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Ida B. Wells

What Ida B. Wells thinks about racism

@ida-b-wells · 17 positions · On ppll ↗

American journalist and civil rights leader (1862 to 1931); author of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

Ida B. Wells did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Ida B. Wells on racism. See everyone on racism

7 dated positions, c. 1892, in their own words. Our reading of what Ida B. Wells has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingThe claim that Black men rape white women is an old, worn-out lie nobody believes

    Their wordsNobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  3. Our readingThose who refuse fair trials for accused rapists care less about rape than they pretend

    Their wordsThey know the men of the section of the country who refuse this are not so desirous of punishing rapists as they pretend. The utterances of the leading white men show that with them it is not the crime but the class.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  5. Our readingThe rape cry has silenced press and pulpit on lynching

    Their wordsThis cry has had its effect. It has closed the heart, stifled the conscience, warped the judgment and hushed the voice of press and pulpit on the subject of lynch law throughout this "land of liberty."

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  7. Our readingConceding a right to lynch for one crime concedes the right to lynch anyone for anything

    Their wordsThey forget that a concession of the right to lynch a man for a certain crime, not only concedes the right to lynch any person for any crime, but (so frequently is the cry of rape now raised) it is in a fair way to stamp us a race of rapists and desperadoes.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  9. Our readingLynchers will only be punished when public sentiment demands it

    Their wordsThe strong arm of the law must be brought to bear upon lynchers in severe punishment, but this cannot and will not be done unless a healthy public sentiment demands and sustains such action.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  11. Our readingSoutherners who disapprove of lynching but stay silent are as guilty as the lynchers

    Their wordsThe men and women in the South who disapprove of lynching and remain silent on the perpetration of such outrages, are particeps criminis, accomplices, accessories before and after the fact, equally guilty with the actual lawbreakers who would not persist if they did not know that neither the law nor militia would be employed against them.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book

  13. Our readingHad she been white, thirteen-year-old Mildrey Brown would never have been hanged even if proven guilty

    Their wordsIf her guilt had been proven unmistakably, had she been white, Mildrey Brown would never have been hung.

    ↗Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892)gutenberg.org All 17 from this book