Ida B. Wells-Barnett wrote “On Lynchings” in 1892. In regards to race relations, specifically focusing on African Americans, not much has changed in today’s world. Even when they’ve done nothing wrong, whether they just speak or mind their own business, others instantly jump to the conclusion that they are committing some type of crime. As Barnett states, “No cannon or military was called out in his defense. He dared to visit a white woman” (15). Around this time period, even the very accusation of a black man raping a woman could cause the man to be lynched, despite how much proof or validity was given to support that claim. False accusations seem to be accepted, even encouraged. Today, things are not much different in our justice system. But instead, roles are …show more content…
Even if the man did something to provoke the officer, the authority figure could have found a better way to handle it.. On Lynchings clearly demonstrates how the minority (The Southerners) were racist against blacks, and how the Southerners try to justify their actions. Whites could hang them for any reason, without justification, and get away with it. Even governors refused to take any action, 1 because they were ignoring the whites that hung them for every wrongdoing. Actual crimes didn’t have to be committed for them to feel they had enough justification. Nowadays, only racists try to defend the actions of those who kill African Americans. There’s no one-fits-all distinction between the North and the South anymore, because ideas have since then changed. Slavery has since then been abolished, but that never means that racism will just go away, simply because people can’t be owned as property. In the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, it gave the separate-but-equal doctrine a voice, so public institutions were still segregated. It was determined that racial segregation was not discrimination. The documents Barnett uses provide a specific detail to how Southerners view them: as rapists