Ida B Wells Analysis

Ida B. Wells has been described as “a crusader for justice, a defender of democracy, and a militant and uncompromising leader in the efforts to abolish lynchings and establish racial equality (McBride).” Several years after Wells began her crusade against lynching, she published A Red Record that provided detailed statistics on the number of lynchings in the United States and their alleged causes from 1892 to 1894. A Red Record recounted the unjustifiable murders of African Americans by providing the hypocritical and constantly altering motives behind these murders as time progressed from slavery to the Jim Crow Era. Having examined various accounts of lynching based on alleged “rape of white women,” she concluded that Southerners used rape as an excuse to conceal their true reason for lynchings: black economic, social, and

Maxwell defines adversity as a crossroad that causes a person to decide either path: character or compromise. “Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences (Maxwell, 1999).” Wells’ demonstrates the quality of character in two separate instances. On May 4, 1884, Wells began her crusade against racial and gender justice in Memphis, Tennessee. After purchasing a first-class ladies car train ticket, the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company requested Wells relinquish her seat and transfer to the segregated smoking car. “Despite the 1875 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color in theaters, hotels, transports, and other public accommodations, several railroad companies defied the act and continued to segregate their passengers (Baker, 2012).” After refusing, the conductor forcibly removed Wells from the train as white passengers