They Say: Ida B. Wells

They Say 1) Lynching a) Nelson’s hanging: Husband stole cow, son killed & shot deputy. Woman and son hung from bridge (pg. 7) i) “She was very small of stature, very black, about thirty years old,” the newspapers reported, “and vicious”. ii) The boy: “fourteen and yellow and ignorant”, according to papers. b) ‘It is generally thought that the Negroes got what would have been due them under process of law. (page 8) c) “This may be “southern Brutality’ as far as the Boston Negro can see, but in polite circles, we call it Southern Chivalry”. ( page 9) d) Ku Klux Klan iii) Obj. is to suppress Negro, keep him, where he belongs, and make sure Democratic Party runs this country.” (page 28) iv) Disarm blacks 2) Rape 3) How blacks identify race e) James Baldwin: “If I’m not who you say I am, then you are not who you think you are” f) Ida: I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” (page 11) g) They’d been bossed and harassed for too long to believe any talk of cooperation (page 23) h) John Brown and other black men had sought to define themselves as free men through the power of the ballot box-in vain v) Threatened by whites vi) Complex registration issues vii) Trickery i) Ida was referred to her name-sign of freedom 64 j) Black newspapers are monuments to sekf-sacrifice, devotion, industry, and energy….the chances for making money are-none.” (101) 4) How whites identify race k) “those who did the lynching were certain that the white race had justice on its side’’(page 9) viii) “the people of the state have said by recently adopted constitutional provision that the race to which the unfortunate victims belonged should be in large measure be divorced from participation in our political contest because of their known racial inferiority and