On Lynchings

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a prominent African-American journalist and activist who fought against lynching in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her work, including Southern Horrors, A Red Record, and Mob Rule, exposed the brutality and injustice of the practice and helped to launch the NAACP's campaign against lynching after World War I. This edition includes an introduction by Patricia Hill Collins, a renowned sociologist who specializes in race, class, and gender.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 30 September 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Though the end of the Civil War brought legal emancipation to African-American people, it is a fact of history that their social oppression continued long after. 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. During the 1880s and 1890s, more than 100 African Americans per year were lynched, and in 1892 alone, the toll of murdered men and women reached a peak of 161. In that awful year, the twenty-three-year-old Ida B. Wells, the editor of a small newspaper for blacks in Memphis, Tennessee, raised one lone voice of protest. In her paper, she charged that white businessmen had instigated three local lynchings against their black competitors. In retaliation for her outspoken courage, a goon squad of angry whites destroyed her editorial office and print shop, and she was forced to flee the South and move to New York City. So began a crusade against lynching which became the focus of her long, active, and very courageous life. In New York, she began lecturing against the abhorrent vigilante practice and published her first pamphlet on the subject called Southern Horrors. After moving to Chicago and marrying lawyer Ferdinand Barnett, she continued her campaign, publishing A Red Record in 1895 and Mob Rule in New Orleans, about the race riots in that city, in 1900. All three of these documents are here collected in this work, a shocking testament to cruelty and the dark American legacy of racial prejudice. Anticipating possible accusations of distortion, Wells-Barnett was careful to present factually accurate evidence and she deliberately relied on southern white sources as well as statistics gathered by the Chicago Tribune. Using the words of white journalists, she highlighted the hypocrisy of white society, which claimed to be Christian but tolerated such barbaric practices. She also exposed the role of the press in perpetuating racial stereotypes and promoting fear and hatred. Wells-Barnett's work was groundbreaking and influential, and it helped to lay the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 20th century. However, her life was not without its challenges. She faced discrimination and hostility from both white and black communities, and she struggled to find work and support. Despite these obstacles, she remained committed to her cause and continued to speak out against lynching and other forms of racial injustice. In conclusion, the legacy of lynching and racial oppression in America is a dark and painful one. Though the end of the Civil War brought legal emancipation to African-American people, their social oppression continued long after. The practice of lynching was a particularly virulent form of this persecution, carried out by mob rule and often with the complicity of local law enforcement officials. Ida B. Wells was a courageous and influential figure who fought against lynching and exposed the hypocrisy and brutality of white society. Her work was groundbreaking and influential, and it helped to lay the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 20th century. However, her life was not without its challenges, and she faced discrimination and hostility from both white and black communities. Despite these obstacles, she remained committed to her cause and continued to speak out against lynching and other forms of racial injustice.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 218 x 140 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538147382