The Red Record Summary

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The Red Record written by Ida B. Wells-Barnett opened the eyes of the people around the world to the horrific lynchings that had been happening. This book was directed to everybody to inform the world of the inhumane actions. If I were alive back in that time, this would have been motivation to make a stand. As it could have been motivation for the Civil Rights movement to begin. Being lynched served as punishment for pretty much anything that the mobs saw fit for an African American. Throughout The Red Record, Ida stated different reasoning’s or not for African Americans being lynched. She simply stated facts. She provided many statistics regarding to deaths and reasoning of being lynched. The chapters were organized in a way that the situations …show more content…

There were a handful of reasons that a person would be punished with death. The emancipation of the African Americans really began the acts of “conscienceless outlawry.” The fact that the white man had no right to scourge an emancipated African American gave him more fuel to want to convert and agree with lynching. To begin with the reasoning behind the lynching was to avoid race riots. The second reason was because of the right of an African American man to vote. Although the African American vote did not really matter, it was still the principle of them having that right that upset the white man. Some of the crimes that resulted in lynching were rape, arson, murder, and robbery. The crimes that could result in lynching started out simply regarding to lynching for rape or any form of disrespect towards a white woman or child. Then, the reasoning would change to make the lynching fit whatever condition was happening. One of the saddest discoveries from reading was that some people were lynched for no reason at all. They were lynched by association whether they had anything to do with the crime or not. Sometimes they were already dead from being beaten or burned and still got hung for everyone to see, and other times they were already hung and dead and the white men would pretty much empty their guns into the lifeless soul and leave the body there for everyone to see. The lynchings had gotten to the point where it was

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