“A woman and a movement: Ida B. Wells and the Anti- Lynching Movement”
Cultural constructs that are detrimental to the unity and fairness of all are historically marked by social-political movements that cause an upheaval of old systems. During these tense and often conflictual movements, there are certain voices that stand out among the throng of dramatic and biased opinions. During the anti-lynching movement, Ida B. Wells was one of those voices. She utilized her journalistic capacity and position as author to spread her message of dissention against lynching and the unfair prosecution and deaths of African Americans. Her openly uncensored publications, ’Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its phases, and ‘The Red
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In 1884 she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man…][3] She refused and was forcibly removed from the car. She filed suit against the railroad company, and the whole incident brought to herself enough attention as to help launch her journalistic career. […Many papers wanted to hear about the experiences of the 25-year-old school teacher who stood up against white supremacy.][3] By 1889, Ida became co-owner/editor of an anti-segregation newspaper, Headlight and Free …show more content…
I think that even though disturbing, Ida’s blatant exposure of details such as these make her writing all the more powerful. I can imagine information getting lost in a sea of media, and having there be some really stark details would get a message to stand out. I think Ida knew that, and that she took it upon herself to invest in learning a deeper level of the truth to spread a strong message that resonated with people. Her writing sheds light on some very ugly details of murder and corruption that thrived in secrecy. I think she knew that the more these details were exposed, the more that people wouldn’t be able to ignore them forever.
While Ida B Wells was noted in history as being a part of the anti-lynching movement, I would argue that she deserves more credit for her journalistic capacity in spreading a message that went deeper than the average information about lynching at the time than actually furthering the acquisition of civil rights for African Americans. She exposed the hidden agenda behind lynching and how it was used mainly to thwart any economic or social progress of blacks by murdering them over petty crimes or false
Southern Horrors Lynch Law in All Its Phases Book Review Da B. Wells-Barnett has written the book under review. The book has been divided into six chapters that cover the various themes that author intended to fulfill. The book is mainly about the Afro-Americans and how they were treated within the American society in the late 1800s. The first chapter of the book is “the offense” band this is the chapter that explains the issues that have been able to make the Afro-American community to be treated in a bad way by the whites in the United States in the late 1800s.
In the book “Killers of the Dream” by Lillian smith there are several ideas that are brought forward that really demonstrate that the author exaggerates the true situation and the state of affairs in the south. In the context of the book, the south was experiencing serious crisis when the whited propagated segregation against the blacks and other low class whites. The paper contains the author’s thesis and a summary of the author’s primary points. Additionally, the paper examines whether the authors account is incomplete, questionable or cases where the account does not make sense. The social profiling that resulted was regrettable and brought serious repercussions to the society in general.
Thomas Jefferson announced “Our citizens may be deceived for a while, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light”. As one of his famous quotes. Jefferson’s quote is stating that anti republicans didn’t have to risk themselves for any change of government. He is trying to say to reduce department to economy. Ida B. Wells an african-american muckraker journalist who wrote about lynching trying to make a point to stop it.
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire, does not sound at first like a book that would provide ample information about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Civil Rights Era, but through the various cases and demonstrations presented by McGuire, the reader is given insight into the Ku Klux Klan that has yet to presented by another author read for this study. In her book, McGuire analyzes various court cases and movements from the early 20th century into the 1970s to show the growth of the civil rights movement through black women's resistance. She focuses on the particular women involved and the role that respectability
Danielle L. McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street, “an important, original contribution to civil rights historiography”, discusses the topic of rape and sexual assault towards African American women, and how this played a major role in causing the civil rights movement (Dailey 491). Chapter by chapter, another person's story is told, from the rape of Recy Taylor to the court case of Joan Little, while including the significance of Rosa Parks and various organizations in fighting for the victims of unjust brutality. The sole purpose of creating this novel was to discuss a topic no other historian has discussed before, because according to McGuire they have all been skipping over a topic that would change the view of the civil rights movement.
Ida B. Wells Barnett was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16,1862. Wells was an African American journalist, a newspaper editor, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She influenced the civil rights movement of the 1960s with her own fearless battles against discrimination decades earlier. But she herself would not live to witness a new era of race relations because she later passed away at age 69, she died of uremia (kidney failure) on march 25, 1931 in Chicago. Ida B. Wells Barnett deserves a stamp of honor because she took a stand against lynching.
It was at this convention that they challenged the all-white presence and delegation at the Convention. In 1964 at the Democratic National Convention Hamer shared her testimony of the violence she had experienced in her life in Mississippi. It was here that Hamer took the podium after blacks demanded to be seated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. It was here that we heard Hamer deliver her most famous quote “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” (DeMuth 2009, 2). It was during this speech that Hamer shared her testimony and recalled her past experiences - including her experience in that Winona jail, a story she had no problem sharing.
On March 03, 1913, thousands of women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. as a form of protest in order to gain suffrage rights for women. Before the march, however, one of the parade organizers, Alice Paul, urged black suffragettes including Ida B. Wells to not march with Caucasian women. She feared white suffragists may have not wanted to participate in the parade if they had to march with African American women. People within and outside of the suffrage movement including the government often discriminated against black suffragettes on the account of race, which could have made obtaining voting rights for them more difficult. As a way of combatting exclusion from the suffrage movement, Ida B. Wells established and participated in numerous organizations that supported people of color such as the Alpha Suffrage club, which was the first black female suffrage association in Chicago.
An advocate of “fundamental social transformation”, this belief, combined with Ella Baker’s consistent confidence of change beginning within the local people of the movement, paved her path to becoming a life-time activist for civil liberties and equality among all Americans. (194) While she may be renown amongst Civil Rights enthusiasts, Baker’s involvement and impact on the movement remains relatively unknown to the majority of Americans. Barbara Ransby’s book Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement attempts to end this silence, and does so very convincingly. Throughout her book, Ransby points out example-after-example of how Baker is either directly or indirectly involved with many of the Civil Rights Movement’s most famous moments – creation of the NAACP, freedom rides, the SCLC, Birmingham, Albany, the SNCC, etc. After reading about her dedication and the sacrifices she made for the
If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen”. Both of these quotes acknowledge how black people were perceived, showing how much Ida wants to change it. Ida's documents are prime examples of how you can change someone's perspective. She flipped her race's false narrative and showed the world a positive black role model for generations to
Ida B. Wells is someone made of fiery bravery and courage. Someone who was brave enough to speak out about huge issues when it was dangerous to do so, despite such high stakes. Ida B. Wells has taught me to be extremely brave, and to fight for what’s right no matter how much hate you get for it. Hold your ground and get your point across. I am just so grateful that men and women that fought as hard as Ida B. Wells existed to shape the world we live in
Dubois. Dubois was an incredibly intelligent African American and was also one of the founders of the NAACP. Dubois wanted full rights for African Americans and wouldn’t be satisfied with partial rights. With his position in the NAACP and editor of its journal, “The Crisis”, Dubois had a lot of influence. He definitely put his influence to good use in arguing against the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which stated that segregation was legal as long as both races had equal opportunities.
In Ida B. Wells’ works Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases and A Red Record, Ida B. Wells argues against the lynching of African Americans of the time. Wells’ uses many strategies and techniques to make her arguments as convincing as possible throughout her works. She also uses clear language and well-structured sentences to make it clear what she is arguing. Ida B. Wells makes sure to use statistics and offers rebuttals to the opposing side’s point of view to strengthen her argument. Wells presents these arguments by isolating and clearly stating the problem, giving descriptive and specific examples, using statistics, and offering rebuttals.
The excerpt I chose to reflect on is called “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!” by Claudia Jones (1949). Jones express the concerns that women of color in her time suffer from the neglect and degradation they receive throughout their lives. During this time, the reason many African American women go through the struggles in their community originated from the notion that the “bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the Negro woman” (108). In my opinion, they have every right to be afraid of African American women. As Jones stated nicely "once Negro women undertake action, the militancy of the whole Negro people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced" (108).
She showed all African American women and men that they can achieve the impossible and have an intelligent mind like everyone else. Even African American poets from today like Alice Walker found her as an inspiration. In one of her poems about being brought to america, she perfectly summarizes what the struggle was being a slave that is equal to everyone