Violence is a deliberated behavior which constitutes the use of power to hurt, damage, or kill someone. The modern day violence differs a bit when compared with the nineteenth century violence, in that; traditional violence was not much taken serious by courts. The years that followed the civil wars were incapacitated by oppression and maltreatment of Blacks in the US. Ida B. Wells being a black Journalist investigated and recorded all the aspects of brutality and sadism that were directed to her fellow black.
The reason behind Wells recording her findings and investigations was the fact that she believed that “it was the foremost and easiest way to let the world comprehend the facts sandwiched in the brutality of lynching and to make it a crime that trails against the morals and values of America” 1 her collection southern horrors and other writings has Royster discussing the prevalence of cruelty in the US and the measures that Wells took to bring the cruelty into culmination. Wells’ focus was on the lynching and killing of African Americans by white mobs. Some of the reasons that were given to cover the lynching included burglary, murder, insults to whites, intoxication of water and livestock, insolence, and arson among others.
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Inasmuch as African Americans were guilty of the tabled allegations, Wells believed that it was not rightful for the mob to act against them. This was a responsibility for the court and the juries and not the antagonistic mob. Lynching and killings were imposed to the black population to the point that they couldn’t impact any activity that was being carried out in America. All types of gender and age, provided they were from the African ethnic group were victims of mistreatment. In her 1892 report, wells recorded 241 killings which included men, women, and children across all the states of America. From the 241 people that were lynched, 160 were African Americans. This population denoted an upsurge of 200 percent over a single decade.
The 200 percent increase shows a rapid increment of violence on African Americans in the period of reconstruction. Quite a considerable number of African Americans were lynched for odd reasons. Most of them were alleged to have raped white women despite being in relationships with them. In her writings, wells recorded that “Negroes had to be killed to avenge their assaults upon white women”. 2 On the other hand, the compliment of the press was that “Negroes were like “beasts” and therefore, they had to encounter brutal punishments. Thus, 3 their punishments were no way comparable to the ones imposed to whites.
According to statistics and as indicated by Wells “more than ten thousand Negroes were killed in cold blood without judicial trial” 4 . The basic reason behind the prevalence of African American killings was the upset that debilitated the whites which was fueled by the fact that blacks were declared free and they were no longer their masters. Basically, whites did not want to lose their jurisdiction over the black population, they still wanted to restrict their autonomy, prestige, and power and use it for their selfish gains. However, on that note, women of steel, character, and courage such as Ida B. wells felt that Africans had been incarcerated so much and therefore, they had to do something to salvage themselves. Ida took several steps to see to it that her campaigns posed substantial impacts not only in America but also in the world.
She started to investigate killings. She also wrote and spoke more about mob violence in newspapers, articles, and editorials. Furthermore, she joined organizations to put an end to violence and killings of African Americans. To start with “Wells had to pull to pieces the stereotypes that were fashioned on the grounds of race, gender, and ethnicity” 5 . The casts posed that “white women were unadulterated and chaste while African American women were malicious, dissolute, and immoral” 6 . She had to put an end to this notion since she did not want her supporters to envisage this and get a bad image of the oppressed. On that note, wells wrote a pamphlet Southern Horrors which gave a wide picture of the plight of African Americans. Later, she made a drawing speech in Washington D.C with a hope of gaining support from foreign nations including Britain, which she eventually got. She also joined hands with organizations that fought for human rights including, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Association of Southern Women for Protection of Lynching (ASWPL). NAACP provided protection against mob violence while ASWPL supported women who sort public awareness.
After winning the favor of Britain and gaining their support, Wells made her first tour to Britain where she created more awareness and sent back the results of her endeavors to Memphis. Her undertakings bore fruits since she was able to stop lynching in Memphis for 20 years. Her second tour was also successful. In all her tours and campaigns, Wells was to send back reports to the US which helped in advocating humanity. She also took part in the Colombus exposition in Chicago which had excluded African Americans. Her participation on the exposition was an indication of courage and a substantiation of the authenticity and seriousness of her action. Generally, by the time she died, wells had made an impact on the notion of inferiority and injustices against the blacks.
In all her undertakings, Wells hoped that the lives of African Americans would improve especially the much despised black woman. She trusted to accomplish this by dismantling the stereotypes of race and gender. Black women were perceived with a lot of negativity. They were not to be compared to the white women in any way. Wells plan was to put an end to this notion. She wanted all races to be served equally and bequeathed the respect they deserved. By laying a chance to join organizations, African Americans would gain their respect and would have a share on the national cake. When blacks joined these organizations, most of their grievances were heard and were able to have a good response.
Dealing with violence and lynching in the nineteenth century was a nightmare to many. The idea of slavery was still live and fresh in the minds of whites. According to them, Africans were still their puppets and therefore, they were not worth of any respect. They were supposed to submit and be of full service to them. However, the Fifth Amendment seemed to act against the whites’ long serving analogy and this imposed a lot of bitterness on them. In other words, they never envisaged African Americans as free people but the law had started to confiscate their idea. As a result, the white crowds attacked and lynched blacks sometimes with no reason or on the grounds of mere and petty allegations. Wells, an anti-lynching extremist, turned out to be a defender of justice and fairness and an extremely noticeable global leader who was against chaos, lynching, and unruliness” 7 . She did everything on her jurisdiction to safeguard the rights of the black population.
Legal history presents that “the anti-lynching campaigns did not present any success as congress was not in a position of implementing neither the Blair nor the Dyer Bill or any other statute that would culminate the wave of violence in the US” 8 . However, despite historical recordings, Ida B. Wells helped greatly in reducing cases of lynching among the blacks in the nineteenth century.
Bibliography
Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster. 1997. Southern Horrors And Other Writings . 1st ed. Bedford Books.
" Southern Horrors: Women And The Politics Of Rape And Lynching". 2010. Choice Reviews Online 47 (08): 47-4603-47-4603. doi:10.5860/choice.47-4603.
1 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster. 1997. Southern Horrors And Other Writings . (Bedford Books), 27 .
2 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster. 1997. Southern Horrors And Other Writings . (Bedford Books), 77.
3 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster. 1997. Southern Horrors And Other Writings . (Bedford Books), 62.
4 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, 65.
5 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, 30
6 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, 30 .
7 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, 45.
8 Wells-Barnett, Ida B, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, 40.
