Speaker 1: Just a quick warning before we start the show. There
Speaker 1: is sensitive content in this episode about racial terrorism and lynching,
Speaker 1: so if there are young ears around, please take that
Speaker 1: into consideration. My partner, my friend, and I drove over
Speaker 1: to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Museum and the
Speaker 1: National Memorial for Peace and Justice, or as it's better known,
Speaker 1: the National Lynching Memorial. As we walked through the memorial,
Speaker 1: America's legacy of racial terrorism and extra judicial murder literally
Speaker 1: hung over our heads like a dark cloud. We passed
Speaker 1: beneath the names of thousands of black people in America
Speaker 1: who died as victims of lynching, the memory of their
Speaker 1: lives engraved on still sculptures that seemed so heavy, so monumental,
Speaker 1: that they could fall on us at any moment, but
Speaker 1: they weren't going to the United States has a tendency
Speaker 1: not to reckon with the horrors of its past. There's
Speaker 1: a good chance the lynching epidemic will continue to be
Speaker 1: thought of as a stain on the fabric of American
Speaker 1: history or a fortunate part of America's past, depending on
Speaker 1: your perspective, rather than an institutional, ill and shape shifting
Speaker 1: social monster that remains part of our national consciousness. Somehow
Speaker 1: people think lynching should be left in the past, and
Speaker 1: that having a lynching memorial is just pouring salt on
Speaker 1: old wounds. Yet we're still having conversations about whether Confederate
Speaker 1: statues need to be taken down anyway. What these critics
Speaker 1: fail to realize, or what they choose to ignore, is
Speaker 1: that lynching continued into the twenty one century, though numbers
Speaker 1: have decreased. I'm only about three generations removed from the
Speaker 1: time when lynching was at its peak in the United
Speaker 1: States at the end of the eighteen hundreds, and the
Speaker 1: extra judicial killing of black people persists to this day.
Speaker 1: Lynching was just declared a federal hate crime in I
Speaker 1: will not be the one to pretend that mob violence
Speaker 1: and mandated murder based on race has no effect on
Speaker 1: the American psyche and systems. And that's not to mention
Speaker 1: how many black people had their futures ripped away from
Speaker 1: them and lost their ability to build families because lynching
Speaker 1: black people for doing things like standing around was just
Speaker 1: how it was. There is no justification for these murders
Speaker 1: that could stand up to a test of logic or justice.
Speaker 1: White folks gathered to watch black bodies hang, gazing in
Speaker 1: glee and reveling in white supremacy as they watched the
Speaker 1: life drain out of adults and children alike, their limp
Speaker 1: corpses swaying gently from a tree branch. Sometimes victims were
Speaker 1: dragged behind cars. Sometimes the lynched were castrated before they
Speaker 1: were killed. Mothers, police officers, teachers, and other supposedly upstanding
Speaker 1: members of the community attended lynching parties. When Henry Smith
Speaker 1: was accused of raping and murdering a white girl in
Speaker 1: three he was paraded around town on a float, then
Speaker 1: tortured with hot irons soaked with kerosene, then set on
Speaker 1: fire in front of a crowd of thousands. After he died,
Speaker 1: people grabbed pieces of his burned body as keepsakes, and
Speaker 1: photographs of the lynching were sold as postcards. If you
Speaker 1: live in the United States, you might already know the
Speaker 1: history of the country's lynchings. If you don't, you may
Speaker 1: be familiar with a history of extra judicial punishment and
Speaker 1: murder present in your country's history. But I give you
Speaker 1: these brutal images to remind you how normal and it
Speaker 1: accepted it was in America to lynch black people, to
Speaker 1: inspire fear in their hearts, maintain a system of racial
Speaker 1: supremacy and inferiority, and rich society of perceived undesirables. I
Speaker 1: cannot downplay the horrifying regularity of unjust killings based on
Speaker 1: skin color, and how often they were committed for petty
Speaker 1: crimes or no crimes at all. To stand against lynch
Speaker 1: ings and to call attention to the injustice of white
Speaker 1: mob violence was to oppose with the oppressive majority considered
Speaker 1: right and fair. But as journalists and anti lynching activists,
Speaker 1: Ida Bell Wills Barnett once wrote, the way to right
Speaker 1: wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.
Speaker 1: I'm Eve Jeff Coote and This is Unpopular a podcast
Speaker 1: about the people in history who didn't let the threat
Speaker 1: of persecution keep m from speaking truth to power. Today
Speaker 1: we turn our attention to the story of Ida B. Wells,
Speaker 1: a pioneer in journalism who was extremely famous in America
Speaker 1: and at the same time was on many folks most
Speaker 1: hated list. Ida Bell Wells was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: on July six, eighteen sixty two, just half a year
Speaker 1: before you, as President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Speaker 1: Her mother was named Elizabeth Bell Wells and her father
Speaker 1: was named James Wells, and she was the oldest child
Speaker 1: out of eight siblings, including one child who died not
Speaker 1: long after birth. But as the United States went through
Speaker 1: a huge transitional period, so did Ida's family. James, a carpenter,
Speaker 1: started his own business in eighteen sixty seven and became
Speaker 1: involved in reconstruction, politics, and education, and Elizabeth was a cook.
Speaker 1: Ida attended Shaw University now called Rust College, a school
Speaker 1: founded for formerly enslaved black people, where her father served
Speaker 1: on the first board of trustees. Ida was an avid reader,
Speaker 1: soaking up the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Alcott, and Bronte.
Speaker 1: But just after Ida turned sixteen in eighteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Ida's parents and her infant brother, Stanley, died of yellow
Speaker 1: fever as an epidemic struck the area. At that point.
Speaker 1: Ida refused to let her siblings get split up, and
Speaker 1: she began taking care of her brothers and sisters and
Speaker 1: got a job as a teacher in a rural school
Speaker 1: about six miles outside of Holly Springs. But her time
Speaker 1: in Holly Springs after her parents death was rough and
Speaker 1: Even in these years of early adulthood, Ida was the
Speaker 1: target of townsfolks derision. When she was seen asking Dr. D. H.
Speaker 1: Gray for the money her father had entrusted to the
Speaker 1: children before he died. People in the town began questioning
Speaker 1: her motives for choosing to take care of the family
Speaker 1: and spreading rumors that she was sexually involved with the doctor.
Speaker 1: On top of the slander, Ida had to stay with
Speaker 1: local families while she taught outside of Holly Springs during
Speaker 1: the week days, and she came home to a boatload
Speaker 1: of housework on the weekends, and her sister Eugenia died.
Speaker 1: Then her grandmother, who took care of her siblings while
Speaker 1: she was away, had a stroke. In the early eighteen eighties,
Speaker 1: Ida welcomed and escaped from life in Holly Springs. She
Speaker 1: moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with her two youngest sisters to
Speaker 1: live with an aunt. She began teaching in Tennessee, and
Speaker 1: she started taking summer classes at Fisk University in Nashville.
Speaker 1: Ida was already outspoken, but it was during her early
Speaker 1: years in Tennessee when Ida's activism got a lot of attention.
Speaker 1: On May four, four, she wrote a first class rail
Speaker 1: car traveling from Memphis to Woodstock, where she taught at
Speaker 1: a public school. Even though she had purchased a ticket
Speaker 1: for the so called ladies car, the conductor ordered Ida
Speaker 1: out of the coach, telling her it was for white
Speaker 1: people only and that she needed to go to the
Speaker 1: smoke Field colored car. The Civil Rights Act of eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five had made equal treatment on public transportation the law,
Speaker 1: but in October eighty three, the U. S. Supreme Court
Speaker 1: decided that the parts of the Act prohibiting discrimination in
Speaker 1: public places was unconstitutional. This meant that the idea of
Speaker 1: separate but equal accommodations was effectively legal pre Plussy versus Ferguson. Still,
Speaker 1: Ida refused to move, digging her feet into the seat
Speaker 1: in front of her, and scratching and biting the conductor,
Speaker 1: but she ended up leaving the train early. When she
Speaker 1: got back to Memphis, she hired black attorney Thomas Castle's
Speaker 1: then white attorney James Greer to sue the Chesapeake and
Speaker 1: Ohio Railroad Company. I'DA went to trial in circuit court,
Speaker 1: where Greer argued that the railroad company violated Tennessee statutes
Speaker 1: that said railroad companies could not charge black people first
Speaker 1: class fairs and put them in second class cars, and
Speaker 1: that required separate but equal accommodations. The judge ordered the
Speaker 1: railway company to pay her five hundred dollars in damages,
Speaker 1: saying the company had violated the separate but equal clause
Speaker 1: by requiring black people to ride in a smoking car
Speaker 1: that was not first class. The Tennessee Supreme Court later
Speaker 1: overturned the decision, saying that she had been provided like
Speaker 1: accommodations and that her intent was harassment rather than obtaining
Speaker 1: a more comfortable seat on the trip. Wells had to
Speaker 1: pay court costs. She wrote the following days later. I
Speaker 1: felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things
Speaker 1: from my suit for my p people. Generally, I firmly
Speaker 1: believed all along that the law was on our side
Speaker 1: and would, when we appealed to it, give us justice.
Speaker 1: I feel shorn of that belief and utterly discouraged. And
Speaker 1: just now, if it were possible, I would gather my
Speaker 1: race in my arms and fly away with them. Oh God,
Speaker 1: is there no redress, no peace, no justice in this
Speaker 1: land for us? But it didn't take long for that
Speaker 1: lamentation to turn into more advocacy for the rights of
Speaker 1: black people in the Gym Crow era. She began writing
Speaker 1: essays on black folks social conditions and reading them in public,
Speaker 1: and she wrote about her activism. She became the secretary
Speaker 1: of the Colored Press Association. She purchased ownership in the
Speaker 1: radical weekly Free Speech and Headlight, and became its editor
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty nine. Under the pen name Iola, Ida
Speaker 1: wrote about the injustices black people faced in the South,
Speaker 1: and her articles were featured in black press around the country.
Speaker 1: In eee, after Ida wrote an editorial that was critical
Speaker 1: of the Memphis Board of Education and the lack of
Speaker 1: resources in black schools, the board dismissed her from the
Speaker 1: teaching post. Ida's controversial writings were making waves, and she
Speaker 1: was not afraid of the blowbacks she might get for
Speaker 1: her journalism. In that fearlessness, pursuit of truth, and dedication
Speaker 1: to improving the lives of black people would start Ida
Speaker 1: on a lifelong anti lynching crusade that earned her many enemies.
Speaker 1: When we get back from the break, we'll look at
Speaker 1: how well crafted words can expose truths and buried thoughts
Speaker 1: and practices that are built on outdated and false foundations.
Speaker 1: What is hashtag activism worth? Is it empty? Performance is
Speaker 1: valuable solely for the awareness it spreads? Hashtag? What is
Speaker 1: the hashtag? Hashtag? Or maybe I should ask what is
Speaker 1: a hashtag worth on its own? And what is it worth?
Speaker 1: When real world activism follows the hashtag, it's telling that
Speaker 1: supporting a cause via hashtag alone can be a controversial act.
Speaker 1: It only takes one hashtag me too, hashtag fake news,
Speaker 1: or hashtag times up to draw out the animosity of
Speaker 1: people who never reach out to you on social media
Speaker 1: until it's time for an argument. A few letters typed
Speaker 1: after the symbol formerly known as the pound sign, accompanied
Speaker 1: by a short statement of advocacy for an issue has
Speaker 1: enough impact to invoke an emotional response, and people around
Speaker 1: the world have been arrested for their so called online activism,
Speaker 1: detained for being critical of established institutions and people in power.
Speaker 1: I'm using the term online activism loose, as all forms
Speaker 1: of activism that begin online aren't the same, and the
Speaker 1: internet is just another medium of communication that happens to
Speaker 1: not have been around for hundreds or thousands of years.
Speaker 1: It's tempting to consider the term in a dismissive way,
Speaker 1: but here it's just a way of distinguishing a new
Speaker 1: and developing platform and starting point for social change that
Speaker 1: operates in ways only possible in contemporary times. It's clear
Speaker 1: that online activism is a powerful tool and component of
Speaker 1: social activism when it amplifies marginalized voices, allows for effective
Speaker 1: organization and quick mobilizing, inspires collective action, and focuses on
Speaker 1: educating people on the problem and the path toward progress.
Speaker 1: Being able to use mediums as readily accessible as the
Speaker 1: Internet and social media to enact justice can be empowering
Speaker 1: to people who feel small and quiet when interacting with
Speaker 1: established orders that have proven to be in effect to
Speaker 1: been harmful. But there's also research that shows people who
Speaker 1: participate in online activism may not actually engage in social
Speaker 1: change beyond the Internet and only use hashtags to create
Speaker 1: an illusion of concern, and that online activism can cause
Speaker 1: people who are set in their ways to double down
Speaker 1: on their stereotypes about activists and opinions on social issues.
Speaker 1: Being emotionally affected alone just isn't enough. Social media activism
Speaker 1: and internet virality are indispensable parts of the way knowledge
Speaker 1: is spread and the way people form opinions on issues
Speaker 1: they find compelling and important. I often think about how
Speaker 1: long it took back in the day for news of disasters,
Speaker 1: of war, of major events to spread, and I regret that,
Speaker 1: despite how much access I have to world news, discoveries,
Speaker 1: and changing science and theory, I'll still never be up
Speaker 1: to day on everything. For artless, the words that are
Speaker 1: being so widely and so quickly spread through hashtags and
Speaker 1: articles have shown promise in their ability to uncover truths
Speaker 1: that might otherwise be left untold to a worldwide audience.
Speaker 1: Online activism can fill in major gaps left by traditional
Speaker 1: international outlets, mainstream media, and dominant cultural conversations. It would
Speaker 1: be misleading to imply that all activism that begins online
Speaker 1: is positive, meaningful, smart, or worthwhile. But it would also
Speaker 1: be unwise to understate the internet's capacity to shed light
Speaker 1: on pervasive but unsolved problems and to challenge entrenched norms
Speaker 1: through research and information sharing. The very frequent inquiry made
Speaker 1: after my lectures by interested friends is what can I
Speaker 1: do to help the cause. The answer always is tell
Speaker 1: the world the facts. This is what Ida b Well
Speaker 1: said in the pamphlet The Red Record, her eight texts
Speaker 1: that detailed the escalating rates of racist violence in the
Speaker 1: United States and the destruction of lynching. After reconstruction, many
Speaker 1: white folks desired a return to the old order and
Speaker 1: worked hard to stifle Black progress. That was often done
Speaker 1: through law, but a return to that old order was
Speaker 1: also pursued through the murder of black people who threatened
Speaker 1: white social status and cultural and economic dominance. In eight two,
Speaker 1: Ida was in Natchez, Mississippi, when she found out that
Speaker 1: Tom Moss, her goddaughter's father, was lynched. A white mob
Speaker 1: shot and discarded Moss in two of his colleagues, will
Speaker 1: Stewart and Calvin McDowell. And Memphis, Tennessee. Moss owned People's Grocery,
Speaker 1: a successful store in a mixed race neighborhood called the Curve.
Speaker 1: In the week leading up to the lynching, a fight
Speaker 1: out side of People's Grocery among black and white people.
Speaker 1: Rumors around black people in the Curve planning a conspiracy
Speaker 1: against the white people, and a shootout at People's Grocery
Speaker 1: that injured several white men escalated racial tensions in the city.
Speaker 1: A white grocery owner named William Barrett was threatened by
Speaker 1: the success of the store. This outlook was not uncommon
Speaker 1: among white people who faced economic competition from black folks
Speaker 1: and had no problem was turning to violence to turn
Speaker 1: the tides in their favor. While Moss, McDowell, and Stewart
Speaker 1: were being held at the Shelby County Jail, a mob
Speaker 1: dragged the three of them out of their cells, took
Speaker 1: them to a railroad yard, and shot them to death.
Speaker 1: The harrowing incident left a mark on Ida. She began
Speaker 1: to investigate lunchings, determined to debunk the myth that the
Speaker 1: extra legal killing of people was justified because they had
Speaker 1: raped white women or committed some other brutal act of
Speaker 1: violence against white people. In free speech, Ida urged black
Speaker 1: people to leave Memphis and move west. Some who stayed
Speaker 1: in Memphis boycotted white businesses, as well as traveled throughout
Speaker 1: the South on a crusade to document the true events
Speaker 1: that led to lynchings. She collected accounts that were not
Speaker 1: retaliation for crimes, but were vicious instances of white people
Speaker 1: meeting out death to preserve perceived white supremacy and save
Speaker 1: themselves from social embarrassment. Black people were being lynched for
Speaker 1: so much as existing lynchings were part of the long
Speaker 1: game built on false accusations that served to reinforce the
Speaker 1: stereotype of black people as uncontrollable monsters. They were a
Speaker 1: grand lie. Nobody in this section of the country believed
Speaker 1: the old, thread bare lie that negro men rape white women.
Speaker 1: Wells wrote in an editorial in the Free Speech two
Speaker 1: months after the People's grocery lynchings, if Southern white men
Speaker 1: are not careful, there will overreach themselves, and public sentiment
Speaker 1: will have a reaction, and a conclusion will be reached
Speaker 1: which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of
Speaker 1: their women. The horror, Well, at least that's what southern
Speaker 1: white folks and white people who supported lynching thought about
Speaker 1: the editorial. Not only did the editorial prompt many indignant
Speaker 1: and outraged responses from locals and other newspaper editorials, but
Speaker 1: it put Ida on many people's lists of ne'er do Wells.
Speaker 1: She was already a target of hate for her critical
Speaker 1: writings and did not hesitate to carry a pistol. But
Speaker 1: once she insulted the morality of white women and called
Speaker 1: attention to the injustice of lynching, an angry mob took
Speaker 1: it upon themselves to burn down the Free Speech Building
Speaker 1: and destroy the printing press. Wells was in New York
Speaker 1: when she heard the news, and as her life was threatened,
Speaker 1: she knew that it was entirely too dangerous to go
Speaker 1: back to Tennessee. So she took a job with the
Speaker 1: New York Age and continued to expose the truth of
Speaker 1: lynching through her journalism, a cause she would take on
Speaker 1: for the rest of her life. Let's Take a Quick
Speaker 1: Break In Wells published a pamphlet called Southern Horrors Lynch
Speaker 1: Law in All its Phases. Three years later, she published
Speaker 1: The Red Record, in which she meticulously covered the crime
Speaker 1: of lynching throughout the United States and how the reasons
Speaker 1: for his proliferation were unfounded. Through the use of carefully
Speaker 1: gathered facts, information from white sources in the South, and
Speaker 1: statistics from the Chicago Tribune, Wells provide did undeniable evidence
Speaker 1: that the narrative of lynchings driven by insatiable black lust
Speaker 1: and in humanity was fiction, and as part of her
Speaker 1: anti lynching campaign, she urged her readers to educate others
Speaker 1: and revolutionized public sentiment to encourage religious leaders to condemn
Speaker 1: lynchings and to show white Southerners how it was beneficial
Speaker 1: to refuse to invest capital and places where lawlessness and
Speaker 1: mob violence ruled. As she continued to compile data about
Speaker 1: lynching cases and break down the myth of black men
Speaker 1: as sexual predators, as she toured Britain and gained an
Speaker 1: international audience that included white people. As she received endless
Speaker 1: props from Frederick Douglas for her work, Americans made clear
Speaker 1: their resentment of Ida and her dedication to a meticulously
Speaker 1: researched analysis of the lynching record that included white people
Speaker 1: who believe black folks deserved to be lynch in higher
Speaker 1: class black folks who were eager to maintain their social
Speaker 1: positions and not stir the pot. Wells was pegged by
Speaker 1: many as irrational, emotional, too radical, and dangerous. The New
Speaker 1: York Times called her quote a slanderous and nasty minded
Speaker 1: mulattress who does not scruple to represent the victims of
Speaker 1: black fruits in the South as willing victims. But despite
Speaker 1: the attacks on her character and threats on her life,
Speaker 1: Wells put up other fights that got her labeled as
Speaker 1: an adversary. She turned to black civil rights, helping found
Speaker 1: the n Double a CP. She reported on race riots
Speaker 1: and spoke out against school of segregation. She advocated for
Speaker 1: women's suffrage, particularly that of black women, and founded the
Speaker 1: Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago. At the time, many white
Speaker 1: suffragists were still intent on upholding white power structures and
Speaker 1: maintained prevailing ideologies on the natural savagery and inferiority of
Speaker 1: black people. The U. S Government even put her under
Speaker 1: valance for inciting quote a great deal of interracial antagonism
Speaker 1: with her writing on the East St. Louis massacres of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, and a spy once called her a far
Speaker 1: more dangerous agitator than Marcus Garvey. Ida and her husband,
Speaker 1: Ferdinand Lee Barnett, once supported Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association.
Speaker 1: The government denied Wells a passport when she was nominated
Speaker 1: as a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 1: To say that Ida's body of work was in opposition
Speaker 1: to contemporary norms is to say the least. She was
Speaker 1: well known, but she was subversive and widely denounced for it.
Speaker 1: Though the work she did to challenge conventions of the
Speaker 1: day was dangerous, Wells considered it necessary to share with
Speaker 1: the world the truth of the atrocity of lynchings and
Speaker 1: the perils of anti blackness and racism. Ida b Wells
Speaker 1: once wrote the following the Afro American, It's not a
Speaker 1: b sal race. If this work can contribute in any
Speaker 1: way toward proving this and at the same time aroused
Speaker 1: the conscience of the American people to demand for justice
Speaker 1: to every citizen and punishment by law for the lawless,
Speaker 1: I shall feel I have done my race a service.
Speaker 1: Other considerations are of minor importance. Before her research into
Speaker 1: the stories behind lynchings. Before her investigative journalism was published
Speaker 1: and defied intentionally distorted historical records, the prevailing notion in
Speaker 1: Why America was that lynchings were warranted. I'da died in
Speaker 1: ninety one. Her legacy of civil rights activism is cemented
Speaker 1: in the impact her journalism and activism left on her
Speaker 1: contemporaries and future activists in academics and more literally, the
Speaker 1: reflection space that honors her at the National Memorial for
Speaker 1: Peace and Justice in Montgomery that said, the state sanctioned
Speaker 1: extra judicial killings of black people is an issue Americans
Speaker 1: are still grappling with. Ida b. Wells is crusade to
Speaker 1: take on lynching and other race issues at a time
Speaker 1: when speaking up as a black woman was so risky.
Speaker 1: Can be viewed as a model for confronting questionable and
Speaker 1: harmful practices today. Through her words, calls to action, and
Speaker 1: personal activism, she was able to rock the foundation of
Speaker 1: a system of racial terrorism that seemed impossible to move.
Speaker 1: Considering the effectiveness of Ida's work, there is no reason
Speaker 1: to dismiss the potential for online activism to inspire social change.
Speaker 1: Through her personal experience with slavery and lynching and her
Speaker 1: impassioned research into the reality of black persecution in the US,
Speaker 1: she opened eyes to the importance of pursuing truth rather
Speaker 1: than thoughtlessly trusting the falsified balance presented in lynching accounts.
Speaker 1: It's not crazy to think that someone's words could help
Speaker 1: inspire such a drastic change and thought expose new truths
Speaker 1: and mobilized movements today, even when they seem outrageous and inconceivable.
Speaker 1: We'll see you again next week for another episode of Unpopular.
Speaker 1: Our producer is Andrew Howard, Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis
Speaker 1: are our executive producers, and if you want to reach
Speaker 1: out to us, if you have any suggestions for people
Speaker 1: to cover, or if you just generally want to vent.
Speaker 1: You can reach us at Unpopular at i heart media
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Unpopular Show, on Twitter at Underscore Unpopular Show, and on
Speaker 1: Facebook at this is Unpopular. And you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: the show on Apple Podcasts, the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast