Explorations In Leadership
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CatelynLinke.pptxIDA B. WELLS: Investigative Journalist & Civil Rights activist
By:
Catelyn Linke
ITDS 400
BACKGROUND
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Eldest of eight children
Born July16, 1862 in Mississippi to slave parents
Brought lynching in the South before the eyes of the world
Undertook dangerous political action
Created systemic social change in the United States
RATIONALE
This is still relevant because racism and sexism remain prevalent in the United States today
THESIS STATEMENT
Ida B. Wells played a crucial role in showing the entire nation and world the horrible practice of lynching that was common practice in the South
AIM
This review of literature aims to provide a few perspectives on the life and legacy of Ida B. Wells while sharing the impact she had on our country
MAIN POINTS
This topic is explored through a review of literature in three areas including
The history of lynching and racism in the south
How Ida B. Wells became involved in the fight
What she has done to impact social change in our country
HISTORY OF RACISM AND LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH
Christensen (2005) writes about how “it emerged in the late nineteenth century” (p. 100).
She adds that from1880-1930 more than 3,500 African Americans were lynched in the South.
According to Pinar (2006), a lack of state intervention meant that African Americans were not protected from white violence and that “black disenfranchisement would be nearly complete by 1900” (p. 420).
HISTORY OF RACISM AND LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH
Pinar (2006) writes that “race relations in the 1880s and 1890s were influenced by the conservatism of the ruling Bourbon Democrats” (p. 420) who were in power since the ending of Reconstruction.
He continues by saying “their paternalistic style seemed to pacify those whites increasingly obsessed with the ‘negro problem’” (p. 420).
In addition, he illustrated that lynching “bred disrespect for the law, [and] disrupted social stability” (p. 420).
Later, he adds that “whites no longer saw blacks as innocent primitive children but as beasts, bucks, muscular black studs ready to rape at any moment” (p. 420-421).
HISTORY OF RACISM AND LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH
In 1988, “more than one hundred Winchester-carrying whites rode into” Memphis to “liberate their country from Negro rule” (Tucker, 1971, p. 113).
Tucker (1971) also mentions how a new generation of white Memphians launched a campaign to end the participation of Negroes in politics and reestablish white supremacy.
He adds how a group of young white racists were determined to overthrow Reconstruction.
HOW IDA B. WELLS JOINED THE FIGHT
Pich (2015) wrote about “her decision to sue Chesapeake and Ohio Railway for discrimination: her first direct challenge to racial inequality, and the spark for her activism and career as a journalist” (p. 60).
In 1892, the murders of Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart showed Ida B. Wells that lynching was not a deterrent to black criminality but a means to keep black people down (Pich, 2015).
Pich (2015) also wrote that “the Memphis lynching was a major turning point in Wells’ life, imbuing her with a ‘sense of prophetic mission’ that would prompt her to launch and lead the nation's first anti-lynching campaign” (p. 61).
HOW IDA B. WELLS JOINED THE FIGHT
In 1884, Wells experienced discrimination when she was kicked off a train for not moving to the “colored” car, and later she sued them and won (Duster, 2020).
According to Duster (2020), “in 1892, three of [Wells’] friends were lynched because they owned a grocery store that competed against a white-owned store” (p. 24).
She adds how Wells’ life was threatened due to the amount of things she wrote about in the newspaper and that she encouraged black people to protest.
HOW IDA B. WELLS JOINED THE FIGHT
The “racially segregated nature of her environment and experience” no doubt had a huge impact on her decision to write and protest racism in the United States (Totten, 2008, p. 47).
Totten (2008) goes on to say that Wells was a “credible and embodied eyewitness of segregation and lynching’ (p. 47).
Watkins (2008) said how “her parent’s influence, her schooling, and her life in Memphis contributed to a template for [her life of] activism” (p. 110-111).
HOW IDA B. WELLS IMPACTED SOCIAL CHANGE
In the words of Watkins (2008), “Wells-Barnett traveled extensively, lecturing, investigating stories, and soliciting subscriptions” (p. 109).
In her great-granddaughters article, it was said “she founded the Alpha-Suffrage Club – the first all-Black suffrage club in the state – in order to exercise the power to vote” (Duster, 2020, p. 25).
HOW IDA B. WELLS IMPACTED SOCIAL CHANGE
Following the Memphis police riot of 1866, Ida B. Wells wrote “angry editorials demanding the trial and convictions of the murders in the name of God and justice” (Tucker, 1971, p. 116-117).
Totten (2008) wrote of her “journeys overseas to spread her antilynching message among international allies rather than among enemies within her own ‘free America’” (p. 57).
According to Christensen (2005), “In 1909, Wells-Barnett joined the ‘Committee of 40,’ which set the groundwork for the establishment of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” (p. 102).
HOW IDA B. WELLS IMPACTED SOCIAL CHANGE
Pinar (2006) said “performing one of her most brilliant reversals of whites’ assumptions, Wells suggested that it was white – not black – men who were the rapists in America” (p. 468).
In 2015 Pich wrote, “Wells played on white middle-class fears, identifying lynching as the ultimate signifier of the decline of white manhood and civilization” (p. 61).
CONCLUSION
Ida B. Wells dedicated her life to exposing and fighting lynching in the Southern United States
She showed the rest of the country and the world what was occurring as common practice
Wells was one of the most influential women of her time and she still can inspire us today
CONCLUSION
We can use the example she set to stand up to racial, sexual, religious, or any other discrimination in our own lifetimes
She laid down the foundation for fighting for equality, now we can continue that fight by:
Voting responsibly
Joining the BLM movement
Being educated on current events
Further research could be done into other organizations she was a part of because she did much more than lead the anti-lynching campaign in the United States
REFERENCES
Christensen, L.-M. (2005). Women who passed the torch of freedom. Social Studies, 96(3), 99–104. doi: 10.3200/TSSS.96.3.99-104
Duster, M. (2020). Continuing my great-grandmother’s fight. TIME Magazine, 196(9/10), 24–25.
Pich, H. (2015). Various, beautiful, and terrible: The life and legacy of Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Australasian Journal of American Studies, 34(2), 59-74.
Pinar, W. F. (2006). Black protest and the emergence of Ida B. Wells. Curriculum& Teaching Dialogue, 8(1/2), 153–170.
REFERENCES
Totten, G. (2008). Embodying segregation: Ida B. Wells and the cultural work of travel. African American Review, 42(1), 47–60
Tucker, D. (1971). Miss Ida B. Wells and Memphis lynching. Phylon (1960),
32(2), 112-122. doi: 10.2307/273997
Watkins, R. N. (2008). The southern roots of Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s revolutionary activism. Southern Quarterly, 45(3), 108–126.
