Ida B. Wells Quotes

• What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Punishment, Matter, Woman

• Thus lynch law held sway in the far West until civilization spread into the Territories and the orderly processes of law took its place. The emergency no longer existing, lynching gradually disappeared from the West.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Emergency, Civilization, Longer

• There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Nothing, Without

• The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Intimidation, Complete

• The white man’s dollar is his god, and to stop this will be to stop outrages in many localities.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in God

  Tags in Stop, White

• The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Freedom, American

• The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Government, Foundation, Realized

• The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Compare

• The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in American, Used, Defense

• The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Century, Portions

• The negro has suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Commission, Crime, Suffered

• The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Spirit, Increasing, American

• The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Character, Himself, Protect

• The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Appeal, Conscience

• The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Avoided, Universal

• The Afro-American is thus the backbone of the South.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in American

• The Afro-American is not a bestial race.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in American, Race

• Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in American, Against

• Our country’s national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in National, Crime, Brutality

• No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders.

  Ida B. Wells

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Inability, Protect, Nation

Ida B. Wells (26)

Birth:	16th July, 1862
Death:	25th March, 1931
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Activist, Journalist

About

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, often under the guise of rape charges. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician, and traveled internationally on lecture tours.

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Today's Anniversary - 18th April

Births

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• 1959 - Susan Faludi
• 1922 - Nigel Kneale
• 1882 - Leopold Stokowski
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Deaths

• 1888 - Roscoe Conkling
• 1955 - Eugen Herrigel
• 2002 - Thor Heyerdahl
• 1963 - Margaret Sackville
• 1964 - Ben Hecht