1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Steph you missed in history class from how 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I to 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: b Wells Barnett, one of those figures who connects to 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 1: a lot of our past episodes. She's mentioned in our 6 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: podcast on Frederick Douglas and the two of them were 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: colleagues and friends. In our show in the Night of 8 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: Terror at the Aquaquon Workhouse, we talk about her refusing 9 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: to march in a segregated section of the nineteen thirteen 10 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: Woman's Suffrage Progression, instead saying and I am refusing to 11 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,560 Speaker 1: play by that racist rule and marching with the Illinois 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: contingent with everyone else. She investigated the death of Robert 13 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: Charles in New Orleans and nineteen hundred and the racist 14 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: violence that surrounded that, and then the discussion of lynching, 15 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: and our two partner on the Wilmington's que was also 16 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 1: informed by her investigative reporting in her anti lynching campaign. 17 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: Idabe Wells Barnett fought against lynching for decades, and this 18 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: on its own would be remarkable, but she also lived 19 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: at a time when it was not common at all 20 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: for a woman, especially a woman of color, to become 21 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:21,199 Speaker 1: a prominent journalist and speaker in this way, and then 22 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: doing this work also meant that she had to speak 23 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:28,959 Speaker 1: out very candidly about violence and about rape. Discussing rape 24 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: at all was a huge taboo, but it was especially 25 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: taboo coming from a woman, and for a substantial part 26 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: of her career she was an unmarried woman, so it 27 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: was even more taboo. And that is all why we 28 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: are talking about her today. Ida b Wells Barnett was 29 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: born Ida Bell Wells in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July six, 30 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. She was the oldest child of James Wells, 31 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: who was known as Jim, and Elizabeth Warrenton, who was 32 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,440 Speaker 1: known as Lizzie, and they were both enslave, so Ida 33 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: was enslaved from birth. Jim and Lizzie both worked for 34 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:09,160 Speaker 1: a man named Spiers Bawling. Jim was owned by another man, 35 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,120 Speaker 1: but had been hired out to Bawling for an apprenticeship 36 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: in carpentry. The American Civil War was ongoing when Ida 37 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: was a baby, and the part of Mississippi where she 38 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,359 Speaker 1: and her parents lived was no stranger to raids and skirmishes. 39 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January one of eighteen 40 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: sixty three, and while it technically freed her family and 41 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: everyone else who was enslaved in Mississippi, slavery persisted until 42 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: Mississippi surrendered on May fourth of eighteen sixty five, and 43 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: probably beyond that point really um as word reached more 44 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,919 Speaker 1: outlying areas of what had happened. Once they were able 45 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: to do so, Jim and Lizzie Wells made their marriage legal. 46 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,679 Speaker 1: The young Ida Wells was too young to remember the 47 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: earliest years of reconstruction, but in general life was really 48 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: difficult for the freed people. It was also chaotic as 49 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: politicians and social reformers tried to work out what to 50 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: do about the formerly enslaved population and the social and 51 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 1: economic conditions that slavery had caused. But the Wells Is 52 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,079 Speaker 1: had a couple of advantages. Jim's owner had also been 53 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: his father, and Jim had no siblings, and being his 54 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:22,399 Speaker 1: owner's only child came with some privileges, including an education. 55 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: For a time after the end of the war, the 56 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,680 Speaker 1: Wells has continued to work for Spires Bowling, but then 57 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: Bawling told Jim to vote for the Democratic candidate in 58 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: the upcoming election, and Jim had no intention of doing this. 59 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: As we've talked about before, the Democratic Party at this 60 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: point was mostly made up of wealthy, white slave owners. 61 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: He intended to vote for the radical Republican candidate. He 62 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: came back from the polls to find that his employer 63 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: had locked him out of the workplace. The fact that 64 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: Jim and Lizzie Wells were skilled workers rather than manual laborers, 65 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 1: made it easier for them to find other work. Lizzie 66 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: and her children also enrolled in school. The family also 67 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: became politically active, and Ida's father became a member of 68 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: the board at Rust College, then known as Shaw College, 69 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: where Ida would go on to study. Ida learned quickly, 70 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: and she read voraciously, including reading the Bible all the 71 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: way through, which was the only reading that was allowed 72 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: in the Wells home on Sundays. In eighteen seventy eight, 73 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:28,159 Speaker 1: Idawell's life changed dramatically. She went to visit her grandparents 74 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: on their farm, and while she was away from home, 75 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,160 Speaker 1: a yellow fever epidemic spread to Memphis. At first, when 76 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: they heard about this outbreak, Ida and her grandparents weren't 77 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,280 Speaker 1: particularly concerned. Memphis had dealt with yellow fever before, and 78 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: outbreaks had never made it as far from there as 79 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: Holly Springs, which was roughly fifty miles or eight kilometers away. 80 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:52,520 Speaker 1: People also blamed yellow fever on miasma's or bad swamp 81 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: are so they thought Holly Springs was protected by being 82 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: on the highest ground in the area. So instead of 83 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,480 Speaker 1: calling for a core, teen officials in Holly Springs offered 84 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: refuge to Memphis residents who were fleeing the illness. But 85 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: yellow fever is really transmitted by mosquitoes, not by swamp vapor, 86 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: so once people arrived in Holly Springs carrying the illness, 87 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: it spread rapidly. Holly Springs had a population of about 88 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: three thousand, five hundred people, and more than fourteen hundred 89 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: of them contracted the disease. More than three hundred people died. 90 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: This included both of Ida's parents, and as soon as 91 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: she and her grandparents learned what had happened, she took 92 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,159 Speaker 1: a freight train back to Holly Springs. She went against 93 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: the advice of basically everyone. Everyone was telling her that 94 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: it was way too dangerous. There were not even any 95 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:44,919 Speaker 1: passenger trains that were running, which was why she was 96 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: on a freight train in the first place, but there 97 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,560 Speaker 1: was nobody else to look after her siblings, and by 98 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:52,560 Speaker 1: the time she got back home, her baby brother had 99 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: also died. Ida's father had been a Mason, in his 100 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,080 Speaker 1: Masonic brothers came to the family's aid. They start to 101 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,359 Speaker 1: talking about dividing up the Wells children, sending them to 102 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: live with other families in ones and two's. I'da's sister, 103 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,280 Speaker 1: Eugenia was of special concern. She was paralyzed from the 104 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: waist down due to severe scoliosis. Ida was in the 105 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 1: room for this conversation, but she wasn't really consulted about 106 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: these decisions, and she finally told her father's Masonic brothers 107 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: that they were not going to send any of her 108 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: siblings anywhere, that her parents would be spinning in their 109 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: graves if they heard that their children had been split up. 110 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:32,559 Speaker 1: She said that if the Masons helped her find a job, 111 00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: that she would look after all of her siblings. With that, 112 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,159 Speaker 1: she became both the breadwinner and the head of household. 113 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: She and her siblings had two legal guardians, but I'da 114 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: got a job as a teacher so that she could 115 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: raise and support her five younger siblings, and she was 116 00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: only sixteen at this point. Ida B. Wells kept up 117 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,760 Speaker 1: her studies while she worked as a teacher and raised 118 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: her siblings. Her job was at a rural school, so 119 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,919 Speaker 1: she had to travel back in four to it by mule. 120 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: She also started taking college courses at Rust College, although 121 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,120 Speaker 1: she was expelled from the school in eighteen eighty one 122 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: or eighteen eighty two. The details of exactly why are 123 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: not known, but she wrote about losing her temper with 124 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: the teachers and speaking to them with hateful words. In 125 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, when she was nineteen, one of Welles's 126 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: aunts invited her and her two youngest sisters to move 127 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: to Memphis. By this point, her brothers had both been 128 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: placed in apprenticeships and Eugenia had gone to live with 129 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: another aunt. And this offer gave the Wells sisters the 130 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: chance to move to a bigger city with more opportunities, 131 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 1: and it gave Item more freedom to pursue her own 132 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: education and career since her aunt would be helping to 133 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: look after her sisters. It was in Memphis that she 134 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: really started to become politically active, which we will talk 135 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: about after a sponsor break. After moving to Memphis I 136 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: to be. Wells continued to work as a teacher. She 137 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: had a job in Woodstock, Tennessee, which was not all 138 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,520 Speaker 1: that far away. She traveled back and forth to it 139 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,360 Speaker 1: by train. She was very carefully trying to build a 140 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: middle class life for herself and her sisters, stretching her 141 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: teacher's pay to cover things like nice dresses and a 142 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 1: comfortable place for them to live. And one of the 143 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: things that she spent her money on was on first 144 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 1: class tickets in the ladies car whenever she traveled by train. 145 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: The ladies car was more comfortable than the second class cars, 146 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: which were called smokers. The Lady's car was quieter and 147 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: it had more comfortable seats, and since she was a young, petite, 148 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: attractive woman traveling alone, it was also just safer. She 149 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:44,960 Speaker 1: had been going back and forth from Memphis to Woodstock 150 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: for two years without incident in the ladies car, and 151 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: then in three she was traveling back to Memphis from 152 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: Holly Springs on the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwest Railroad. The 153 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: conductor came to take her ticket and told her that 154 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:02,839 Speaker 1: she would have to move to the mooker's car. Wells refused. 155 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: She had bought a ticket, and she was, as was 156 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: clear by her dress, her demeanor and behavior, a lady. 157 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: The conductor insisted that she would have to move, and 158 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: even went so far as to move her luggage and 159 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 1: belongings into the forward car, expecting her to follow them. 160 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:22,920 Speaker 1: When she stayed where she was, he came back and 161 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 1: attempted to remove her bodily from her seat. She once 162 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: again refused to move. She was, as we said, a 163 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,000 Speaker 1: petite woman. She braced herself against the seat to keep 164 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: this man from dragging her away, and when he kept 165 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:41,359 Speaker 1: man handling her, she bit him. Ultimately, Wells was forcibly 166 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,440 Speaker 1: removed from the train with both sleeves torn out of 167 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 1: her linen duster, and when she got back to Memphis, 168 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: she filed suit against the railroad. She was removed from 169 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: the ladies car a second time before that suit had 170 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,319 Speaker 1: even been settled, so she filed another one. This is 171 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:01,000 Speaker 1: kind of on a cusp of seig sigation by race 172 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: on railroads, like it was a lot more common to 173 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:07,520 Speaker 1: have a ladies car that women could pay additional, you know, 174 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,800 Speaker 1: in an upgraded fair to sit in, and all the 175 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 1: cars were all the other cars were just kind of 176 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: a mix, and it was becoming more formalized to instead 177 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: have have train cars segregated by race, since this was 178 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: sort of in the interim of that that changeover happening. 179 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:29,079 Speaker 1: So a circuit court found in I. Toby Wells favor 180 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: under the Civil Rights Act of eighteen seventy five, and 181 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:34,199 Speaker 1: she was awarded five hundred dollars in the first case 182 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 1: and two hundred dollars in the second case. But the 183 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: railroad appealed the decision and the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned 184 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 1: that ruling in seven. The Supreme Court's assertion was that 185 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:47,920 Speaker 1: Wells had only filed the suit in the first place 186 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:50,839 Speaker 1: to harass the train company, and that her actions were 187 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 1: quote not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat 188 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: for a short ride. That is infuriating. Uh. Wells was devastated, 189 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: and it wasn't just the loss of the case, it 190 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,880 Speaker 1: was what that laws signified, especially since she had been 191 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: taking this legal action pretty much on her own, without 192 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,680 Speaker 1: the help of any civil rights organizations or the greater 193 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 1: Black community of Memphis. Her case wound up being one 194 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: of the ones on the road to Plessy versus Ferguson, 195 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: which we have covered on the show before in which 196 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:24,240 Speaker 1: the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was constitutional. 197 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: This whole experience inspired Wells to become more politically vocal. 198 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:32,840 Speaker 1: While she was still working as a teacher, she started 199 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:35,520 Speaker 1: working as a journalist as well, under the pen name 200 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:39,960 Speaker 1: of Iola. She wrote about civil rights, and she wrote 201 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: about social issues, and she was eventually nicknamed Iola, Princess 202 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: of the Press. By the end of the eighteen eighties, 203 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:51,200 Speaker 1: Wells had already written a prolific body of newspaper columns. 204 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:54,240 Speaker 1: She also purchased a one third share in the Memphis 205 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: Free Speech and Headlight in eighteen eighty nine, and eventually 206 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 1: she and one of the other co owner, J. L. Fleming, 207 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:04,360 Speaker 1: bought out their third partner and they owned and ran 208 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: the Free Speech together. In one Wells wrote an article 209 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: that was critical of the Memphis school Board, and her 210 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 1: teaching contract was not renewed. She then turned her attention 211 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: to journalism full time, and soon the focus of her 212 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 1: journalism turned to lynching. The catalyst was the May ninth 213 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:29,319 Speaker 1: lynching of Calvin McDowell, Thomas Moss, and Henry Stewart in Memphis. 214 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:33,360 Speaker 1: They had been arrested and charged with maintaining a public 215 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: nuisance while trying to defend themselves and a grocery store 216 00:12:36,679 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: called the People's Grocery from an armed white mob. McDowell 217 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: was the store's manager, Stewart was the clerk, and Moss 218 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: was the president of the joint stock company that owned 219 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 1: the store. This incident started with a group of black 220 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: and white children playing marbles near the store. A fight 221 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,679 Speaker 1: broke out after a black child won all the marbles. 222 00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: A white man came out and beat the child who 223 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:02,040 Speaker 1: had won the game, and a group of black men 224 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: attempted to intervene. A white mob formed in retaliation bent 225 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:11,079 Speaker 1: on destroying the People's Grocery. One of the white instigators 226 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: actually owned a competing grocery store. Yeah, they definitely had 227 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:16,960 Speaker 1: it in their minds to run this grocery store out 228 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: of business and to hurt or kill its owners. So 229 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 1: after McDowell, Moss, and Stewart were jailed on the public 230 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 1: nuisance charged, an armed militia of black men tried to 231 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:32,079 Speaker 1: stand guard outside of the jail. Was a known risk 232 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,920 Speaker 1: if a black man was in jail for something that 233 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: a white mob could come and take him out of 234 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,520 Speaker 1: that jail and harm him. So they were standing guard, 235 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:44,319 Speaker 1: but eventually the sheriff ordered them to disperse and confiscated 236 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: all of their weapons. After they were gone, a crowd 237 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: of white men, as they had feared, came to the jail. 238 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: They took McDowell, Moss, and Stewart to a field outside 239 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: of town and shot all of them. Wells knew all 240 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 1: of these men. She would friends with Tom Moss, and she, 241 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:05,359 Speaker 1: along with the rest of the black population, was terrified, 242 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:09,920 Speaker 1: especially since the sheriff secured a court order authorizing him 243 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,880 Speaker 1: to shoot any black person who seemed to be causing 244 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: trouble on site, even though Memphis had passed a law 245 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 1: banning the sale of firearms to its black population. Wells 246 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: bought a pistol, and she carried it in her purse, 247 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: but she also recognized that that pistol was only going 248 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: to go so far to defend her and the pages 249 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:31,880 Speaker 1: of the free speech. She became one of the many 250 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: black voices urging the rest of the black population to 251 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: leave Memphis. There was actually a mass exodus out of 252 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,440 Speaker 1: Memphis was big enough that it set off an economic 253 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: crisis as black business owners and laborers fled the city. 254 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: After this incident, Wells began researching, investigating, and writing about lynching. 255 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,360 Speaker 1: This was the work that she would pursue for most 256 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: of the rest of her life. Almost immediately this work 257 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: led to Wells being threatened with lynching herself. One two 258 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: she published an article in the Free Speech that started 259 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: out with a statement that eight men had already been 260 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: lynched in the span of just a week, five of 261 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,320 Speaker 1: them had been accused of rape. She went on to write, 262 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: quote nobody in this section of the country believes the 263 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: old threadbare lie that negro men rape white women. If 264 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,840 Speaker 1: Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves, 265 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:29,440 Speaker 1: and public sentiment will have a reaction. A conclusion will 266 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: then be reached which will be very damaging to the 267 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:37,240 Speaker 1: moral reputation of their women. This was basically the same 268 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 1: argument that would appear in the Wilmington's Daily Record in 269 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 1: that these rape allegations were stemming from consensual relationships between 270 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: black men and white women. That was the article that 271 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,560 Speaker 1: was used as justification for the Wilmington's coup and the 272 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: mass racist violence that followed it, and Wells's article sparked 273 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,720 Speaker 1: similar outrage, although it did not launch a massacre. A 274 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: few days later, a white paper called the Daily Commercial 275 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:08,040 Speaker 1: responded to wells article, and here's a quote quote the 276 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: fact that a black scoundrel is allowed to live and 277 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: utter such loathsome and repulsive calumnies is a volume of 278 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 1: evidence as to the wonderful patients of Southern whites. But 279 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: we have had enough of it. Similar sentiments ran in 280 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,040 Speaker 1: other papers, and a mob of people convened at the 281 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:32,040 Speaker 1: Cotton Exchange Building in Memphis, intending to lynch both co 282 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: owners of the Free Speech. But Wells had gone to 283 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,960 Speaker 1: Philadelphia to attend the African Methodist Episcopal Churches General Conference, 284 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: and from there she went on a trip to New 285 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:46,080 Speaker 1: York rather than returning to Memphis. J. L. Fleming had 286 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: also left town for fear of his life. While Wells 287 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 1: and Fleming survived, the Free Speech didn't. The mobs sacked 288 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: its offices and destroyed all of their equipment and furniture. 289 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: After this incident, Wells followed her own advice and she 290 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: left Memphis. She didn't even go back to try to 291 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 1: get her belongings. We will talk about her life after 292 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:15,480 Speaker 1: leaving Memphis after a sponsor break. Even though I to 293 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,200 Speaker 1: b Wells left Memphis behind, she did not back down 294 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:22,720 Speaker 1: in her writing against lynching. After all of this happened, 295 00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: she published a response to what had happened in the 296 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:30,240 Speaker 1: New York Age on June, and then a lot of 297 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 1: that response became her pamphlet Southern Horrors Lynch Law in 298 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: all its phases. This pamphlet is one of the most 299 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:41,840 Speaker 1: well known of her many, many written works. It started 300 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,280 Speaker 1: with a letter of praise from Frederick Douglas saying of 301 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:48,840 Speaker 1: his own efforts related to lynching, quote, I have spoken, 302 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: but my word is feeble in comparison to quickly recamp. 303 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,280 Speaker 1: Lynching is the extra judicial murder of someone who has 304 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:01,240 Speaker 1: been accused of a crime or other wrongdoing. Between eighteen 305 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: eighty two and nineteen sixty eight, there were more than 306 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: four thousand recorded lynchings in the United States. More than 307 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:11,679 Speaker 1: seventy percent of the victims were black, and many of 308 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,960 Speaker 1: the white victims were civil rights workers or other people 309 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,600 Speaker 1: who tried to defend black citizens. Most of these happened 310 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:20,879 Speaker 1: in the South, and they were away to terrorize the 311 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 1: black community and violently reinforced white supremacy. By the time 312 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: I'd be Wells started her anti lynching work, a false 313 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: idea had been well established within the white community, and 314 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,679 Speaker 1: that idea was that black men were raping white women 315 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:42,840 Speaker 1: and that lynching was necessary to discourage these rapes. Wells 316 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,720 Speaker 1: tackled this idea head on, countering that there were consensual 317 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: relationships between black men and white women like we alluded 318 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 1: to before the break. She wrote, quote, hundreds of such 319 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: cases might be cited, but enough have been given to 320 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,159 Speaker 1: prove the assertion that there are white women in the 321 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:03,920 Speaker 1: South who loved the Afro Americans company, even as there 322 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:08,040 Speaker 1: are white men notorious for their preference for Afro American women. 323 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:13,399 Speaker 1: She also documented multiple instances of the same pattern, a 324 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,440 Speaker 1: black man accused of a crime then removed from his 325 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: jail cell by a white mob who murdered him and 326 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: desecrated his body. She wrote about the disenfranchisement of the 327 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:27,280 Speaker 1: black population in the South through racist voting laws and 328 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,520 Speaker 1: how that was contributing to the problem, and she picked 329 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:34,479 Speaker 1: apart how white newspapers were participants in this violence as well, 330 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: repeating the same unproven and sometimes completely fabricated allegations about 331 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,920 Speaker 1: the victims of lynching as though they were fact, often 332 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 1: using racist and sensationalized language to do it, and Southern horrors. 333 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: Wells also wrote about the need for the black community 334 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:53,919 Speaker 1: to protect itself since no one else was willing to 335 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 1: do it, writing quote, the lesson this teaches, and which 336 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,359 Speaker 1: every Afro American should ponder well, is that a Winchester 337 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,920 Speaker 1: rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, 338 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 1: and it should be used for that protection which the 339 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,840 Speaker 1: law refuses to give. She made the point that this 340 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,080 Speaker 1: wasn't about the law. The people who carried out these 341 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: lynchings were not interested in punishing all alleged rapists, only 342 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,160 Speaker 1: the black ones. Lynch mobs weren't operating within any kind 343 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: of legal framework, and they were celebrating the murders they 344 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: committed with things like postcards depicting the hanged and desecrated 345 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: bodies of the victims. After the publication of Southern Horrors, 346 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: Wells spent some time in New York City, and then 347 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 1: she went to the United Kingdom for an anti lynching 348 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,240 Speaker 1: lecture tour. She wrote about her travels in a dispatch 349 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: called inter Ocean, including how, for the first time, en 350 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: route to Britain, white passengers treated her with quote the 351 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,200 Speaker 1: courtesy they would have offered to any lady of their 352 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,640 Speaker 1: own race. But she also remarked that some of them 353 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,680 Speaker 1: seemed to be courteous to her and ordered who shocked 354 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: the other white people around them. Wells returned from the 355 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: United Kingdom to take part in a boycott and protest 356 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: of the World's Columbian Exposition in eighteen nine three, also 357 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,200 Speaker 1: known as the Chicago World's Fair. As we've talked about 358 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,879 Speaker 1: on the show before, these fairs were celebrations of a 359 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,719 Speaker 1: very particular aspect of American progress, that being white progress. 360 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 1: The Chicago World's Fair left Black Americans almost entirely out 361 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: of its exhibitions, and what representations there were were demeaning. Also, 362 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,160 Speaker 1: apart from janitors, porters, and laborers, the fair only had 363 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: two black employees, both of them were clerks. So I 364 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 1: to B. Wells, Frederick Douglas, F. L. Barnett, and Jay 365 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,679 Speaker 1: Carlin Penn published a pamphlet called The Reason Why the 366 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:53,080 Speaker 1: Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, which 367 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,240 Speaker 1: was basically an explainer written for fair attendees, with an 368 00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:00,080 Speaker 1: introduction in English, French, and German. It walked through a 369 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:04,040 Speaker 1: many social and political issues affecting the black population, and 370 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: then it detailed a lengthy back and forth with organizers 371 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:12,399 Speaker 1: basically going back and forth about including black people in 372 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:16,680 Speaker 1: the fair that showed discrimination against the black community at 373 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:21,600 Speaker 1: every step. Ferdinand Lee Barnett, co author of this pamphlet, 374 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,520 Speaker 1: attorney and founder of Chicago's first black newspaper, would go 375 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,000 Speaker 1: on to be Wells's husband. It's not clear exactly when 376 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,480 Speaker 1: they met or how their courtship began. Wells had from 377 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,560 Speaker 1: her teenage years had lots of suitors, and by her 378 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 1: thirties she was frustrated that she was not yet married, 379 00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,080 Speaker 1: and the fact that she wasn't caused a lot of 380 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:46,520 Speaker 1: suspicion about her morals. Black women were heavily stereotyped as promiscuous, 381 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: and Wells's work meant she was often in the company 382 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,720 Speaker 1: of men, so she had to constantly defend herself against 383 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:57,679 Speaker 1: malicious gossip. Some of those was like malicious gossip published 384 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:02,320 Speaker 1: in newspapers as fat It wasn't just people talking about 385 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: her behind her back. For a time, this courtship was 386 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,240 Speaker 1: long distance. Wells returned to the UK and eighteen and 387 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,639 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four to continue her anti lynching tour. She 388 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,439 Speaker 1: was really finding a much more receptive audience to her 389 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:19,639 Speaker 1: work in the UK than in the US, she helped 390 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: found the British Anti Lynching Committee, which started launching other 391 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:26,400 Speaker 1: anti lynching groups and working with British clergy to get 392 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,960 Speaker 1: their American colleagues on board. Ida b. Wells and Ferdinand 393 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:36,679 Speaker 1: Barnett married on June when Wells was thirty two. She 394 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:38,719 Speaker 1: was so well known by this point that The New 395 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 1: York Times mentioned her wedding in a small feature at 396 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:46,439 Speaker 1: the bottom of the front page. That's suspicion and criticism 397 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: of her personal life that had been going on while 398 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:52,680 Speaker 1: she was single didn't really stop after Wells Barnett's marriage, 399 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:57,879 Speaker 1: though other activists, including Susan b. Anthony, criticized her for 400 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,040 Speaker 1: getting married. Susan b. Anthony bassedly told her she shouldn't 401 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,440 Speaker 1: be messing around with some man when she had important 402 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,200 Speaker 1: work to do. But unlike a lot of the white 403 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 1: women who were activists and were choosing not to marry, 404 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: Wells Barnett did not come from money or have other 405 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,679 Speaker 1: family to help support her and her work. She also 406 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: just wanted to be married and to have children. She 407 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: and Frederick had each found in one another a partner 408 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: that they could trust and who could work with and 409 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: support the other. And the civil rights work that they 410 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:32,080 Speaker 1: were both doing, and their marriage was not exactly conventional. 411 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,840 Speaker 1: Wells Barnett hyphenated her last name rather than taking her husband's, 412 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: and her work and travel did slow down a little 413 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,000 Speaker 1: bit as she raised children. She and Ferdinand had four 414 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: kids together, and he had too from his marriage to 415 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,480 Speaker 1: his late first wife, but she did not stop working, 416 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,200 Speaker 1: and sometimes she traveled to speaking engagements with the babies 417 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: and a nurse. Wells Barnett continued her anti lynching campaign 418 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,199 Speaker 1: for much of the rest of her life, and she 419 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:02,359 Speaker 1: also advocated for other causes. She called for a kindergarten 420 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,240 Speaker 1: in Chicago that wouldn't roll black children. She was part 421 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,159 Speaker 1: of the movement for women's suffrage, and in addition to 422 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 1: investigating and spreading awareness of the lynching of black men, 423 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,400 Speaker 1: she did the same for lynching, rape, and sexual assault 424 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: of black women. She also butted heads with a lot 425 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:25,920 Speaker 1: of other leaders in these spaces. She was described as difficult, headstrong, stubborn, temperamental, 426 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:30,439 Speaker 1: and prickly. She helped found multiple civil rights organizations, but 427 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: she often didn't become an ongoing member. In the face 428 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,720 Speaker 1: of these personality conflicts, many of which were likely due 429 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 1: to the fact that she was not behaving as was 430 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:43,520 Speaker 1: expected of a woman gets pretty well agreed upon that 431 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:45,960 Speaker 1: if she had been a man, a lot of the 432 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,200 Speaker 1: things that people criticized her for would have instead been 433 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 1: seen as assets. She also called out both black and 434 00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:57,800 Speaker 1: white activists for their complicity or their missteps. This included 435 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,520 Speaker 1: ongoing disagreements with Booker T. Washington, whose work was a 436 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,400 Speaker 1: lot more focused on the idea of giving black citizens 437 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: the tools and education to help themselves, not on advocating 438 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: for changes to the law or aggressively fighting back against injustice. 439 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: She really saw his approach as to conciliatory and too 440 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: tolerant of white racism, and she finally cut ties with 441 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: him after he refused to denounce a particularly horrifying lynching. 442 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:29,439 Speaker 1: She also called out past podcast subject Jane Adams. On 443 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 1: January third, nineteen o one, Adams published an essay in 444 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,520 Speaker 1: The Independent called Respect for the Law. This essay clearly 445 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:41,440 Speaker 1: and definitively condemned lynching, but it also gave the people 446 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:44,679 Speaker 1: perpetrating these crimes a lot of the benefit of the doubt. 447 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,680 Speaker 1: She wrote, quote, let us assume that the Southern citizens 448 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: who take part in and a bet the lynching of 449 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: negroes honestly believed that it is the only successful method 450 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,120 Speaker 1: of dealing with a certain class of crimes, and later 451 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,520 Speaker 1: she went on to write, quote, let us give the 452 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,280 Speaker 1: Southern citizens the full benefit of this position and assume 453 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: that they have set aside trial by jury and all 454 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,959 Speaker 1: processes of law, because they have become convinced that this 455 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: brutal method of theirs is the most efficient method in 456 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: dealing with a peculiar case of crime committed by one 457 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,679 Speaker 1: race against another. Jane Adams in a lot of ways 458 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: when it came to to to racism and racial discrimination, 459 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,439 Speaker 1: like a lot. In a lot of ways, she was 460 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,320 Speaker 1: really progressive, and this was not a case where she 461 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: was really progressive, and you know, I'd be Wells Barnett 462 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:33,640 Speaker 1: knew her and worked with her. They were both living 463 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:38,239 Speaker 1: in Chicago. She published a rebuttal on May sixt So 464 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: Wells Barnett started out by praising Jane Adams and saying 465 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,239 Speaker 1: that she was reluctant to diminish the impact of what 466 00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: Adams had done. Adams was a well known, well respected 467 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: white woman who was condemning lynching, and she was doing 468 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,919 Speaker 1: so with a dispassionate and logical argument. So this just 469 00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,119 Speaker 1: was not something that most white leaders in the United States. 470 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,400 Speaker 1: We're doing so Wells Barnett made it clear that if 471 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: every white activist wrote a similar essay, the nation would 472 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,520 Speaker 1: be in a much better place. But from there, Wells 473 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:15,600 Speaker 1: Barnett directly criticized the assumptions that Adams had rested her 474 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,199 Speaker 1: argument on. She pointed out that giving the perpetrators of 475 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:21,879 Speaker 1: lynching the benefit of the doubt as quote doing what 476 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,679 Speaker 1: was best was dangerous and damaging. She also picked apart 477 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,440 Speaker 1: once again the idea that the victims of lynching had 478 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: committed rape, using the Chicago Tribunes annual lynching statistics to 479 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: back up what she was saying. Wells Barnett was present 480 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,600 Speaker 1: at the founding of the a c P and at 481 00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: its first meetings she gave a talk called Lynching Our 482 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:48,000 Speaker 1: National Crime, which incorporated her, at that point, almost twenty 483 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,760 Speaker 1: years of research and advocacy. To sum it up, quote, first, 484 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,760 Speaker 1: lynching is color line murder. Second, crimes against women is 485 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: the excuse, not the cause. And third, it is a 486 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: national crime and requires a national remedy. So although she 487 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 1: did continue to participate in the double a CPS work 488 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,360 Speaker 1: at various points. She wasn't listed as an official founder, 489 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:18,240 Speaker 1: and she eventually distanced herself from that organization. In spite 490 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: of Wells Barnett's lifelong work, there was no national remedy 491 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: for lynching. Although some states passed laws against lynching, Southern 492 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 1: Democrats blocked efforts to pass laws at the national level. 493 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,840 Speaker 1: The protections Wells Barnett was fighting for We're finally included, 494 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,880 Speaker 1: at least on paper, in the Civil Rights Act of 495 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:42,200 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four. By that point, Wills Barnett had been 496 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,120 Speaker 1: dead for more than thirty years. She died on March 497 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: thirty one, at the age of sixty nine. At the 498 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,080 Speaker 1: time of her death, she had been working on her autobiography, 499 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,560 Speaker 1: which she started on about three years before. She was 500 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: motivated in part to write this autobiography by attending a 501 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,640 Speaker 1: New Ego History Week event in Chicago. They were discussing 502 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,320 Speaker 1: a book by Carter G. Woodson, who was one of 503 00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: the first scholars of black history like that was becoming 504 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,720 Speaker 1: a field, and he's recognized as is one of the 505 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,120 Speaker 1: first people doing this work. His book that he had 506 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,160 Speaker 1: written on a topic made no mention of her anti 507 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: lynching work at all, and she realized that if she 508 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,120 Speaker 1: wanted her life and work to be documented, she was 509 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:29,680 Speaker 1: going to have to do it herself. Her youngest daughter, ALFREDA. Duster, 510 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,920 Speaker 1: edited this autobiography, which is called Crusade for Justice, and 511 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: it was published in nineteen seventy and the book came 512 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: out just as there was an increasing focus on both 513 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:44,000 Speaker 1: black history and women's history in the United States. It 514 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 1: helped bring Wells Barnett's work and accomplishments back to the 515 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: forefront of the national consciousness. Yeah, and those decades between 516 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: her death and when the book came out, she she 517 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,360 Speaker 1: kind of faded in the background. She wasn't included in 518 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: a lot of discussion about black history. Today, there is 519 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,760 Speaker 1: an to B. Wells Barnett Museum at the Spiros Bowling House. 520 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: The I. T. B. Wells Barnett House in Chicago is 521 00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: a private residence, but it's also a National Historical Landmark. 522 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:12,400 Speaker 1: And the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is 523 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: a memorial to the victims of lynching and racist terror, 524 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:21,680 Speaker 1: opened on April ten in Montgomery, Alabama. And we will 525 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: end with a quote that sums up both what made 526 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,520 Speaker 1: her such a force to be reckoned with and why 527 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 1: people describe her with words like prickly. That makes me angry, 528 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: But I also know that people describe me with words 529 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 1: like prickly, so I feel like a tiny bit of 530 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:43,760 Speaker 1: kinship with her, although she is far beyond my abilities Anyway, 531 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: In nineteen o nine, a man had been lynched in Cairo, Illinois, 532 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,000 Speaker 1: and according to a nineteen o four Illinois in Illinois law, 533 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: a sheriff whose prisoner was lynched had to be removed 534 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:58,760 Speaker 1: from his position and then he had to apply for reinstatement. 535 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 1: So the share of who was involved with this lynching, 536 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: I don't know if he was directly involved, but the 537 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,520 Speaker 1: man had been taken from his jail while he was 538 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: the person in charge. Uh he had applied for reinstatement, 539 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,440 Speaker 1: and Wells Barnett went to Cairo and successfully got that 540 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:20,320 Speaker 1: application for reinstatement denied. So the Springfield Forum had this 541 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 1: to say on December eleventh of that year. Quote Ida 542 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: Wells Barnett is to be highly lauded for her courage 543 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: and magnanimity. She towers high above all of her male 544 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,960 Speaker 1: contemporaries and has more of the aggressive qualities than the 545 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: average man. It belittles the men to some extent to 546 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:42,240 Speaker 1: have a woman come forward to do the work that 547 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,960 Speaker 1: is naturally presumed to be that of men. But Mrs 548 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 1: Barnett never shrinks or evades. She is a heroine of 549 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: her age and the nation is better off for her 550 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: having lived in it. Long live Mrs Ida b Wells Barnett. 551 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:03,480 Speaker 1: I love that quote. Uh. Do you also love listener mail? 552 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,160 Speaker 1: I do love listener mail. Let's listener mail just came 553 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: in this morning and it is a correction. Uh. It 554 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 1: is about our episode about the niss A in World 555 00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:15,000 Speaker 1: War Two, and it is from Brian and Bryan's Dear 556 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: Tracy and Holly, thank you very much for your podcast 557 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 1: on the Japanese American units who participated in the U. S. 558 00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:24,720 Speaker 1: Arm Services during World War Two, despite many of these 559 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: soldiers families being incarcerated in concentration camps. I had one 560 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,640 Speaker 1: uncle who served as a combat medic with the four 561 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,760 Speaker 1: forty two r CT, while another uncle served in the 562 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 1: m I S and the Pacific. There were, however, several 563 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: corrections that I wanted to address. The quote that the 564 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: Japanese Americans who served in the Military Intelligence Service helped 565 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,320 Speaker 1: shorten the war by two years should be attributed to 566 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:51,720 Speaker 1: General Charles Willoughby, who was General MacArthur's chief of Staff 567 00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:56,320 Speaker 1: of Intelligence, not McArthur himself. The one battalion in the 568 00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: fifth U S Army were not successful in taking Monte 569 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:03,760 Speaker 1: Casino from the Germans. After being stalemated, General Mark Clark 570 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,600 Speaker 1: decided to bypass the abbey and take a sea route 571 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:10,279 Speaker 1: to land in anzio By on the way to Rome. 572 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:15,319 Speaker 1: Polish and British Commonwealth divisions did overtake the enemy on 573 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:19,160 Speaker 1: Montexino several months later. Lastly, the four forty second r 574 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,840 Speaker 1: CT did not enter Rome. The four r ST landed 575 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,440 Speaker 1: at Cevita Vecchia, where the one battalion joined the regiment. 576 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,280 Speaker 1: The regiment then went north, with the one the battalion 577 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:34,400 Speaker 1: going to Liverono on the Lagurian coast. You both do 578 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,080 Speaker 1: such a fantastic job with your historical subjects, be at 579 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,720 Speaker 1: people events, et cetera. I'm especially pleased that you devote 580 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 1: time to reminding us that America is made up of 581 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,799 Speaker 1: many ethnic groups who have contributed to this country, even 582 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,920 Speaker 1: under dire circumstances. If either or the both of you 583 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,239 Speaker 1: or in San Francisco, it would be a pleasure for 584 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,800 Speaker 1: me to be your docent at the Military Intelligence Service 585 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,680 Speaker 1: Historic Learning Center in the Presidio, the first m I 586 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: S School your loyal listener, Brian. Thank you, Brian. The 587 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:04,920 Speaker 1: first of these corrections about who the quote should be 588 00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:09,200 Speaker 1: attributed to, I realized I messed up, um after a 589 00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:11,840 Speaker 1: person came onto our Facebook page to make some like 590 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 1: thinly veiled racist comments, UM. And I googled that quote 591 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,200 Speaker 1: and then was like, oh, I said the completely wrong 592 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:25,319 Speaker 1: thing in the episode. Uh. And then I think most 593 00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 1: of what is there relating to where the units were 594 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,719 Speaker 1: going in relation to Rome was just me misinterpreting what 595 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:38,240 Speaker 1: was an incredibly complicated campaign. UM. I I enjoy doing 596 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,439 Speaker 1: the some of the military history episodes where we talk 597 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:46,200 Speaker 1: about battles, UM, but that was one of the trickiest 598 00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,319 Speaker 1: ones to try to put together, like there was just 599 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,640 Speaker 1: a whole lot going on. So thank you so much, Brian. 600 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 1: Brian also sent sources for all of the corrections that 601 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:02,200 Speaker 1: he was making, which I very much appreciated because occasionally 602 00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:05,240 Speaker 1: we will get emails that say historians agree that blah 603 00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,279 Speaker 1: blah blah is not true, but like they don't really 604 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,560 Speaker 1: say where that information came from, and I can't find 605 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,160 Speaker 1: what historians they are talking about, So I very much 606 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:16,719 Speaker 1: appreciated the helpful sources and links that Briant provided. Thank 607 00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:21,040 Speaker 1: you so much, Brian. I apologize for making those errors. 608 00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:23,400 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us where History 609 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,200 Speaker 1: podcasts at how stuff works dot com. We're also all 610 00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,240 Speaker 1: over social media as a missed in History. That's where 611 00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:31,680 Speaker 1: our our Facebook, and our interest in, our Instagram, and 612 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,120 Speaker 1: our Twitter, all our our website is that missed in 613 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 1: history dot com and you will find an archive of 614 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,600 Speaker 1: all the episodes that we have ever worked on and 615 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: uh show notes for all the episodes Holly and I 616 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: have worked on. 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