From the mid-eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century, the United States had seen a lot of socioeconomic changes. One of the biggest changes was seen in racial hierarchy, which eventually shaped the America we know today. My chosen source is a picture of Ida B. Wells. She was the “African American civil rights leader and black feminist,”[1] Who played a big role in reshaping the future of Black Americans in the United States. To understand the significance of this historical source, one needs to know the brief history of the United States but before that, I’d like to briefly explain a little bit about Ida B. Wells. Ida B Well was born into slavery and went through numerous struggles to promote equality for women and African Americans. She became a journalist and became the owner of the Memphis Free Speech newspaper. Where she published her newspaper regarding Lynching. An enraged mob then destroyed the newspaper and the press, but this wasn’t going to stop Ida B Wells. Her determined mindset later sought a federal anti-lynching law in the United States.

During the eighteenth century, blacks were still seen as the lowest in the social hierarchy. It was hard for blacks to find jobs with fair pay. And even many schools didn’t accept black students because they were considered as the inferior race. The black children born in the United States were treated the same as their parents. Hence, no matter how hard they worked, they were the symbols of violence, theft, and danger. These associated biases with black people made them often suffer a lot even when they were the victims. Lynching was the most common method of torturing blacks in public. In one of the speeches Ida B Wells said, “Eight negroes lynched since last issue of the Free Speech one at Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday morning where the citizens broke into the penitentiary and got their man; three near Anniston, Ala., one near New Orleans; and three at Clarksville, Ga., the last three for killing a white man, and five on the same old racket—the new alarm about raping white women. The same programme of hanging, then shooting bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter.”[2] The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which is a non-profit organization founded in 1989, aims to end racial injustice and provide representation to poor victims and wrongly convicted prisoners. Equal Justice Initiative has “documented over four thousand lynchings, “violent and public acts of torture” that often resulted in death, of African Americans in 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950.”[3] This explains very well how blacks were getting brutally murdered in public while they were just suspects. This explains how people at this time, took laws into their hands and killed whoever they wanted upon their bias. It’s interesting to note that even when these numbers were so high, the government failed to address them. Black people were considered as the inferior race in the society. Thus, that left many black people uneducated, unemployed and if they were employed, they weren’t paid fair salaries.

This is when many reformers came in and voiced their complaints regarding this unjust system. The figure in my historical source had a profound impact on American History. This picture was taken in 1891. I can see a young woman with exquisite clothes and a crown on her head. It’s interesting to me how the illustrator drew her eyes and posture because of that the viewers can see how eloquent and intelligent Ida B wells was. Although My source is just a picture of Ida B Wells, it explains a lot about the early to late nineteenth century. It was during this time when Ida B Wells first started her campaigns and completely transformed African American history. Her journey towards the success of these campaigns explains a lot about Americans. Many Americans were not aware of the lynching and terrors that black people were living in. Her outcry for justice not only moved black Americans to be stronger but also made many non-black Americans realize the social ills. Although there was a long way to go and so much needed to be improved, I believe this source tells us how Americans as a society, at this time, were ready to recognize, accept, and had started to let go of their white superiority complex.

[1] Nitesh Narnolia and Naresh Kumar. 2022. “‘Crusade’ for African American Civil Rights: Female Rhetoric and Autobiography of Ida B. Wells.” Journal of African American Studies 26 (1): 53–62. doi:10.1007/s12111-022-09576-4

[2] Ida B. Wells-Barnett. 2015. The Collected Works of Ida B. Wells-Barnett : The Complete Works PergamonMedia. Scholar Select. Dinslaken: PergamonMedia.

[3] Paul H Stuart 2020. “From the Archives: Ida B. Wells-Barnett Confronts ‘Excuses for Lynching’ in 1901.” Journal of Community Practice 28 (3): 208-218–218. doi:10.1080/10705422.2020.1805220