Ida B. Wells: The Rise Of Lynching

One word, one word that describes a racial targeting in the 1930s that killed dozens and dozens of African Americans for mostly no reason, Lynching. In the 1930s African Americans were persecuted and lynched in various ways because they were accused of a crime that seems so small or not even a crime at all. Ida B. Wells was one woman that went out and after witnessing a tragedy used her resources to launch an anti-lynching campaign and teach others the horrors of lynching.

The rise of lynching caused by White Americans spread fear through African Americans and of those, the ones who started the fight to end the racial targeting and fear.

Lynching does not always mean a noose and gallow it can range from various methods of torture to executions such as burning at the stake, these methods were what made lynching such an effective tool to spread fear. “The classic public lynchings for which the South became so notorious always involved torture and mutilation and ended in death for the victim, either by

Wells a woman from Memphis, whose life was changed when she witnessed a tragedy. “Wells-Barnett became involved in anti-lynching activities in 1892 after three of her friends, who operated a successful Memphis business called People’s Grocery, were lynched” (Engelbert). Ida B. Wells wasn’t in anti-lynching activities until really after 1891 because of what happened in her home town. When Ida B. Wells returned home three of her close friends who ran a successful grocery were lynched for no reason, she decided to get into anti-lynching activities. ¨She then began touring the country, as well as traveling abroad, giving lectures about lynching.” After she was threatened she went around the country and abroad to speak out against it. Thanks to her help African Americans became educated of what was happening at the time and soon others listening to her realized that something need to be done to stop