Ida B. Wells was a Black journalist and civil rights activist who fought for women’s rights and advocated against the lynching of Black Americans during the Jim Crow Era. Although Wells first wrote an article on lynching in 1886 in which she covered the cruel and unjust lynching of Eliza Woods, her anti-lynching campaign truly took off in 1892. Spurred on by the lynchings of her Black store owner friends in Memphis, who were not guilty of any crime, Wells began investigating lynchings all across the United States. She first showcased her findings in her 1892 pamphlet “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases,” revealing how the crimes that white Americans and newspapers used to justify lynchings were nearly always false accusations that
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Historically, Black Americans, especially men, have been seen as violent and savage by white Americans because of the false stories of rape and assault propagated by white media during the Jim Crow Era. Even today, Black Americans are sometimes portrayed as dangerous in the media and are often racially profiled during police investigations. This stereotype has also resulted in the harsher treatment of Black Americans by the government. For instance, when we were studying the Jim Crow Era in class, we learned about a 1915 Alabama law that made it illegal for white female nurses to treat Black male patients, highlighting the stereotype that Black men were abusive and threatening. White authority forces also have a history of being discriminatory. For example, during the Jim Crow Era, white police were often complicit in lynchings, allowing lynch mobs to enter police stations and lynch detainees without punishment. Furthermore, Black Americans have had limited protection and support from the law; in fact, a federal law protecting Black Americans from lynching was not passed until 2022. Even when Ida B. Wells went directly to President McKinley and Congress in 1898 to call their attention to the widespread issue of lynching, the government did not take any serious or beneficial actions, and they disregarded Wells and her activism. Not only are Black Americans often ignored by the law, but the judicial system also discriminates against them through racially biased judges and juries. Ida B. Wells attempted to change this unfair system through her journalism, which brought awareness to the horrors of lynching and humanizing its victims; it was in a way similar to the journalism of Upton Sinclair, a muckraker during the Progressive Era who we learned about. He used his writing to document the appalling conditions of
Historically, Black Americans, especially men, have been seen as violent and savage by white Americans because of the false stories of rape and assault propagated by white media during the Jim Crow Era. Even today, Black Americans are sometimes portrayed as dangerous in the media and are often racially profiled during police investigations. This stereotype has also resulted in the harsher treatment of Black Americans by the government. For instance, when we were studying the Jim Crow Era in class, we learned about a 1915 Alabama law that made it illegal for white female nurses to treat Black male patients, highlighting the stereotype that Black men were abusive and threatening. White authority forces also have a history of being discriminatory. For example, during the Jim Crow Era, white police were often complicit in lynchings, allowing lynch mobs to enter police stations and lynch detainees without punishment. Furthermore, Black Americans have had limited protection and support from the law; in fact, a federal law protecting Black Americans from lynching was not passed until 2022. Even when Ida B. Wells went directly to President McKinley and Congress in 1898 to call their attention to the widespread issue of lynching, the government did not take any serious or beneficial actions, and they disregarded Wells and her activism. Not only are Black Americans often ignored by the law, but the judicial system also discriminates against them through racially biased judges and juries. Ida B. Wells attempted to change this unfair system through her journalism, which brought awareness to the horrors of lynching and humanizing its victims; it was in a way similar to the journalism of Upton Sinclair, a muckraker during the Progressive Era who we learned about. He used his writing to document the appalling conditions of