Ida B. Wells, an American journalist, educator, and civil rights activist, fearlessly confronted racial injustice and discrimination through her pioneering investigative reporting and advocacy work. As a leader in the anti-lynching movement and a co-founder of the NAACP, she fought tirelessly for equality and justice, leaving a lasting legacy as one of the most influential figures in the struggle for civil rights in America.
"The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled."
"The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense."
"Thus lynch law held sway in the far West until civilization spread into the Territories and the orderly processes of law took its place. The emergency no longer existing, lynching gradually disappeared from the West."
"The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience."
"I had an instinctive feeling that the people who have little or no school training should have something coming into their homes weekly which dealt with their problems in a simple, helpful way... so I wrote in a plain, common-sense way on the things that concerned our people."
"Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so."
"The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased."
"The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American."
"What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party."
"The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law."