Charges For Lynch Murders: Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells wrote this document as a result of the lynchings of Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart, and this case was significant to Miss Wells because she personally knew the victims. These colored men owned and operated a successful grocery store in an area that had a competing grocery store owned by a white man. Due to the economic tension between the two stores, a white band caused a stir and had over one hundred black men dragged into jail on suspicion. Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were charged of raping white women. Because of these accusations, these black men were lynched.

I have chosen to analyze the importance and the impact of education during this time period. We are introduced to Charlotte Forten, a teacher in this time period, 1862. She was the first northern African-American schoolteacher to teach former slaves. She joined a band of teachers and Gideonites, together they traveled to the Sea Islands to teach and prepare former slaves as they transitioned to freedom. She helped in establishing schools, inculcating northern values, and implementing a free labor economy.

While Ida B Wells was noted in history as being a part of the anti-lynching movement, I would argue that she deserves more credit for her journalistic capacity in spreading a message that went deeper than the average information about lynching at the time than actually furthering the acquisition of civil rights for African Americans. She exposed the hidden agenda behind lynching and how it was used mainly to thwart any economic or social progress of blacks by murdering them over petty crimes or false

Susan B. Anthony was born into a Quaker family, with the hope that everyone would one day be treated equal. She denied a chance to speak at a temperance convention because she was a woman(Susan B. Anthony). From this point on, she knew that she needed to make a change. Susan B. Anthony, because of her intense work involving women 's’ rights, highly influenced all of the societies and beliefs that were yet to come. She employed a huge role in our history because of the fact that she advocated for women’s rights, for the integration of women in the workforce, and for the abolition of slavery.

She was a teacher earlier in her life before becoming a leading figure. She was the leading figure in abolishment and the women's voting rights movement. Incarcerated for voting and was imprisoned for a year until her court trial. Unfortunately all great people comes to their deathbed and she died on March 13, 1906.

DuBois. He was born in Massachusetts on February 23, 1868, and is well known for fighting for equality and African American recognition in the political field. He had a troubled life as a child and realized that there was no true equality in the world he lived in. He then created the Niagara movement to fight racism and the Jim Crow laws by creating basically a militant force. This led to the creation of the first national African-American organization which petitioned for civil rights of African-Americans, published the newspaper, Voice of the Negro, and planted the seeds for the creation of the NAACP.

He began in 1900 for the cause of helping African Americans gain franchise in a time when local governments were working to disfranchise them, and held deeply the cause of political justice. The educated African American felt political injustice, in a time when lynchings were still happening. He sought to align himself with values which did not argue with the current times,

It is a tremendous honor to accept the Outstanding Investigative Journalism Award on behalf of Ida B. Wells. And to think her journey all started on one train trip. When Ida was in her early twenties, she was taking a train and seated in the ladies car. Despite the 1875 Civil Rights Act, she was then asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give her seat to a white man, and to sit in the ‘Jim Crow’, or black, car. She declined saying that the car ahead was a smoking one and she was in the ladies, and proposed to stay where she was.

Thurgood Marshall is mainly known for his work in Brown vs Board of Education and as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Brown vs Broad of Education took place in 1953, and is a landmark trial in American history. Thurgood Marshall was the NAACP executive director of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Thurgood Marshall is part of the civil rights movement and the Brown vs Board of Education case is critical to establishing the philosophy that separate is not equal. The impact of Thurgood Marshall’s argument in Brown vs Board of Education has a continuous impact on American society and philosophy, and is still impacting the social and political movements today.

This incident caused Wells to begin her research into lynchings. She concluded that African Americans were lynched "for such social control reasons as failing to pay debts, not appearing to give way to whites, competing with whites economically, and being

Dubois. Dubois was an incredibly intelligent African American and was also one of the founders of the NAACP. Dubois wanted full rights for African Americans and wouldn’t be satisfied with partial rights. With his position in the NAACP and editor of its journal, “The Crisis”, Dubois had a lot of influence. He definitely put his influence to good use in arguing against the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which stated that segregation was legal as long as both races had equal opportunities.

From American National Bibliography Online “ She occupies an enduring place in the movement, because of her lifelong crusades against segregation and her leadership in one of the landmark integration

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862—1931) THE AWFUL SLAUGHTER May 8, 1909 Born to slaves, Ida B. Wells—Barnett was educated at Rust University in Mississippi and at Fisk University at Tennessee, before going to a much lauded career in journalist. Over the course of her career, Wells—Barnett wrote for the Memphis Free Speech (of which she was part owner), the Chicago Conservative and the New York Age, making a name for herself through her one-woman journalistic crusade against lyching. The following speech was delivered at the NAACP’s first annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the mid-to-late 1800s the African American community faced opposition and segregation. They were segregated from the whites and treated as second-class citizens. This segregation was caused in part by Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws separated races in schools, hospitals, parks, public buildings, and transportation systems. Both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had ideas on how to improve African American lives, Washington believed in starting at the bottom and working up whereas Du Bois had an opposing viewpoint he saw starting from the bottom as submissive and believed African Americans should hold important jobs in order to demand equal treatment.

Anne Moody was an african american girl born in Centreville Mississippi. Moody was the oldest of eight children in her family, this gave her a lot of responsibilities as she was growing up. She had to get a job at a very young age in order to provide a source of income for her single mother who had split up with her father. Despite all that she faced as she was growing up, Moody was a straight A student in school. She was a very bright young girl that always wanted to know a lot more about the things happening around her.