Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching

LYNCHING: IDA B. WELLS

Lynching refers to use of mob violence against any person with or without a reason. In the days after the Civil War and during the period of Reconstruction, slavery became even more intense than it was ever before. This is because Southerners were now being forced to grant Black Americans their due rights, something that they were absolutely not willing to do. In the days before the Civil War, slavery was prevalent and no one openly objected to it or talked about civil rights of black people. Slaveholders assumed they were superior to their slaves and felt no one could take this right away from them. But as soon as people started discussing civil rights for blacks in public especially the Northerners and some members of the salve community, Southerners became even more austere as they feared loss of their superiority. The idea that they might lose this feeling of 'being above the black race' frightened the Southerners and thus they participated with all their might in the Civil War, which unfortunately for them ended in North's victory.

Today if we look at the situation of black Americans, we would probably consider Civil war a blessing but that was certainly not the case immediately after the war, especially during the period of Reconstruction. This is because of Lynch Laws and lynching activities that took place during in time and which swallowed tens of hundreds of black men, most of them completely innocent.

Ida Wells was one of those few black activists who decided to take some action against these atrocities and being a journalist published many papers and pamphlets on the subject of lynching. In the book, "Southern Horrors and other Stories," we find three long pamphlets by this courageous activist. These writings sought to explain how lynching was used during and after the Reconstruction period to break the spirit of black men and women who were keenly looking forward to total freedom and emancipation. Wells gave us all the details of this lynching and how Lynch Law was implemented in those days. Lynch Law was used to stop the so-called Negro Domination that many believed was interfering with an established order and hence was creating trouble in the country. But Wells mocked this claim as she wrote:

With the Southern governments all subverted and the Negro actually eliminated from all participation in state and national elections, there could be no longer an excuse for killing Negroes to prevent "Negro Domination." Brutality still continued; Negroes were whipped, scourged, exiled, shot and hung whenever and wherever it pleased the white man..." (A Red Record, The case Stated, Pg. 11)