Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells

by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Ada B. Wells, Alfreda M. Duster (Editor)

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was one of the foremost crusaders against black oppression. This engaging memoir tells of her private life as mother of a growing family as well as her public activities as teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight against attitudes and laws oppressing blacks.

"No student of black history should overlook Crusade for Justice ."—William M. Tuttle, Jr., Journal of American History

"Besides being the story of an incredibly courageous and outspoken black woman in the face of innumerable odds, the book is a valuable contribution to the social history of the United States and to the literature of the women's movement as well."—Elizabeth Kolmer, American Quarterly

"[Wells was] a sophisticated fighter whose prose was as thorough as her intellect."—Walter Goodman, New York Times

"An illuminating narrative of a zealous, race-conscious, civic- and church-minded black woman reformer, whose life story is a significant chapter in the history of Negro-White relations."—Thelma D. Perry, Negro History Bulletin

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Feminism, Race, Biography Memoir

466 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862–1931) was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, often under the guise of rape charges. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician, and traveled internationally on lecture tours.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[H]e would say without qualification that he could not imagine a crime so great that it would need be avenged by lynch law in any country in the world; and what was more he did not believe that crime ever was avenged by lynch law without the lowering of the moral tone of the community, and without the introduction of worse evils than were attempted to be suppressed.

Out of the many books I've tasked myself with getting to, this is one of the ones I've spent the most effort on. Not only did I unhesitatingly shell out for it at an actual store rather than do my customary waiting on the benevolence of book sale shelves, I kept it on my intended 2017 YoRWoC plan from the beginning, only now reading it after the year is nearly through. The rating may make it seem that this effort was less than fully re-compensated, but rather, it made me realize the necessity of Wells having a biographer in the wake of her autobiography. Comprehensively detailed and admirable forthright as this text is, pages are missing, the ending lies unfinished, and with the sheer amount of constantly thwarted triumphs plaguing Wells' life, it can be assumed that this tale has been severely compromised by ill health from stress, lack of time, and judging from the near to the end transcription that all had been for naught, dearth of motivation. While stereotype demanded a lone woman in the face of her work, I'm glad Wells had her family around her, who I hope sustained her when, once again, the white people had closed in their murderous ranks and the black people had withdrawn into their androcentric stagnation. I can't imagine going on once again, and again, and again in the face of this, and yet Ida B. Wells did just that.

Although it was a well-merited rebuke from her point of view, I could not tell [Susan B.] Anthony that it was because I had been unable, like herself, to get the support which was necessary to car yon my work that I had become discouraged in the effort to carry on alone. For that reason I welcomed the opportunity of trying to help unite our people so that there would be a following to help in the arduous work necessary.

There is, more often than not, an inverse relationship between what a person is known for and what a person is judged for. The most famous, usually by demographic means, have their secrets of which display is censured, the most infamous have their aided and abetted descendants, and the heroes are: gone. Wells is only one of many, and she is one of the more well known, having myriad texts that, from my view , are increasingly coming back to life. That didn't make her story any less frustrating to read, as the sheer number of times when she was the initiative to something that either she didn't have enough time or money to run, she couldn't find someone to take up her mantel, or was simply conspired against till her hardworking dedication and utmost bravery was either thwarted, misinterpreted, misused, or flat out stolen and attributed to someone else. The list of the latter includes W.E.B. Du Bois, among others, all of whom have suffered a decrease in reputation with me, as much as Susan B. Anthony has, surprisingly, enjoyed an increase. She had her moments of whiteness over femininity, but was far more strident about proto-intersectionality upon meeting Wells. This ties back to the odd focus had on good, in Wells' book, white people, as if she needed specific reminders of humanity to stand staunch against the tide committing such atrocities that she battled for the entirety of her life. I'd imagine she was as honest about this as well as her criticisms of individuals of the black community of her time, but it makes for a discomforting balanced concoction. Other than her husband and a few religious leaders and those she helped, I can't think of any peers she didn't eventually and justly turn her back upon, which makes for a sad reading. I don't wish she had been any less active in her social justice; it's just a disgrace what such heroism affords for certain demographics.

An effort was made to have a resolution passed by that convention condemning lynching, as the Methodist Episcopal Conference had done at Omaha in May. The committee on resolutions decided that it could not be done as they had too many southern delegates present and did not wish to offend them.

I'll be picking up anything I can of Wells, author as well as authored. She is one of many who deserve such recognition on the scale afforded to her oppressors and her ostracizers, and as attested to by a reference in Black Deutschland, she's made an impact that can be well built upon. I'm not sure what's happening to her in the academic world, but I do know that here, she has my review and the 500 GBBW project behind her. I can only hope she inspires others as much in the political and academic realms as she has me.

When the people needed such criticism, I felt he ought to have done as we did—tell them about it at home rather than tell our enemies abroad.

A civilized community does not need lynch law[.]

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist, civil rights leader, and anti-lynching advocate who fought for equality and justice. She should be as well known as Rosa parks. It's sad that the most compassionate heroes are the ones least spoken of.

[Staci Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title definitely does this book justice! In her last years, Wells wrote this autobiography which I feel many historians should read. It's sad that she is not as well known of an African American hero because she is a woman, but she is just as courageous as Fredrick Douglas and Du Bois. After her parents both died within 24 hours of each other from the 1878 yellow fever epidemic, Wells was the oldest of 6 and had to take care of her younger siblings. She became a teacher and was continuously involved in writing for African American journals and newspapers. She investigated the psychological reasoning behind why whites would accuse black men of raping white women. Lynching, Wells stated, was just an excuse to get rid of blacks competing economically with whites and to terrorize future competitors and all blacks, ultimately treating them as second class citizens. Wells went to England to help advocate against lynching and while in London she formed the anti-lynching community which was the first in the world! In England, the people did not know of the harsh treatments African Americans were receiving in the US so Wells informed them. Of course the US denied having supported any sort of lynching because England was huge importer of cotton which made them indispensable economically if they decided to boycott US cotton due to lynchings. With this anti-lynching community, there was a declining result of lynchings and mob violence and even a two decade span of none being reported. Wells also helped 12 Africans Americans be released from prison and the death sentence after the 1919 Elaine, Arkansas Race Riot where over 100 blacks were murdered by whites for holding a meeting to obtain better payments for their cotton crops as sharecroppers with the white plantation owners. Instead of arresting the white men, the police arrested the blacks and 79 were charged for crimes, tried, and convicted! Wells used the power of the media and wrote pamphlets in protest for these 12 men and the NAACP and Walter White helped form legal defenses to overturn the Elaine convictions. Wells did a lot for African Americans to have some sort of justice in a time of Jim Crow laws and dangerous mob violence in the US. She should be remembered as a crucial black woman that helped in the racially uplift movement along side Du Bois.

[grllopez ~ with freedom and books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another amazing woman who fought tirelessly for justice.

My review: https://www.greatbookstudy.com/2020/0...

[Tamyka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hearing about her experiences in her own words was everything! Particularly hearing about how people treated her in real time?! Who stood ten toes down and who actively worked against her along the way. Makes things that happen today make so much sense.

[Zach Irvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I started this book, I realized it is actually the first autobiography I have ever read. I'm so glad I started with this one. Ida B. Wells was a powerful, intelligent and dedicated person whose influence on the Civil Rights movement cannot be understated. Direct and matter-of-fact, Mrs. Wells-Barnett's personality is almost palpable on the page. Known for her campaigns against lynchings in the South, she traveled all across America and to Great Britain doing the work.

One thing that struck me while reading was that, while many of the things she did during her life certainly took tremendous bravery, mostly they were simply the right thing to do. Lynch law in America gave way to almost unspeakable atrocities. Mrs. Wells talks about a woman who was sealed in a wooden barrel, and after the barrel had many nails driven through the sides she was rolled down a hill until she died. Mrs. Wells fought back. She told the stories of the victims and demanded their justice, either with community action, or by herself. She denounced murderers and held white people accountable for their actions even though the law rarely did. In everything she brought hard, logical reasoning and facts to the discussion, believing that the truth would set her and her community free. I will teach my kids about her and hope that I can one day be able to stand up even a little the way that she did.

Interestingly, one of the most common themes in the book involved the procedural elements of organized action by grass-roots committees. I was fascinated to watch, through Mrs. Wells stories, how movements begin, how change is enacted in a community.Mrs. Barnett could control a committee meeting like few others could. As an talented public speaker, she knew how to speak so that people would listen carefully and her experience as a journalist helped her write forceful statements on behalf of the cause. As a side note, the book includes sources and extra information in the footnotes, which of course the academic in me loves.

One thing that really got me thinking was when she wrote about her experiences speaking in England to raise awareness about the repugnant lynch law in the South. She was able to tell many people about the atrocities, and was even able to raise money when needed. However, the brutal imperialist history of Great Britain complicates everything. The horrors of Britain's time in India were only mentioned in one paragraph. But it fascinates me to think about her speaking about racism to racists, albeit a different kind than she was used to.

In the preface, Mrs. Wells tells a story of a young black woman asking her about her life. She notes that afterward, she realized that the woman did not have any record to which she could be directed in order to learn about the history of the struggle for equal rights. This incident served as the impetus for her to write her story, since "[t]he history of this entire period... reflected glory on the race... Yet most of it is buried in oblivion and only the southern white man's misrepresentations are in the public libraries and college textbooks of the land." (5) In my opinion, this book is an incredible part of the foundation for that record. She worked tirelessly, and often alone, her whole life. She pursued what was right and good with conviction, all the way up to her death. In fact, the last sentence stops MID WORD. I'm so glad the editor chose to leave it that way, because the work is unfinished.

[Muhammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this, I wasn't going write a review initially. I still have one more book on my sister to get through. But then this happened:

"My parents never thought I was going to grow up in a world without prejudice, but they also told me, “That’s somebody else’s problem, not yours. You’re going to overcome it, and you are going to be anything you want to be.” And that’s the message that I think we ought to be sending to kids." -Condelezza Rice

Then I got to thinking about the world she and I would have grew up in if Mrs. Wells-Barnett had been taught or felt that what she did was "somebody else's problem". It brings me back to a poem...

The critics cry unfair
yet the poem is born.
Some black emancipated baby
will scratch his head
wondering why you felt compelled
to say whatever you said.

A black poet must bear in mind
the misery.
The color-seekers fear poems
they can’t buy for a ten-dollar
bill or with a clever contract.
Some black kid is bound to read you.

A black poet must remember the horrors.
The good jobs can’t last forever.
It shall come to pass that the fury
of a token revolution will fade
into the bank accounts of countless blacks
and freedom-loving whites.

The brilliant novels shall pass
into the archives of a ‘keep cool
We’ve done enough for you’ generation:
the movement organizations already
await their monthly checks from Downtown
and

Only the forgotten walls of a few black
poets and artists
shall survive the then of then,
the now of now.

A black kid searching for pieces of His past and literary greatness of His people that isn't taught in public school found Conrad Kent Rivers, while those with monthly checks from Downtown say "It's not my problem". And again... here I sit... scratching my head... But I'll never forget the horrors and don't give a damn who feels bad about it! And thanks to people like Mrs. Wells-Barnett who felt it wasn't somebody else's problem, we have those facts. The question I'm left with is... if we teach our children that the world's problems are somebody else's problem... then exactly who is going to solve those problems when everybody thinks it's somebody else's problem?

Ida B. Wells-Barnett is a shero of mine. There was more courage in that one lady than in most men living today. I don't want to be like Mike (or Condelezza for that matter)... I want to be like Ida!

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really extraordinary book. It is a retrospective account of her campaigns through the south and in the UK to condemn and eliminate lynchings. I, like most people, knew well her life and work, but I had never read her actual words. She was an immensely powerful writer, incredibly gifted and seemed to instinctively understand what we now consider key media principles: keep coming back to your points, use empathy, back up your statements. Best book I've read in a long time.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Our understanding overflows with larger-than-life tales of monumental men who, we are left to assume, changed the course of human civilization through sheer willpower. This book is not that. This is a book about a woman who sometimes did not have child care, who went on the road when she would rather have stayed home, who constantly fretted over fundraising, who sometimes offended people and sometimes was offended, who got seasick, who was told she would be nominated for a committee only to find out that W. E. B. Du Bois had removed her name from the roll without bothering to consult anyone. Ida B. Wells was a muckraker, and this is part of the muck." Preface by Eva L Ewing

When I was younger, my disdain for more recent history meant I pretty much stopped reading about the USA after the Reconstruction period, and as a result I missed out on a lot of the wonder that is Ida B Wells-Barnett. This autobiography was written as a longhand manuscript by this most accomplished journalist, and you can feel the words tumbling over themselves as Wells-Barnett gets across so much of what she wants to say. From a childhood in the middle of reconstruction, to an adolescence dominated by parenting her siblings, through to her drift into activism.
Some of the most interesting material deals with motherhood, and the challenges of combining this with activism. Wells-Barnett is assertive in promoting motherhood, and in regarding it as a profession in its own right, with as much skill and time required as being a teacher or a journalist. She acknowledges her own initial ambivalence about the state - and implies, interestingly, that marraige was in part a result of her exhaustion and inability to make an income from her political work - but has a converts zeal in encouraging other women to try it. It is also interesting that others, notably Susan B. Anthony, seek to encourage her to avoid such commitments, given the inevitable cost to her work. There is such a mess of class, racial and gendered positioning in all this.
The book drags a bit in places - a lengthy section in the middle is too directly cribbed from her speeches and articles given in England and towards the end she focuses on internal politicing within organisations a little - but on the whole, this is an accessible and empassioned call for a life in service to others.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love at least one of the following:
- Investigative reporting
- A woman standing up for justice, for herself and others, no matter what
- Dramatic people who can't take a hint getting taken down for their errors
- Truth, justice, the American way
..you'll be sure to love this book.

[Neal Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ida B Wells was such an incredible woman. Born into slavery in 1862 she became a lifelong crusader against lynching as well as an outspoken critic of Jim Crow. Many years before Rosa Parks, Ida refused to sit in the colored section of a railcar and even bit the conductor who tried to remove her. The year was 1883 and Ida sued the railroad winning a $500 settlement in court but overturned on appeal. Three of her friends were lynched for defending their grocery store from a mob and Ida, a part owner in a local newspaper, condemned not only the lynching but the complicit silence of the entire town. Her newspaper encouraged the blacks in Memphis to boycott local businesses and move elsewhere; many went to Oklahoma. Ida's paper was destroyed and she ended up relocating to the East but the experience really ignited a movement. She would go on speaking tours against lynching which took her to England where she garnered support from religious leaders to pass resolutions condemning lynch law. I was surprised at the naivete among many that she encountered who couldn't believe such things were happening in America. After all it is the 19th century and didn't the Civil War resolve race relations? Ida would also found so many organizations I couldn't keep track. She created a civic club that also doubled as an employment agency. She would also be instrumental in the founding of the NAACP.

The work is unfinished and there are some rough patches but I found "Crusade for Justice" highly readable and at times engrossing. There are some fascinating anecdotes. At the Worlds' Fair in Chicago in 1893 Frederick Douglas asks Ida to lunch. Spotting a cafe across the street, she at first suggests going there until she realizes it's for whites only. Douglas' reply is 'let's give it a try' and they walk into the cafe nonetheless. At the time Douglas was such a celebrity that the manager of the cafe fawned all over him. Later he joked with Ida that they didn't have much time for their own conversation.

Many times Ida put her own life at risk. At the tale end of WWI there was a riot in Houston and 13 black soldiers were hung. Ida printed buttons in support of the soldiers and secret service showed up at her office demanding she hand over the buttons or be charged with treason. Her response (paraphrased) - put the cuffs on my now; I'd rather spend the rest of my days in prison than not do what's right.

At her civic center she helped a young man find a job who was later arrested and beaten by the police. She would file a complaint on the officer for brutality - unfortunately the case didn't go anywhere because all the witnesses were too frightened to come forward.

Ida also tells the story of a young black woman who had been kept almost as a slave to a white family. This woman who was forbidden to have any contact with 'members of her own race', one day was observed talking to a black man. She was beaten and fled, ending up at Ida's civic center. The family refused to return the woman's clothes so Ida marches down to their house letting them know that she's a probation officer and if they didn't return the clothes she would file suit for 5 years worth of back wages. The clothes were returned.

There are also stories of men who had been arrested and would have been lynched had Ida B Wells not intervened. Ida B Wells is such an inspiring woman in so many ways. I highly recommend this work!

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Feminist Theory Text, and a history of one of my own personal heroes. Organizers and leaders can learn from her unrelenting belief in the need to change the detrimental laws and beliefs of the day.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon reading this you begin to understand why Ida struggled to keep friends... she was uncomprimising on all levels, but a visionary crusader nonetheless. Her book serves as an excellent insight into the struggle for African- American justice as well as African-American women's rights.

[Kathryn Bundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is so pertinent to what is happening in the US today. Required reading!

[Doris Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Is. A. Soficated. Book. I. Really. Adore. What. And. Amazeing. Woman. Thanks. Doris.

[Arlene Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells story leaves me wondering why there hasn't ever been a movie about her life. Very interesting.

[Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book for a PopSugar prompt for the longest book on your TBR. I listened to Crusade for Justice on Audible. At a little over 15 hours I feel like it could have been edited a bit better. While most of the book is about Ida B Wells early life and how she crusaded for lynchings during the late 1800's some portions of the book could have been left out or edited down even further.

I had to remember when this book was written and the attitudes from that time. Most of the things Ida talked about with respect for Black people dealing with at the time was respectability, religion as morality and the roles of women. Over a hundred years later and I'm reading these words knowing that being well dressed, acting a certain way and being a Christian/religious never kept anyone from being hanged or shot. And that goes for today with respectability politics, it doesn't matter what you're wearing, how you're speaking or what you're doing if a racist wants to hurt you they can.

However, I'm very grateful for her work and what she did because there were so many people who wouldn't stand up to the racists or the Klan.

[Erika Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

During Black History Month, I like to read memoirs written by Black leaders at different time periods in US history, like Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, John Lewis, and James Baldwin. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an excellent choice for this year because my list has been lacking in women and because I'm less familiar with the Reconstruction and early jim crow era. I was impressed with how many different strategies Wells-Barnett used in her quest to end lynchings and improve life for struggling Black people in Chicago. She sued, published newspapers, gave speeches, organized non-profits, registered voters, and appealed to everyone from her neighbors to women's clubs in Scotland to Frederick Douglass to the governor of Illinois.
I recommend the first 100 pages of this book to everyone! The later sections had many inspiring stories as well but sometimes got bogged down in detailed committee politics. Unfortunately she didn't finish the book before her death, so it ends mid-word.

[Courtney Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest autobiographies I’ve ever read. Ida B Wells is one of the greatest citizens the United States has ever known. Hearing her take on all the other big names of the late 19th/early 20th venture was like catnip for me: she’s vehemently defending Helen Pitts Douglass (Frederick Douglass’s second wife) and having smackdowns with Frances Willard. Reverencing Mary Church Terrell and defending her choice to be a mother to Susan B Anthony. She’s getting death threats and her printing press destroyed and breastfeeding babies while on the anti-lynching speaker circuit. I couldn’t put it down. What a woman.

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me time to read, but Ida B. Wells-Barnett's biography is remarkable. I was particularly moved by her discussion of organized change, white womanhood, and more notably, how she moved through spaces as a Black woman condemning subjugation of her folks.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autobiographies/biographies aren't typically my jam, but reading about everything Ida B. Wells did with her life in her own words was fascinating (and made me feel super-lazy). You can tell that she was a force to be reckoned with who did not suffer fools while she was doing the work.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great autobiographies!

[armin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned about Ida B Wells while reading the Jim Crow history where I came across her relentless efforts to take on lynching in the South. When I got her autobiography, found a surprising deal on ebay, I never thought it would be such a wild ride and I cannot understand why she is so neglected in the US history! She was removed from a white car way before Rosa Parks. She fought for universal suffrage just like Susan B. Anthony and she campaigned against violence much more widespread than almost any other civil rights activist but she is just so neglected, so uncared for. Reading this autobiography was a brilliant experience. I cannot imagine what it means to be so strong-willed, so consistent. If you are interested into civil rights issues, reading this book is an absolute must!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a stalwart for justice. Ida B. Wells did not back down. She stood up to white folks and Black men alike, during her time, as they tried to threaten, discredit, and discourage her from her all-important work of fighting for justice, racial-equality, and anti-lynching.

She was the child of slaves, and started out her career as a teacher, but was denied employment where she was teaching after writing a scathing critique about the conditions of the Negro schools compared to the white schools. The shocker is that it was the Black teachers and parents, whose students and children whom she wrote in their defense, who were responsible for her joblessness. She also faced uphill battles with Black clergymen and their critiques of her. This joblessness would later lead her into a career of using her pen, as a writer, and her voice, as a crusader for justice.

She traveled, the country, and the world reporting on the lynchings of Black people to whomever would listen, and even to those who would not. This book givers ida B. Wells' firsthand accounts of her upbringing, her time as a teacher, and as a writer advocating for justice and equality. The writing is very straightforward, and it is very dense in terms of information and details about her life and work. Wells wrote this prompted by a young women wanting to know about her work. After being asked, Wells begin to see the importance of documenting this information for others. It reads this way, a straightforward telling of events, no fluff. It is very long, I recommend the audiobook. This is a good listen for those interesting in African-American history, the history of lynching, racial justice and politics. If you are a connoisseur of Black history, you must know about Ida and her work. The very last chapter is unfinished. It stops mid-sentence. In a way it seems symbolic, in the fact that her work was never finished, always an ongoing struggle. It also telling that she did everything that she could in her life to advance the crusade for justice, all the way until the end.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn't know much about Ida B Wells-Barnett before picking this up. She decides to write her auto-biography after realizing other black stories were not being documented. The book was edited by her daughter and only published years after Ida's death.

Really an amazing woman - she was definitely a crusader against lynching, and traveled internationally even to spread the message. There were numerous defeats yet she managed to have individual successes, too.

Its an autobiography - Ida mentions some of the conflicts she had with others in leadership positions. She certainly comes across as someone who was willing to challenge authority more than others. She was likely considered 'radical'. But who would not be when your race is being lynched?

She interacted with Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, Susan B Anthony....so many other historical figures of the time.

Sometimes it was hard for me to follow all the people and events and clubs (she started so many organizations!). At first I thought it could have been edited a little more, but I'd be concerned it would remove the sense of Ida's voice that carries through.

Instead of satisfying my curiosity, its been stoked. I now want to read the most recent biography, Sword Among Lions, to see how a historical biographer would revisit Ida B Wells legacy.

[Chris Tallant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells not only had a magical style with her words, but also with how she could see through the thin gossamer veil of prejudice and hypocritical politics during the Reconstruction. This book chronicles Mrs. Wells' own life as she wades knee-deep throughout the deception and racial tensions; tensions still felt throughout the world today. Compiled from lectures, diary entries, letters, short stories, and other written articles from her underground newspaper, "Crusade for Justice" is a must for any human being - period. Feminists, racial, equality, - basically anyone looking into details for civil rights should never pass this book. It's one of the best books written about the trials and tribulations of humanity, and goes to show simply how little we've gone toward achieving true equality.

[Marina Villeneuve · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of a woman born into slavery who shone the light of truth on injustices no matter what lynch-happy mob was trying to run her out of town. Inspiring and well-told, by Ida B. Wells herself. She was truly the... Beyonce-Oprah-Nikole Hannah Jones-Ava of her time, and she did not suffer any fools. My jaw is still dropped thinking of her friendship and work with and recollections of Frederick Douglass. Why is there no HBO movie/series yet of this autobiography? Imagine, her and Frederick running around the Chicago World Fair, demanding attention to the plight of black people despite a lack of recognition from fair organizers. Imagine, Ida as a new mother, traveling the lecture circuit trying to stoke moral outrage against lynching. Someone out there, make this happen.

[Connor Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My suggestion for reading this book: treat it like an academic/historical text rather than a narrative biography. That being said, the aspect of Ida B. Wells’ activism that I found most notable was her use of truly grassroots organizing. She organized and spoke with countless committees and organizations formed through the action and organizing of ordinary people to pass resolutions, agitate elected officials, and take action in support of a cause, independent of (and often orthogonal to) the work of established organizations. I found both the volume and the efficacy of this strategy of organizing particularly impressive and encouraging.

[Megan Henderson-Redding · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a testament to one-woman's determination to bring light to the horrendous policy of lynching African-American's in the United States. She tirelessly travelled the world denouncing inhumane treatment of African-American's, dedicating and endangering her own life to shame the United States and their unjust policies concerning African-Americans before after and during the Red Summer of 1919. This book makes you want to qualify the people that we cast as heroes.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE STORY OF THE WOMAN WHO ATTACKED LYNCHING IN THE SOUTH

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and civil rights leader (as well as one of the founders of the NAACP). She was born into slavery in Mississippi, but was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

She wrote in the Preface to this book (which was posthumously published in 1971), “A young woman recently asked me to tell her of my connection with the lynching agitation which was started in 1892… When she told me she was twenty-five years old, I realized that … the happenings about which she inquired took place before she was born… there was no record from which she could inform herself. I then promised to set it down in writing so those of her generation could know how the agitation against the lynching evil began, and the debt of gratitude we owe to the English people for their splendid help in that movement. It is therefore for the young people who have so little of our race’s history recorded that I am for the first time in my life writing about myself… The history of this entire period which reflected glory on the race should be known. Yet most of it is buried in oblivion and only the southern white man’s misrepresentations are in the public libraries and college textbooks of the land. The black man who made the history of that day were too modest to write of it, or did not realize the importance of the written word to their posterity… I am thus led to set forth the facts contained in this volume which I dedicate to them.”

She recalls, “while riding back to my school I took a seat in the ladies’ coach of the train as usual. There were no Jim Crow cars then. But ever since the repeal of the Civil Rights Bill … in 1877 there had been efforts all over the South to draw the color line on the railroads. When the train started and the conductor came along … he took my ticket, then handed it back to me and told me that he couldn’t take my ticket there…. I refused, saying that the forward car was a smoker, and as I was in the ladies’ car I proposed to stay. He tried to drag me out of the seat, but … I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand… He went forward and got the baggage-man and another man to help him and of course they succeeded n dragging me out… By this time the train had stopped at the first station… I said I would get off the train rather than go in---which I did… I went back to Memphis and engaged a colored lawyer to bring suit against the railroad for me… I found out he had been bought off by the [rail]road, and as he was the only colored lawyer in town I had to get a white one. This man… kept his pledge with me and the case was finally brought to trial … [and the court] awarded me damages of five hundred dollars. I can see to this day the headlines in the ‘Memphis Appeal’ announcing ‘Damsel Gets Damages.’” (Pg. 18-19)

While employed as a teacher, she was invited to write for a local paper: “I felt that some protest should be made over conditions in the colored schools. The article was a protest against the few and utterly inadequate buildings for colored children. I also spoke of the poor teachers given us, whose mental and moral character was not of the best... That year… the school board failed to reelect me as it had done every year for seven years… Of course I had rather feared that might be the result, but I had taken a chance in the interest of the children of our race and had lost out. The worst part of the experience was the lack of appreciation shown by the parents. They simply couldn’t understand why someone would risk a good job, even for their children.” (Pg. 36-37)

After the office of a newspaper she had written an article for was destroyed and the manager run out of town, “I had been warned repeatedly by my own people that something would happen if I did not cease harping on the lynching of three months before… I had bought a pistol the first thing after Tom Moss was lynched, because I expected some cowardly retaliation from the lynchers. I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap… I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit.” (Pg. 61-62)

She points out, “I found out that in order to justify these horrible atrocities to the world, the Negro was being branded as a race of rapists, who were especially mad after white women. I found that white men who had created a race of mulattoes by raping and consorting with Negro women were still doing so wherever they could, these same white men lynched, burned, and tortured Negro men for doing the same thing with white women, even when the white women were willing victims.” (Pg. 71)

She notes, “Only in one city---Boston---had I been given even a meager hearing, and the press was dumb. I refer, of course, to the white press, since it was the medium through which I hoped to reach the white people of the country, who alone could mold public sentiment.” (Pg. 86)

She outlines, “(1) First: That all the machinery of law and politics is in the hands of those who commit the lynching… it is only wealthy white men whom the law fails to reach… (2) Second: Hundreds of Negroes including women and children are lynched for trivial offenses on suspicion and in many cases when known to be guiltless of any crime… (3) Third: Many of the cases of ‘Assault’ are simply adulteries between white women and colored men.” (Pg. 137)

She states, “However revolting these lynchings, I did not commit a single one of them… If the same zeal to excuse and conceal the facts were exercised to put a stop to lynching, there would be no need for me to relate… If the South would throw as much energy into an effort to secure justice to the Negro as she has expended in preventing him from obtaining it all these years, if the North would spend as much time in an unequivocal and unceasing demand for justice as it has in compromising and conning wrong against the Negro, these problems would soon be solved.” (Pg. 169)

She states, “We do not pretend to say there are no black villains. Baseness is not confined to race. We read with horror of two different colored girls who recently have been horribly assaulted by white men in the South… Should these offenders receive any punishment at all, it will be a marvel. We do not brand the race because of these many atrocities by white men, but because lynch law is not visited upon this class of defenders, we repudiated the claim that lynching is the natural and commendable outburst of a high-spirited people.” (Pg. 199)

She laments, “[I] found that the publicity which had come to me by reason of this effort militated against the cooperation which I had hoped for among my own people, and the matter was never brought up again. Here again was an illustration of how our own people seem to stand in the way of any accomplishment of federal intervention against lynching. They failed to take up the subject of organizing their forces and raising money for the purpose of sending me back to lobby for the desired results.” (Pg. 254)

Of the NAACP, she says, “I cannot resist the conclusion that, had I not been so hurt over the treatment I had received at the hands of the men of my own race and thus blinded to the realization that I should have taken the place which the white men of the committee felt I should have, the NAACP would now be a live, active force in the lives of our people all over this country.” (Pg. 328)

Of a Social Center which also functioned as an employment office, she observes, “We had a regular staff of day workers who came to us every day for employment… Many of them very frankly refused to work for their own people who needed help. When I knew this to be the attitude, we always refused to send such persons to work for anybody else, insisting that one who had so little race pride as to refuse to work for her own did not deserve or need to be given work elsewhere. Especially was the fact emphasized that more and more white women were drawing the color line and refusing to employ colored women, and that if they were not careful they would soon have no work at all.” (Pg. 409)

This book will be “must reading” for anyone studying African-American history, lynching, and African-American journalists.