Southern Horrors

B. Wells Ida

Description

The epidemic of lynching that gripped the American South in the decades after the Civil War and the end of slavery has been glossed over and understated in many history books. Activist Ida B. Wells took it upon herself to document this shameful practice and its prevalence throughout the region and, to a lesser extent, the entire country in a series of seminal volumes, including Southern Horrors.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776529155
• Langue: English

Extrait

SOUTHERN HORRORS
LYNCH LAW IN ALL ITS PHASES
* * *
IDA B. WELLS
 
*
Southern Horrors Lynch Law in All Its Phases First published in 1892 Epub ISBN 978-1-77652-915-5 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77652-916-2 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Preface Frederick Douglass's Letter 1 - The Offense 2 - The Black and White of It 3 - The New Cry 4 - The Malicious and Untruthful White Press 5 - The South's Position 6 - Self-Help
Preface
*
The greater part of what is contained in these pages was published in the New York Age June 25, 1892, in explanation of the editorial which theMemphis whites considered sufficiently infamous to justify the destructionof my paper, the Free Speech .
Since the appearance of that statement, requests have come from all partsof the country that "Exiled" (the name under which it then appeared) beissued in pamphlet form. Some donations were made, but not enough for thatpurpose. The noble effort of the ladies of New York and Brooklyn Oct. 5have enabled me to comply with this request and give the world a true,unvarnished account of the causes of lynch law in the South.
This statement is not a shield for the despoiler of virtue, nor altogethera defense for the poor blind Afro-American Sampsons who suffer themselvesto be betrayed by white Delilahs. It is a contribution to truth, an arrayof facts, the perusal of which it is hoped will stimulate this greatAmerican Republic to demand that justice be done though the heavens fall.
It is with no pleasure I have dipped my hands in the corruption hereexposed. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinnedagainst than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so. Theawful death-roll that Judge Lynch is calling every week is appalling, notonly because of the lives it takes, the rank cruelty and outrage to thevictims, but because of the prejudice it fosters and the stain it placesagainst the good name of a weak race.
The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute inany way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience ofthe American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, andpunishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race aservice. Other considerations are of minor importance.
IDA B. WELLS New York City , Oct. 26, 1892
*
To the Afro-American women of New York and Brooklyn, whose race love,earnest zeal and unselfish effort at Lyric Hall, in the City of New York,on the night of October 5, 1892—made possible its publication, thispamphlet is gratefully dedicated by the author.
Frederick Douglass's Letter
*
Dear Miss Wells:
Let me give you thanks for your faithful paper on the lynch abominationnow generally practiced against colored people in the South. There hasbeen no word equal to it in convincing power. I have spoken, but my wordis feeble in comparison. You give us what you know and testify from actualknowledge. You have dealt with the facts with cool, painstaking fidelityand left those naked and uncontradicted facts to speak for themselves.
Brave woman! you have done your people and mine a service which canneither be weighed nor measured. If American conscience were only halfalive, if the American church and clergy were only half christianized, ifAmerican moral sensibility were not hardened by persistent infliction ofoutrage and crime against colored people, a scream of horror, shame andindignation would rise to Heaven wherever your pamphlet shall be read.
But alas! even crime has power to reproduce itself and create conditionsfavorable to its own existence. It sometimes seems we are deserted byearth and Heaven yet we must still think, speak and work, and trust in thepower of a merciful God for final deliverance.
Very truly and gratefully yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C. , Oct. 25, 1892