Summary Of The Red Record By Adelbert Ames

Adelbert Ames, Letter from the Republican Governor of Mississippi (1875)

Adelbert Ames, an Idealist, Union war hero, and Medal of Honor recipient stayed in the South after the Civil War to aid in the region’s Reconstruction. Ames discovered white resistance to Republican rule, first as a senator, then as the governor of Mississippi. On September 5, 1875, Ames wrote a terrifying letter to his wife Blanche to express despair over what was going on. His letter tells a story of fifteen colored men, women, and children. He recounts how while the group was barbecuing in Clinton, white men fired into the crowd killing two women and two children. In addition, Ames tells his wife that the white men are hunting Negroes all over the county and explains

Wells-Barnett spoke the truth about lynching and advocated women’s rights. In 1895, Wells published The Red Record to publicize the tragedy of Lynching in the United States. Wells writes about how men are being falsely accused of raping white women. Southern white men believe a white woman would not voluntarily be with a colored man; therefore, such alliance has to be forced. However, Wells shares how on multiple occasions, the truth was known before the time of lynching that the relationship between the two was in fact voluntarily and no charges of any kind should have been applied towards the colored man. On May 21, 1892, to defend her own race, a woman printed an article in her paper, the Free Speech, expressing her concerns about these false accusations. She explains how colored men are being killed for “the new alarm about raping white women.” She also states nobody in the north believes these accusations and if the southern white men do not tread carefully, they will overstep their bounds, causing the public to react; a conclusion that will damage moral reputation for their women. Furthermore, Wells proceeds to remind readers that these accusations did not exist when slavery was still accepted. In addition, she reminds readers that the white southerners do not understand what true chivalry is, as brave white women from the north left their homes and happy lives to educate the colored community in the South. However, these women were not

Washington offered a solution to the challenges that followed the legalized segregation and disfranchisement that isolated and oppressed southern blacks. In addition, he provides evidence of racial progress in the South. Washington expresses that others fail to realize that no race can prosper until they learn that there is just as “much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” He also states that the colored must start at the bottom of life and not the top. He asks that the white race “cast down your buckets where you are,” to the people who have “without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forest, builded your railroads and citites, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the south.” He expresses that if the whites do this they will be provided with some of the best people. In addition, Washington informs the audience that either one-third of the Negro population in the south will continue to remain ignorant, full of crime, and retard every effort to advance, or they shall contribute one-third to the intelligence and progress. Washington thanks them for the gifts, blessing, and encouragement for the inventions that everyone has helped create. Furthermore, Washington reminds the colored community that their full equality struggle will come in time and that forcing it will be less rewarding, as they should exercise these privileges because