Social Injustice During The Reconstruction Era

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist and newspaper editor who stood against inequality. She was an anti-lynching activist whose goal was to expose the truth of the injustice that occurred in the South. During the Reconstruction Era, from 1865 to 1877, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were ratified to abolish slavery, ensure citizenship and equal rights, and grant African Americans men the right to vote. Although the Reconstruction Era was a time of progression for African Americans, nonetheless what followed was a period of social injustice because of intense racial discrimination, extralegal punishment, and false accusations that led to death.
After Reconstruction, African Americans in the South suffered extreme discrimination due

Lynching was an unjustly practice that became common in the South. It was an extrajudicial punishment led by a mob in order to publicly execute those with alleged crimes. For example, in 1894, 197 people were murdered by mobs who did not allow their victims to make a lawful defense. In correlation to the evidence presented by Wells, the textbook indicates how law enforcement would make no effort to prevent these crimes from occurring in the first place. In contrast, not only was this "awful barbarism ignored," but these officers of the law also took part in the cruel acts by enabling the lynching. This illustrates that the judicial system was set up in an unfair way, and did not allow black people equal access to a fair trial. It is also notable how Wells expresses her anger by her use of language, while also exposing the outlawry which had emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Because of this extremely brutal type of violence, African Americans continued to live in fear throughout the

Often times, African American men were accused of raping white women, but hardly ever was there any proof. Black men had to be murdered to avenge the crime against their white women. Ida B. Wells argues that this was an excuse to justify their inhumane crimes. She proves that there were various instances where black men and white women were in consensual relationships. In January 1892, a man named William Offett was arrested and charged with rape because a minister 's wife, in fear of getting caught in adultery, lied to her husband and said she had been raped. Edward Coy, an African American from Arkansas, before being lit up and burned, asked his accuser if she would set him on fire after "sweethearting" for so long. These are two examples of the of the advantages white women had during this time. It was easy to claim rape, if the judicial system is always on your side. These false accusations and violation of the miscegenation laws were enough to drive an evil mob into