David
Maselli, Raven Burks, Kala Burr, Sumner Richter, and Brooks Lamb
Professor
McKinney
Civil
Rights in Memphis
September
12, 2016
Ida B. Wells’ Southern Horrors: More Than
Just Telling Stories
In Southern Horrors and Other
Writings, Ida B. Wells highlighted the horrific nature of lynching in the
United States near the end of the nineteenth century, particularly focusing on
the rampant violence inflicted by whites upon African Americans in the American
South. Narrating the stories of individual victims, Wells made lynching a
personal matter and refused to allow the deaths of victims to exist only as
mere statistics. Through gruesome—yet crucial—details, she forcefully and
effectively conveyed the inhumanity and injustice involved in lynching. But
interpreting Wells’ writing only as recitations of tragic lynching stories
would be a dramatic oversimplification of her efforts as an activist. In
addition to recognizing the horrors that Wells recounts, we must be aware of
the larger themes of her book: themes of false white chivalry, of systemic
oppression, and of the importance of self-defense for black Americans. It is
also important for us to recognize Wells’ objectives in writing these stories
and to discuss her effectiveness in achieving her goals. And, finally, we
should consider how reading Wells--an African American woman who was writing
before the turn of the twentieth century--can help us improve our understanding
of civil rights in America, especially in regard to race and gender. By digging
deeper than the surface of Wells’ Southern Horrors and Other Writings, we
begin to realize how significant she is in the larger history of civil rights
in the United States.
Threaded between the disturbing
images of lynching portrayed in Southern Horrors and Other Writings are
several important themes that help us understand the complex nature of Wells’
work. The first theme that this paper discusses relates to the false narrative
of chivalry that whites in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
used to justify lynching. Many whites at this time claimed that lynching was a
tool used to protect the pureness of white women, not so subtly implying that
black men were sex-crazed beasts who could not resist fair-skinned women. This
view, she writes, was widely held: “With such unanimity, earnestness, and
apparent candor was this charge made and reiterated that the world has accepted
that the Negro is a monster which the Southern white man has painted him.”[1] Wells effectively and
viciously attacks this dishonest notion by telling multiple stories of innocent
black men who, after being found innocent of harming white women, were still
brutally murdered.[2]
The “chivalrous” justifications of those who lynched black men for rape were
unfounded, and they were further disproved by the frequent rape of black women
by these same white men. Thus, “protecting” women was not a true concern for
those who lynched black Americans.
The next two themes focused on in
this paper--the oppression of black Americans through lynching and Wells’ calls
for black citizens to practice self-defense--are closely related. Throughout
her writing, even if not explicitly stated, Wells cited lynching as a technique
to oppress African Americans. By inflicting violence upon black Southerners,
whites who embraced lynching worked to reinforce the long-standing social order
of the South. Wells explained that black citizens had “been cheated out of the
ballot, deprived of civil rights, [and] robbed of the fruits of their labor.”[3] Lynching was the chosen
means to enforce these measures. But Wells, in what was then considered a
radical stance, argued that black Southerners should fight fire with fire. If
angry whites tried to use lynching as a way to further invoke oppression,
African Americans should do whatever necessary to defend themselves. It is for
this reason that Wells claimed that a “Winchester rifle should have a place of
honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the
law refuses to give.”[4] This statement, along with
stories that especially glorified African Americans who defended themselves,
shows a clear support for African Americans taking justice into their own
hands.[5]
In addition to the aforementioned themes, we can see that Wells
had clear objectives in her writing. Ida B. Wells’ emerged as one of the
biggest critics against the widely accepted lynching practices in the United
States. Prior to the murder of her three friends, Wells considered lynching to
be an extreme consequence of committing a heinous crime. She did not
support it, but she accepted it as something that was out of her control.
After the lynching of the three men from the People’s Grocery Store,
Wells’ eyes were opened. She knew that her friends were law-abiding businessmen
who were giving the African American community hope in Memphis, and she
realized that their success threatened and angered white men in Memphis.
They were killed by “persons unknown”; however, Wells understood that the
identities of the perpetrators were protected by the white community. The
deaths of Wells’ friends motivated her anti-lynching campaign. According to Southern
Horrors, Wells wanted “to recast lynching in the public eye so that it was
no longer perceived as an understandable though unpleasant response to heinous
acts but as itself a crime against American values.”[6] The general public
did not understand the many facets of the culture of lynching. Therefore,
Wells worked fervently to increase the public awareness of its horrors and
injustices. She wrote pamphlets exposing the horrific nature of lynching and
called her peers to rise against the system of lawless justice.
Wells pamphlets encompassed the untold black narrative. The
police reports would erase the stories of the victims; oftentimes, the victims
were villainized which further justified the mob’s choice of sentencing.
Wells chose to report the facts of each case and published the statistics
of each crime. Her pamphlets disclosed that African American were lynched
at an alarming and steadily increasing rate. Furthermore, Wells’ research
revealed that the lynchings occurred in cities and towns within a government’s
jurisdiction. By reporting the statistics of the crimes, Wells exposed
that an overwhelming majority of the crimes were not “rape.” And though
often labeled “rapists,” Wells found that many of the men who were lynched were
proven innocent. She used these inconsistencies to propel her campaign
against lynching forward and to achieve her objective of debunking the “white
chivalry” myth. .
Wells’ campaign received many responses. She advocated for
the migration of the black population in a city that supported lynching, and
her encouragement resulted in a massive migration of African Americans from
Memphis. Her campaign gained attention from activists abroad, allowing
her to travel overseas. After Wells gained support in Great Britain,
lynchings in Memphis were not reported for twenty years. Although the
anti-lynching campaign gained support, Congress did not pass legislation outlawing
the activity during Wells’ life. With her leadership, the attitude toward
lynching transformed “the cultural ethos that permitted mob violence without
retribution.”[7]
Eventually, lynching was considered a national crime. Wells, though it
took some time, accomplished many of her objectives.
The injustices that fuel today’s civil rights
movements are still deeply rooted in the systemic discriminations which Wells
helped combat. As a black Southern female journalist, Wells was radical in her
reclamation of her own power. By continuing with her activism even after being
forcibly exiled from her home, she exemplified the strength and determination
that motivate women activists today. Wells also set precedence for humanizing
the slaughtered and abused in pieces like “The Red Record,” giving identity to
those who were often reduced to their race and sex. The maligned ‘black male’
of the white-written article transforms into men like Lee Walker or Roselius
Julian, people who deserve respect. It is not difficult to see the connection
to those killed today, men like Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown; their names are
shouted in the streets, allies determined that they not be forgotten or
ignored.
Perhaps most of all, she urged her readers to question the
establishment which pretended to protect them. Wells’ own revelations which
emerged in “Southern Horrors” did not lead her to agree with “Afro-American
ministers, newspapers and leaders [who] counselled obedience to the law which
did not protect [the African American community],” but asked that her peers
protest by leaving a region which systematically undermined them.[8] In her pamphlets, she
provided examples of authorities who remained inactive against mobs, whether
because of choice or circumstance. Time after time, Wells condemned passivity.
This same message has been shared from one part of the movement to the next,
each searching for lasting change.
In Southern
Horrors and Other Writings Wells wrote the truth at a time when speaking
against the injustices of society could have proven deadly. She sacrificed her
home and her livelihood to tell the real stories of the victims of lynching. By
proving them innocent and exposing the fallacious logics used to justify their
murder, Ida B Wells changed the perception of lynching globally. She informed
the African American community that it was not enough to follow the laws and
expect to be given the protection they promise but rather that African Americans
need to actively protect themselves against cruelty, violence, and injustice.
Her tenacity, her passion, and her bravery are in inspiration to all who work
toward civil rights and thus her legacy continues to achieve progress in the
same fight for justice to which she dedicated her life. Studying the life and
work of Ida B Wells makes one question what injustices are ignored or worse
falsely justified today. How can we as activists for greater freedom and
equality challenge the current political and social climate to acknowledge the
evils and cruelties we allow to take place on a daily basis? How can we have
the bravery to say what needs to be said even when it’s hard or dangerous to do
so? Ida B Wells was able to take a stand when the entire structure of society
was working to keep her down. Now that progress has been made it is our
generation's duty to keep standing up and keep fighting for the better world
Wells believed we can create.
[1]
Ida B. Wells, “A Red Record,” in Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The
Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, ed. Jacqueline Jones Royster (Boston: Bedford
Books, 1997), 78.
[2]
John Peterson, of Barnwell County, South Carolina,
was one such of these cases. Ibid, 117.
[3]
Ida B. Wells, “Southern Horrors,” in Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The
Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, ed. Jacqueline Jones Royster (Boston: Bedford
Books, 1997), 66.
[4]
Ibid, 70.
[5]
The recounting of Robert Charles’ story is the most
obvious example of Wells praising black Southerners who defended themselves
with firearms. Charles, wrongfully attacked by a police officer in New Orleans,
took up arms against an entire mob of angry whites that aimed to lynch him,
killing several police officers and citizens before being killed himself.
[6]
Ibid, 27.
[7]
Ibid, 41.
[8]
Ibid, 65.
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