Ida B. Wells: “Lynching: Our National Crime”

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Ida B. Wells:“Lynching: Our National Crime”
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Abstract

Through newspaper articles and in lectures in the United States and Great Britain, Ida B. Wells demanded that the United States confront lynching. Wells was a member of the fledgling Niagara Movement, which condemned segregation, the disenfranchisement of Black voters, lynching, and any suggestion that the demand for immediate civil rights be deferred. This new body gained strength as a result of a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, in the summer of 1908. The riot started when a white woman accused a Black man of attempting to rape her. When police protected the alleged rapist, an enraged mob attacked the Black community.

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