fabric of America and expresses the elevated severity of this issue; she also includes pages of graphic stories detailing lynching in the South. Wells examined the many cases of lynching based on “rape of white women” and concluded that rape was just an excuse to shadow white’s real reasons for this type of execution. It was black’s economic progress that threatened white’s ideas about black inferiority. In the South Reconstruction laws often conflicted with real Southern racism. Before I give it to you straight, let me take you on a journey through Ida’s …show more content…
Wells. In May 1892, whites envied three of her friends for opening a successful grocery store. Her friends were arrested, then taken from jail, and lynched. Lynching was a very public act that differs from ordinary murders or assaults because it is a killing that is against the boundaries of due process; the legal requirement that all states must respect all legal rights owed to a person. This horrific execution took place every other day in the 1890’s, but the mob killing of the innocent three men who owned the grocery store was extremely frightening. In protest 2000 black residence left Memphis that summer and headed West for Oklahoma, but Ida B Wells stayed and began her own research on lynching. Her editorials in the “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” confronted the Lynch Law; which was said to be in place to protect white women, even though they leave white men free to seduce all the colored girls he can, yet black men were being lynched for having consensual relations with white women. Ida B. Wells states, “No one believes the old thread lies that Negro men assault white women, and if the southern white men are not careful they will overreach themselves and a conclusion will be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women”. Whites were outraged with her words and Wells was fortunately away in the East when a mob came looking for her, they trashed the offices …show more content…
With the help of T. Thomas Fortune of the New York Age and Fredrick Douglas, she was able to work in the U.S and Britain where the press and public were considered to more enlightened with her point of view. Her audience for the first time learned in detail about all the gruesome tortures, burnings, and hangings done in the South. Her goal was to shame newspapers and other voices of media into acknowledging the truth about lynch mobs, “They are not heroes but cowardly criminals”. The Great Migration of African Americans during the 20th century showed that the terror of lynching was not just confined to its immediate victims but affected the lives of all blacks of all ages. Particularly frightening were the so-called “spectacle lynching’s” that were held right next to the revival meetings; the largest public events in the South prior to World War
The hypocrisy and double standard that allowed whites to bring harm to blacks without fear of any repercussions had existed for years before the murder Tyson wrote about occurred in May of 1970 (Tyson 2004, 1). Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1).
On August 28, 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and shot. Then with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and tied to a large fan, his body was discarded into the Tallahatchi River. What was young Emmett’s offense that brought on this heinous reaction of two grown white men? When he went into a store to buy some bubblegum he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk, who happened to be the store owner’s wife. That is the story of the end of Emmett Till’s life. Lynchings, beatings and cross-burning had been happening in the United States for years. But it was not until this young boy suffered an appalling murder in Mississippi that the eyes of a nation were irrevocably opened to the ongoing horrors of racism in the South. It sparked the beginning of a flourish of both national and international media coverage of the Civil Rights violations in America.
Wexler, Laura. 2003. Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America. Scribner; 2004. Print
One of the leading black female activists of the 20th century, during her life, Mary Church Terrell worked as a writer, lecturer and educator. She is remembered best for her contribution to the struggle for the rights of women of African descent. Mary Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee at the close of the Civil War. Her parents, former slaves who later became millionaires, tried to shelter her from the harsh reality of racism. However, as her awareness of the problem developed, she became an ardent supporter of civil rights. Her life was one of privilege but the wealth of her family did not prevent her from experiencing segregation and the humiliation of Jim Crow laws. While traveling on a train her family was sent to the Jim Crow car. This experience, along with others led her to realize that racial injustice was evil. She saw that racial injustice and all other forms of injustice must be fought.
Moores Ford Lynching On July 25, 1946, two young black couples- Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were killed by a lynch mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four victims were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by a mob of unmasked men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a machine gun. "Shooting a black person was like shooting a deer," George Dorsey's nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been over fifty years and this case is still unsolved by police investigators.
In Southern Horrors and Other Writings three pamphlets written by Ida B. Wells are highlighted. These pamphlets showed that Wells used muckraking/ investigative reporting to describe what was going on in the south. Wells saw the corruption that was occurring in the South, and wanted to make it known to the public. Wells also uses persuasive writing to get the support of the African American community and she had hoped to create change. Wells’ writings are finally a historically effective text, not just because they are primary source documents, but because she served as a voice to the African American people.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
...hite woman therefore many false accusations were placed upon him an African American. His action was first seen as an insult then as a form of attack toward the white women and as members of the white social class began to increase causing a mob the accusations led to the beliefs of rape. Consequently, a common practice in the south during the late 1800’s to middle 1900’s was taken about. Throughout 1883 and 1905 lynching was a common widespread practice mainly in the south (Foner, 522). Lynching is described as “a practice in which people (usually black) accused of a crime were murdered by mobs before standard trials (Foner, A-82).” Unfortunately, lynching in the south only needed one accusation or form of misunderstanding for an innocent to get murdered by a mob.
Wells build a new strategy for gaining justice by going to England, and she met with important people in there. She also build an anti-lynching organization. And in two decades, there were no lynching happen in Memphis. Wells settling in Chicago and kept writing, especially about sexism and racism. Wells married with the founder of the first black newspaper in the Chicago, and they had children. As she had her family to take care of, she had a divided duty and could not only focus on her writing. She found and build new organization of colored people (NAACP) based on lynching strategy.
It is surprising to note that white men were caught stealing, but what followed was the arrest and jailing of the colored. Many blacks were jailed for false vindications of raping white women. This is a clear indication that conflict over race negatively contributed to the emergence of lynching in the New South. Additionally, the author of the excerpt argues that she thought that lynching was unjustified, but the truth dawned on her when Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart were lynched in Memphis, one of the cities in the south, yet they were innocent. It is important to state that gender contributed significantly to the lynching cases in the South. The many cases of rape that were reported made many Negro men lose their lives. Although abuse cases were many, the way they were reported differed from the reality, “…the big burly was lynched because he had raped the seven-year-old daughter of the Sheriff.” (Wells, 355). Afterward, it was realized “…and saw a girl who was a grown woman more than seventeen years old.” (Wells, 355) The
Wells was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and speaker. After her parents passed away she became a teacher and received a job to teach at a nearby school. With this job she was able to support the needs of her siblings. In 1844 in Memphis, Tennessee, she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. Wells refused, but was forcefully removed from the train and all the white passengers applauded. Wells was angered by this and sued the company and won her case in the local courts; the local court appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The Supreme Court reversed the court’s ruling. In Chicago, she helped to develop numerous African American women and reform organizations. Wells still remained hard-working in her anti-lynching crusade by ...
means of depriving blacks of their rights. During Ida B. Wells-Barnett time, lynching was a
Her parents nurtured the background of this crusader to make her a great spokesperson. She also held positions throughout her life that allowed her to learn a lot about lynching. She was fueled by her natural drive to search for the truth.
Lynching could be anything from burning a person while they were still alive, to castration, and body dismemberment. It was a very inhumane way of dying, but it was widely practiced throughout the south after the reconstruction era. Lynching was used as a vehicle to terrorize the African American community into a mind state of inferiority. It essentially set the tone that any wrong move, merited or otherwise could result in the loss of your life. Contrary to popular belief lynching was not born purely out of hatred for black people; it was deeply rooted in fear as well. There was an inherit need for white supremacists to control the Negro physically and mentally if they were going to remain superior. There was also a distinct physiological toll watching lynching took on black people. It may not have been happening to someone directly related to them, but they were all intricately connected through the color of their skin. They were painfully aware that it could just as easily be them or a loved one next. They were painfully aware of the crimes or lack thereof, which could result in their death. These offenses could range from suspicion of rape to the simple disagreement with a white
Lynching was considered a proper punishment for an African- American men convicted of raping white women. Ida B. wells-Barnett, an African-American journalist, raise the issue against lynching. Ida stated in her speech “what the white man means when he charges black man with rape, Does he mean the crime which the statutes of the states describe as such, not by any means,”(A red Record) as lynching was not a state or Government law, rather a punishement for Negros by the mob . Mobs would not give the black victims to make a lawfull defense. Even though there were no complain by the white women of being raped, mobs would decide to punish African- American men. Negros have already suffered more than hundred years of slavery, they are no more guilty of this type of horrible charges., they do not deserve this at all, Ida B. Wells described.Negros were condidered a vile monster by the mob. Ida provides a statistical data of how many men were lynched during late nineteenth century in her article. She protest anit-lynching campaign and was