Black History: Special Delivery!!

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Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862-1931)

Published in 1895, by journalist and activist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931), “A Red Record” was a pamphlet designed to recount America’s history of lynching African Americans. The term “lynching” dates back to the late 1700’s. The term was named after a frontier judge named Charles Lynch. Lynch was known for quickly dispensing of jury trials, preferring instead to use hangings as a way to quickly mete out justice. Thus, the hangings, came to be known as lynchings. Lynching is really an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of ways that someone could be put to death. Ida B. Wells Barnett made it her life’s work to speak out against this unjust practice. She was a skilled orator and journalist. “A Red Record” served as another way in which she could fight against the unjust practice of lynching.

Continue reading ““A Red Record”:  A History of Lynching Documented By Ida B. Wells Barnett” →