Ida B. Wells was born into slavery, and lived in Holly Springs Mississippi. She was later freed, and learned from her parents what it meant to be a political activist. By 1891, Wells was the owner of the newspaper, Free Speech, and was reporting on the horrors that were occurring in the south. Wells, along with other people of the African American activist community were particularly horrified about the lynching’s that were occurring in the south. As a response to the lynching that was occurring, and other violent acts that the African American community was dealing with Wells wrote three pamphlets: Southern Horrors, The Red Record, and Mob Brutality. Muckraking and investigative journalism can be seen throughout these pamphlets, as well as Wells intent to persuade the African American community, and certain members of the white community to take a stand against the crime of lynching. Wells’ writings are an effective historical text, because she serves as a voice to an underrepresented African American community. The first pamphlet published by Wells was Southern Horrors. This pamphlet was written in response to the lynchings that had been occurring in the south. In Southern Horrors Wells identifies that there is corruption in the south because lynchings were taken place at an alarming rate, “it is with no pleasure I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against then sinning.” Wells wanted to inform other African Americans, as well as people living in the north of the corruption that was occurring in the south. This type of journalism was called muckraking, or today what investigative journalism is. Wells identified a problem, and recognized that the ... ... middle of paper ... ...nfortunately, it was not until the 1960’s that true legal equality was ever reached for the African American Community. 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. Works Cited Wells, Ida B. Southern Horrors and Other Writings, Edited by Jaqueline Jones Royster. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 1997.
After careful consideration, I have decided to use the books dedicated to David Walker’s Appeal and The Confessions of Nat Turner and compare their similarities and differences. It is interesting to see how writings which has the same purpose of liberating enslaved Black people can be interpreted so differently, especially in the matter of who was reading them. Akin to how White people reacted to Turner’s Rebellion, which actually had promising results while most would see the immediate backlashes and to which I intend to explain more. As most would put emphasis on the Confession itself, I assume, I decided to focus more on the reactions and related documents regarding the Rebellion.
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 the 19th century.
...apter to the ideas and views of Idea B. Wells. Wells is the only person Bederman writes about that cleanly weaves together racisms effect on manliness and manhood for both parties, the racist and the person being discriminated against. Throughout the chapter the reader is given a chance to explore the trials and tribulations of Wells’ activism as illustrated by Bederman. In Wells’ chapter Bederman asserts many important points how whites wove together manliness and racial violence; how Wells got involved in lynching brutality; how she inverts the civilization discourse; her two tours to Britain and there results; and how the ideas of the natural man and the primitive man changed Wells’ proposals.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett is an investigative journalist who wrote in honesty and bluntness about the tragedies and continued struggles of the Negro man. She was still very much involved with the issue even after being granted freedom and the right to vote. Statistics have shown that death and disparity continued to befall the Negro people in the South where the white man was “educated so long in that school of practice” (Pg. 677 Par. 2). Yet in all the countless murders of Negroes by the white man only three had been convicted. The white man of the South, although opposed to the freedom of Negroes would eventually have to face the fact of the changing times. However, they took every opportunity and excuse to justify their continued horrors. There were three main excuses that the white man of the South came up w...
Ida B. Wells was dedicated to journalism and letting people know what is going on. With her journalism investigation instincts, she uses to identify what excuses the whites use to identify lynch campaign against blacks. In the following essay, I will explain what reasons for this vicious and sustained campaign of violence against African-Americans.
In 1964, Linda Brown along with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) challenged the Separate but Equal doctrine, and won (Askew). Discriminatory laws that lasted for 99 years, starting with the Black Codes, moving to the Louisiana Separate Car Act and Plessy v. Ferguson, to everyday laws, finally became overturned. They permanently hindered a large group of people as seen by literacy rates, household income, and household ownership, but those numbers became more equal as time went on. Unfortunately, due to humanities extreme ignorance, we don’t see these issues recurring today. People discriminate against homosexuals, for example, and they don’t get equal rights. People must look to the past and use the knowledge of their mistakes to never make those same mistakes again.
Wells, Ida B. Southern Horrors. Lynch Law in All Its Phase. New York: New York Age Print, 1892. Print. 6.
After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many African Americans saw the opportunity for freedom and equality. However, that was quickly taken away after the constant racism and oppression that took place after the civil war. In “They Say: Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race”, James West Davidson tells us about Ida B. Wells and other people of color that tried redefining what it meant to be African American. They wanted to show a different side of themselves, instead of what racist, white journalists and hate groups did. Nevertheless, they still dealt with daily struggles, such as few opportunities in politics, poverty, lack of respect, segregation, and hate crimes.
Every great civilization or country has had at least one dirty little time in their history that all would rather forget. America knows this feeling well, especially within the 19th century, the slave era. America was divided, the North was generally against slavery and all for letting the African Americans roam free in a colony in Africa. The South on the other hand viewed African Americans as tools, essential to the economy and work, however still just tools. Tools to be bought a sold and driven until the breaking point just like every other implement in the shed. Fast-forward to the 21st century, slavery is gone from America and has become that dirty period of time that is spoken about in whispers. A question of immeasurable proportions arises, how were the incredibly difficult slave owners of the South get convinced that slavery was bad? The largest answer is the power of rhetoric, otherwise known as the written word. Two books played the largest role in molding of American society, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by none other than Frederick Douglas himself. Important stylistic and rhetorical choices made by Douglas and Stowe greatly affected change in the major political and moral issue of slavery in 19th century America in two different ways, through politics via the male society (Douglas) and through the home front via religious and moral cases made to women (Stowe).
After the emancipation of slaves in 1862, the status of African-Americans in post civil war America up until the beginning of the twentieth century did not go through a great deal of change. Much legislation was passed to help blacks in this period. The Civil Rights act of 1875 prohibited segregation in public facilities and various government amendments gave African-Americans even more guaranteed rights. Even with this government legislation, the newly dubbed 'freedmen' were still discriminated against by most people and, ironically, they were soon to be restricted and segregated once again under government rulings in important court cases of the era.
The majority of Feimster’s work focuses on the extralegal violence used by white lynch mobs against black men and women in the south. At the center of advocacy against lynch-culture, was Ida B. Wells. Having been born a slave, Wells understood the racial implications of rape and lynching. Her political activity represented female independence and progress, but in a different way than Felton’s.
...h past prejudices and previous beliefs elongated the process of desegregation, African Americans were still successful and were able to be free.
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
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 ...
It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....