Ida B. Wells-BarnettEssay Preview: Ida B. Wells-BarnettReport this essayIDA B. WELLS-BARNETTIda B. Wells-Barnett is first among many. She was a civil servant and fought injustices amongst the black community. Ida was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862. There she witnessed the Civil War and the dramatic changes it brought to her life. During Reconstruction she found possession of previously unheard-of freedoms, her civil rights. The most dramatic change was the institution of schools for the education of blacks. The establishment of the Freedmans Aid Society founded by Shaw University, later renamed Rust College, and was where Ida attended classes. Ida possessed an interest in school, and she quickly worked her way through every book in the Rust College library. At an early age she demonstrated leadership and a strong liking to journalism. Growing up in Memphis opened opportunities for Ida to further her education at LeMoyne Institution and Fisk University. Her impact among the Negro community was first felt in May 1884. On her way to work, Ida boarded her usual seat on the first-class ladies coach, she was asked by the conductor to move to the forward car, which was a smoker. Wells refused, got off the train, returned to Memphis, and
filed suit against the Chesapeake, Ohio, and SouthWestern Railroad Company for refusing to provide her the first-class accommodations for which she paid. In December, 1884 the Memphis Circuit Court ruled in her favor and awarded her $500 in damages. The reaction within the white community was expressed in the Memphis Appeal, “Darky Damsel Gets Damages” (Klots, 32) Although her success was short lived when the company appealed the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which reversed the decision.
Wells-Barnetts willingness to use the courts to challenge Jim Crow laws was well ahead of her time. Using her forceful pen to write of her experience and outcome soon led her to writing regularly for the black press throughout the country. Ida gained a reputation for fearlessness because of her militant opinions she openly expressed in print. Through her writings she was able to influence the black community, nonetheless educate them and sympathizers of injustices against them. The impact of Ida B. Wells-Barnett was felt within the Negro community through her anti-lynching crusade, journalistic writings, and prominent organizations.
With the sharpness of her pen, Ida raised the battle cry against the American “national crime” of lynching. Infuriated by the Memphis lynching in 1892, which involved a close friend; Ida expressed her grief in an editorial in the local black newspaper, Free Speech:
“The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are outnumbered and without armsThere is therefore only one thing left we can do; save our money and leave town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, when accused by white persons.” (Hine, 28)
At the same time Wells saw what lynching really was; an excuse to “keep the nigger down”, and execute those “who acquired wealth and property.” (Duster, 64) This sparked her investigation into the causes of lynching-rape. In Crusade for Justice Ida, “stumbled on the amazing record that every case of rape reported became such only when it became public.” (Duster, 65) Since whites could no longer hold blacks as slaves they found in mob violence a different means of maintaining a system of “economic,
psychological, and sexual exploitation.” (Klots, 42) In addition, the result of her investigation and editorialsparked the black community to retaliate and encourage all who could to leave, and those who stayed to boycott the city Railroad Company. Ida saw the success of the boycott, and asserted, “the appeal to the white mans pocket has ever been more effectual than all appeals ever made to his conscience.” (Klots, 42) Her numerous editorials on lynching received an enormous response amongst black Americans. At any rate, Wells-Barnett knew that to campaign effectively against lynching she had to reach white northerners and the northern press. She began lecturing throughout the Northeast.
Touring brought Ida local and international fame, which lead to her invitation overseas. Wells lectured all over England, Scotland, and Wales. Her lectures were praised as, “clear, enlightening, and powerful”, and provided the British with an insight of the atrocities of lynching against blacks. (Smith, 1235) On the other hand, her efforts saw the growth of organizations pledging to fight segregation and lynching. Wells-Barnett brought forth an issue to the forefront of America. Not only did
she strive to seek justice for lynchings but justice from crimes that hindered black progression.Her writing discussed other issues plaguing the black community. As a teacher employed in the Memphis School System, Ida witnessed the poor conditions in school for black children. In an unsigned article, she condemned this discrimination as well as “the poor mental and moral character” of many of her fellow educators. (Klots, 37) Wells-Barnett used her experience to attack the injustice against blacks in the school system but she also addressed the issue of the weakness of the black community that allowed such injustices to continue. Ida possessed a passionate feeling for education. She saw education as an opportunity for advancement. Ida hole outwardly disagreed with Booker T. Washingtons position on industrial
*’s racism, but she took strong action by creating a public campaign to fight such issues. In November, 2015, Iduendis published an article titled, “‘E.T. and the Racial Problem’ – In the Age of Trump’s Globalism,” in the Wall Street Journal. She pointed to recent events such as the deaths of black students at schools by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA., and urged schools to be prepared to handle such issues. She also noted the recent decision by South Carolina, which enacted such a measure, to use state money to provide housing for black women. (Barnett, 31)
Folks, the case of the Ku Klux Klan was not a recent flashpoint, but on July 16, 2017, in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, the Ku Klux Klan made its big move with its “Day of Rage” protest to protest the desegregation of public schools by a black group. A few days later, on the same night that the racist “Day of Rage” on Twitter started, an event called “Hateful Thoughts” took place where thousands of white supremacists threw fireworks at the car of a black activist. The event, which led to several arrests and a shooting, led to riots, in which far right demonstrators clashed with police at two events of which one was actually a demonstration. The event was organized as part of their “Day of Rage” group that demanded a political settlement with white supremacist groups and some of those groups were subsequently taken into custody. However at the same time, their actions led to violence between racists and many black demonstrators.
By early 2017, many black men and women were being arrested for violent acts that they would not commit again if they held out because of what the Klan has become. This sparked a movement in the black community through the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party to get “lives ruined” because the racist people in the black community had been killed more so than any other group of people that had been involved in organizing. Since that time, as white hate groups such as the KKK, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis and other hate groups, have become increasingly aggressive, but the problem of living peacefully is not one which is at a standstill because of what has happened since the events of June 29 or July 4.
It seems that the first thing on top of what has happened from those events is the continuing failure of the black community to recognize the reality which they are facing in the midst with the ongoing violence between both minorities and non-whites. This has been the main cause of violence between the black community and its white oppressors from the beginning, and these two groups have the right to do whatever they want without fear or retribution, for “justice, honor, and solidarity.”
Although there is more work to be done, it is clear that black people are working harder to become more integrated into the life of today. They are working harder to help communities build self-sufficient communities, not only through the building of communities but also through the strengthening of community relations between communities and states, that is through education, employment, housing, health care and education.
As many communities seek to build communities and