RED RECORD

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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"A Red Record" Ida B. Wells wrote vivid accounts in the pamphlet "A Red Record" about the harsh realities in the American racial system regarding the lynch detestation that was generally practiced against blacks in the South. Blacks in the South in the nineteenth century faced lose-lose situations. If white woman accused a black man of assault, attempted or not, he would be convicted and hanged. Little evidence could be given, yet over one thousand blacks were hanged under Lynch Laws. In Ida B. Wells' lynch pamphlet, "A Red Record" displayed the brutal events from enraged mobs that were inflicted on blacks, mostly violence against white women. In order to protect "their wives and daughters", white men would capture, beat, hang, mutilate and then burned blacks in order to send a message to blacks to not even attempt to look at the white women (Wells 129). The conditions the blacks faced in comparison to whites were as different as night and day.

The actions of the political figures, policemen, and mob leaders reflected the ultimate goal of the Deep South, to maintain "white supremacy".

Ida B. Wells knew that lynchings in the South were being overlooked and decided to take action. Lynchings were considered a normal form of punishment when black people were arrested. Wells knew that if white Southerners, revealed the truth of the lynchings in the South, they would admit that blacks, especially men, were being lynched for almost any offense. These offenses ranged from murder to misdemeanors, or even for no offense at all (Wells 78). The beliefs of the Southern white men were that it was impossible for a relationship to exist between white women and colored men. Nevertheless, white women continued to slander the claim of rape from black men in order to...