How Ida B. Wells used Journalism to Mobilize the Anti-Lynching Movement in Post-Reconstruction America

Ida B. Wells was extraordinary. An African-American woman living in the post-reconstruction era was unlikely to achieve much at all due to the legal, social, and political restrictions in the United States on African-Americans and women at the time. Regardless of these limitations, Wells served as a leader both in her family life and in her community- whether that was her hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi, or when she moved in with her aunt in Memphis, Tennessee, or New York City, where she sought refuge after having to go into exile when her newspaper offices were destroyed and her life was threatened by the attackers.

The achievement which stands out the most to me though, was her ability to mobilize the anti-lynching movement after others before her who seemed to have more ease in being heard and executing the movement were unsuccessful in doing so.

Southern Horrors says, “She began asking herself basic questions- ‘How can this be? What’s really going on here?’- and collecting data on lynchings more systematically. Her findings were eye-opening, and she was energized to launch an anti-lynching campaign in order to counter misconceptions and encourage the application of justice” (18).

After moving to New York, Wells explains, “Having lost my paper, had a price put on my life, and been made an exile from home for hinting at the truth, I felt that I owed it to myself and to my race to tell the whole truth now that I was where I could do so freely.” Royster explains after this move, “Wells’s anti-lynching campaign gained momentum” (18).

Both the Afro-American League and the Equal Rights Council attempted to implement an anti-lynching campaign but were unable to see it through. “Fortune established the Afro-American League, envisioned as an all-black, self-help organization. At the beginning the league established lynching as a central issue, but after the first convention, attention shifted to antidiscrimination activities, agitating for social equality as well as political and economic opportunity” (13).

“By 1893, however, the national organization no longer functioned. A central problem was that Fortune and the other editors were unable to garner a base of support among the masses of African Americans in critical sectors of community activity; for example, within the black church and among black Republicans” (13).  

Fortune did not necessarily care or try less than Wells to make the anti-lynching movement work but instead, Wells’ approach of utilizing her writing skills to her advantage seems to be a differentiation that made a real distinction between the two efforts.

Wells prioritized making her writing accessible to common people in the United States, so that the thousands of African-Americans who were uneducated, were able to understand what she was saying, and could still learn about the issues and find strength in being politically involved even on that small level.

Journalism allows writers to make a quiet, but impactful change in people. By reading something, a person has no risk- they are not making a public statement, or making any sort of commitment- they are simply reading what someone else has to say about a topic. In a time when African Americans were afraid for their lives, reading was a much safer and viable option for them instead of publically associating with a group such as Fortune’s Afro-American League.

Wells’ strategy was not complicated. She was an educated African American woman who had strong convictions based on her intense dedication to community and her personal loss of friends who had fallen victim to lynching. She wrote what she felt and learned and was able to educate people in her communities on the issues and mobilize them towards an anti-lynching movement better than others who tried to organize it before her.

Wells’ journalism, which asked basic questions and allowed her to express her often times controversial outlook on the society she lived in, provides our country today with honest and informative records of America during the post-Reconstruction era and emphasizes the value of education in our country. While political involvement is often messy, confusing, and more passionate than productive, the power of writing proves strong here and Wells’ pure dedication to sharing her knowledge and ideas with others made a real impact that leaves us with documentation and the ability to continue learning from her today.