Southern Horrors & The Red Record

by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

In the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century, crusading African American journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett bravely reported on the scourge of white supremacist violence that had personally impacted her own life and work. Her reporting exposed and riled the South, enlightened uninformed Northerners, and captured international attention.

Southern Horrors and The Red Record offer extensive accounts of the lynching, cruelty, and hate that African Americans faced in the early years of the Jim Crow South. Unafraid of the opposition, she also delved into the social, sexual, and political oppression of women as no one had before. This progressive and courageous work made her the most famous Black woman in the country. With an incredible prescience and a frank, clear-eyed tone, Wells-Barnett’s outrage—often indicated by the simple enumeration of names, dates, and statistics—resonates just as powerfully now as it did then. Her call for justice is a call that we still need to hear.

Revised Previously published as Southern Horrors & The Red Record, this edition of Southern Horrors & The Red Record (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, History, Historical

179 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 23, 2021

About the author

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (1862–1931) was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, often under the guise of rape charges. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician, and traveled internationally on lecture tours.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[nastya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of investigative journalism by Ida B. Wells-Barnett. It is basically a lot of accounts of lynching cases in the south in the end of 19th century.
In 2020, Wells was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation "[f]or her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching."

The greater part of what is contained in these pages was published in the New York Age June 25, 1892, in explanation of the editorial which the Memphis whites considered sufficiently infamous to justify the destruction of my paper, the Free Speech.
***
The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service. Other considerations are of minor importance. IDA B. WELLS New York City, Oct. 26, 1892
***
The miscegenation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women.
***
At the very moment these civilized whites were announcing their determination “to protect their wives and daughters,” by murdering Grizzard, a white man was in the same jail for raping eight-year-old Maggie Reese, an Afro-American girl. He was not harmed. The “honor” of grown women who were glad enough to be supported by the Grizzard boys and Ed Coy, as long as the liaison was not known, needed protection; they were white. The outrage upon helpless childhood needed no avenging in this case; she was black.
***
The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is to be gained by a further sacrifice of manhood and self-respect. By the right exercise of his power as the industrial factor of the South, the Afro-American can demand and secure his rights, the punishment of lynchers, and a fair trial for accused rapists.
***
Virtue knows no color line, and the chivalry which depends upon complexion of skin and texture of hair can command no honest respect.
***
Therefore, we demand a fair trial by law for those accused of crime, and punishment by law after honest conviction. No maudlin sympathy for criminals is solicited, but we do ask that the law shall punish all alike.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrors is a correct term. A stomach-turning record of lynchings of African-Americans in 1893-4. An effective plea against mob violence.

[Meeca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational

I am so grateful for Ida B. Wells and all of the foremothers and forefathers before me. It is an honor to be able to read her timeless work as a guiding light shone from the past towards the future. Thank you is not enough but happily given to her.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important history

While this is not happy, by any means, this is a necessary text. Recognizing our history is important, especially when it’s not positive.

[malaika n · Rating 5 out of 5]

very insane like there are no words

[Water Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

How Did Lynching Shape the New South? That's the question at the crux of the following review of these sources. I've attached a list of readings to my sources beyond these 2 sources. Below is the introduction to a 4-part essay (discounting the introduction).

Before Reconstruction, the economic basis for the South’s agrarian society was slavery. As such, it was not in the best interest of white enslavers to kill enslaved people. However, after emancipation, that incentive was no longer there. Following slavery, white mobs would attack black communities with the justification that black communities were planning insurrections (“The Red Record” 5). This form of control declined as no insurrection by members of the black community ever manifested (“The Red Record” 5). The new tool to subjective black people became lynching. As highlighted in a study by Kenneth Alan Adams (245), before Reconstruction, most lynching victims in the South were white (245). After the Civil War, however, not only did the frequency of lynchings rise but there was a demographic shift in the racial makeup of the victims as were now disproportionately black (245). The rate of lynchings quickly rose in the 1880s and the height of lynchings in the United States of America sometimes called the Lynching Era, lasted from the 1890s to the 1930s (Bailey et al.). Lynching shaped the New South by continuing the legacy of white supremacy post-slavery. It was a tool used to terrorize and subjugate the black community into a rigid power dynamic. Lynching perpetuated systemic racism within the legal system and societal apathy toward black people.


1. Lynching and the Power Dynamic in the New South:

Lynchings were widespread in the New South, and frankly, a part of life. Interestingly, in studying the spatial effects of lynchings in the American South, researchers (Tolnay et al.) found that the likelihood of lynchings happening in each local area went down when lynchings happened in another local area. The researchers gave two ways to interpret this revelation. One was that Southern Whites felt nearby lynchings had sufficiently terrorized local Black residents. The second was that black people changed the way they acted to lower their chance of conflict with local white residents. It may very well be a combination of both interpretations.

But regardless of which interpretation is correct, as it is possible that both are true to an extent, both show the power dynamics of the New South at the time. If lynchings decreased because southern whites were satisfied with the fear instilled within the black community, then that illustrates that white people in the south were cognizant of the control they had over the black community. If black people changed their behavior to avoid white repercussions, the current power dynamic would also be evident. The black community was in the subordinate position of being on the receiving end of fear. This is the dynamic that defined society in the New South.


2. A Legal System Embedded in Racism:

The defense of lynchings by the white community also exemplified this power dynamic. The sentiment that the rising number of lynchings of black men correlated with a rising number of rapes of white women was deeply ingrained in the white southern psyche. This sentiment was the largest claim of black male criminality. In reality, this was a myth that served purely to present a false power dynamic of black men over white women in order to preserve the current one of white supremacy. This is evident in statistics, gathered by Ida B. Wells, showing that only a third of lynch cases involved a black victim formally charged with raping a white woman (“Southern Horrors”). Corroborating pieces of evidence are the cases in which a black man was falsely convicted. For example, in the case of William Offett, there was no evidence for rape, only the sworn testimony of a white woman against that of a black man, and that was all it took to convict him (“Southern Horrors” 11).

The reality of the reasons for lynching, based on an analysis of lynchings by Wells , shows that black people were killed by white mobs for a multitude of reasons. Guilt or innocence or even the accusation of a legitimate offense did not matter. As illustrated further by Wells, some black victims were killed because their killers did not agree with a jury’s verdict of innocence. Other black victims were killed because they were scapegoated by a white mob (“The Red Record”).

Even the formal charges against black men should be looked at with a certain degree of skepticism as the legal system was incredibly biased in the favor of the Southern White, and against the Southern black. This translates to a significantly lower standard and requirement of evidence . Rape cases for instance were rarely ever properly investigated. Based on the findings of Wells (“The Red Record”), it seems appropriate to say that the legal system functioned to punish black men for participating in consensual interracial relationships, as was the case in the wrongful conviction of William Offett. A secondary function of the legal system when handling rape cases was in putting of a facade that there is infact a means by which black victims of rape could seek justice, when seems to have been unlikely. Ultimately, the legal system of the New South wrongly persecuted black people in multiple cases, while staying silent when called upon to defend them.

Such is evident in the under-investigation of lynching by law enforcement. Law enforcements utter neglect of lynchings is reflective of how white southern society viewed lynchings. It illustrated how little people cared about the crime of lynching, but also that this lack of care by law enforcement becomes a poor role model that inspires white southerners that they can commit crime against black people and enjoy a very high degree of impunity.

The only way in which significant progress could have been made for black advancement would be for a substantive societal push. Unfortunately, the societal perception of black people as criminals was a sentiment that had to have been deeply ingrained within white people for lynchings to have been as prolific as they were throughout the South. Coinciding with lynching was the dehumanization of black people. Dehumanization itself entails a perception of black people as “less” or inferior to white people.


3. The Structure of the New South:

One need not delve deep to find pieces of legislation to illustrate the white supremacist ideology dominating the South in the form of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were segregationist laws meant to ultimately control black people. Although initially upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court under the doctrine of “Separate but equal”, asserting that the services and facilities offered to black people were of the same quality as white people, this was far too often not the case. Black people had inadequate services and facilities that they had to use due to the racial apartheid that was the American South.

Jim Crow is indicative of white southern society’s view of black people. Jim Crow laws show the extent to which black people were oppressed as seen as less than white people. Not only did black people face the violence of lynchings from a societal level, but their governments saw befitting to further oppress them through written legislation. It should then come as no surprise then that the same governments that proudly declared that they will treat black people as second class citizens, do just that, by not treating black people with a level of care given to white citizens. Lynching thus created an unwritten law that governed the politics of the New South.

The structure of the New South sandwiched Black Americans between the legal system and “lynch law”. Well’s (“Southern Horrors”) describes the copious lynchings that took place in the South with much impunity as lynch law or the “unwritten law.” Both the legal system and lynch law had little to no regard for the justice or wellbeing of Black Americans, and both tried to actively control Black Americans. Both also halted black economic advancement. For example, there was one case in which out-of-uniform law enforcement officials trespassed, without warning or warrant, into a successful black grocery store that had been threatened with violence by a local white competitor, with that white competitor (“Southern Horrors''). Both the police and the white competitor faced no scrutiny and enjoyed impunity. Instead, it was the defenders of the black grocery store who were jailed and then taken out of jail to be lynched. Neither the legal system nor society cared to investigate the lynching. What this case tells us is that the very attempt to escape poverty or uplift oneself was met with fierce hostility by both lynch law and the written law.

While research indicates there is yet to be direct evidence showing lynchings as a form of political suppression, there is however a suggestion based on substantive evidence that black citizens were disheartened to vote or take part in the political process because of lynchings (Jones et al. 13). As a result, the political representation of black people in government was scarce, resulting in the further disenfranchisement and loss of a then-already minuscule political capital. Thus maintaining the political and legislative status quo of the South.

4. Conclusion:

Due to the white supremacist sentiment embedded within the society and legal system of the New South, the dehumanization of black people flourished. A defining means of dehumanization was the disproportionate lynching of black men. This was done in an attempt to control black people and violate their autonomy. This practice of lynching went largely unpunished, facilitating a dark dystopian society in which actions, innate to being human, are criminalized based on race.















Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Wells, Ida. Southern Horrors. New York, The New York Age Print, 1892
Wells, Ida, The Red Record, Chicago, The New York Age Print, 1895

Secondary Sources:
Tolnay, Deane, G., & Beck, E. M. (1996). Vicarious Violence: Spatial Effects on Southern Lynchings, 1890-1919. The American Journal of Sociology, 102(3), 788–815. https://doi.org/10.1086/230997
Jones, Troesken, W., & Walsh, R. (2017). Political participation in a violent society: The impact of lynching on voter turnout in the post-Reconstruction South. Journal of Development Economics, 129, 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.201...
Adams. (2018). Lynching, Sacrifice, and Childrearing in the New South. The Journal of Psychohistory, 45(4), 244–266.
Bailey, Tolnay, S. E., Beck, E. M., & Laird, J. D. (2011). Targeting Lynch Victims: Social Marginality or Status Transgressions? American Sociological Review, 76(3), 412–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122411407736

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book pretty much shows the depths of human depravity in relation to other humans. The numbers murdered may not equal those killed by the Nazis but they are in the true spirit of Nazi superiority and intolerance.

Most of it centers on the relationship between white women and black men, real or perceived, and what happens because of that. It also notes that, at the same time, the various children that white men had with black women is something basically totally ignored by people at that time.

It goes into numerous detailed descriptions of various lynchings, mob brutality, white indifference (including law enforcement usually doing absolutely nothing) and the fact that murdering someone wasn't enough for the mob but it often had to include mutilation of the dead body and even burning it.

It also goes into specific statistics, such as 728 blacks lynched in nine years. One of the main ways people got excited was by newspaper accounts which could lead to mobs being formed to go after someone.

There's also lots of other statistics such as in 1782 there w ere 241 lynchings. The book also notes that Christian pulpits almost never spoke out against the violence.

The book also includes detailed lists of lynchings and alleged causes for those lynchings. For one typical year these included assaults (actual and attempted), murder, robbery, alleged barn burning, insulting a white person and various other reasons.

Some of the accounts are truly almost beyond belief that humans would stoop so low as to treat others they hate in such a manner.

The book shows just how horrible violence against blacks were in the past. Although lynchings do still occur the number is much lower than in the past although basically one lynching is one too many.

Also, the police forces in the past often did nothing to stop the lynchings and sometimes even aided the lynchings.

Have attitudes about people of color changed a lot since then? No. In today's world instead of lynchings we have shootings.

A very dark book but it's time that something like this was released.

[Charles Sheard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars not just for the historical importance surrounding lynching in this country, but also because of the clear, forthright and effective writing of the author (for contrast, compare the over-wrought, religiously-saturated purple prose of A Voice from the South by Anna Julia Cooper, published the same year, albeit in discussion of issues not related to lynching. The problem is not merely framed in clear and convincing detail to rebut the excuses of the Southern communities, buy Wells also offers potential ways to address the problem, including bringing to bear not just the economic power of the black community, but also the economic investment and trade of other distinct communities that don't want to be associated with the mob mentality of the South. For as Wells correctly points out,

The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.

Ms. Wells should be better-remembered for her effective and thorough journalism and activism, combating one of the many disgusting legacies that sully our nation's history.

[Jeffrey Petit-bois · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sexual Jealousy Mired in Racist Lynchings

This is not a easy book.

But the racial history of the USA is never to be categorized as easy.

This book surprised me. I knew of the history of racist lynchings in American history but I was unaware of how much of it was due to sexual jealousy of white men concerning the relationships of black men with white women.

It’s almost laughable now if it wasn’t such a tragic and dark and bloody spot in history. Yet this new grain of knowledge fascinates me. The fact that animal lust, human envy, and white hypocrisy led to such a vitriolic epoch in time. How absurd.

One must make sense of the past to understand the present and predict the future.

[Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A History Of Lynching by Ida B. Wells

This is a horrifying account of what happened to so many Black men and women in the late 1890's. Mrs. Wells-Barnett offers names, dates and locations where many of the lynchings occurred. The reasons for most of the lynchings were supposed to be for Black men raping White women. In many of the cases, it was confessed that the acts were consensual, however those facts could not be used as proof to the White man.

As a consequence, many hundreds of Black men were lynched by angry white mobs and after being lynched, their dead bodies were filled with bullets while still hanging. According to Mrs. Wells-Barnett's account, many were taken down by the mobs and their bodies were burned.
Strange Fruit indeed!!!

WLM
SC

[M.S. Blues · Rating 5 out of 5]

(5 ⭐️) I’ve read a lot of history books — therefore, it’s hard for me to get sentimental, simply due to the fact I’ve acknowledged how horrifying history has been. Yet, Ida B. Wells-Barnett evoked emotion from me. This book was very heavy, graphic, and daunting — but in a profound way. I wish high schools taught more Black history, and incorporated this piece. Miss Wells-Barnett delivers painful facts, shares untold experiences of Black Americans, and encourages people to continue fighting injustice. This book is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking, and my only wish is for more people to read it! I highly recommend this one!

[Cherie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tragic Truth

This is a seriously deep dive into our American history and an eye-opening account of mainly, but not exclusively, southern white America's response to the loss of black humanity as property to be worked, raped, bred and sold, beaten (but seldom killed) juxtaposed against an emancipated race struggling to live under Lynch Law. Added as required reading and discussion for all high-school students. May help students look more closely at how our laws work or don't work in our country; what part do they play in our truth.



high-schoolers

[Lauren Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not an easy read, however, it’s an important read. The state sanctioned killing do Black folk is nothing new, as stated with this book. Ida B Wells highlights the participation of young white children in lynchings. As well as the murders of young Black girls in lynchings. It’s important to note that if these children were able to experience this…children can learn about Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X and the list goes on.

[Isaiah Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlighten book. Must READ

My admiration for Ms Ida. Wells-Barnett has increased 10000 folds. The courage of this sister is unmatched within both the African American and the overall American history.
Imagine what this sister would have accomplished if she was born 100 years later.
She would have been an equal to if not surpassed both MLK & Malcolm X
Imagine the dynamic duo of Mrs Wells and Mrs Fannie Lou Hammer during the 1960s..

[Pitt Panther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynching lynching lynching

Yes this is a classic and I'd love to give it 5 stars but its a book about the horrors of lynching which describe the act in grotesque details. Its well written but eventually becomes nauseating and difficult to finish. Its an important book and important topic to be educated on though.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells is a hero in her own right. She was a journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade during the 1890s. This book covers a very dark part of American History, but it needs to be discussed. We can’t dismiss/forget it or we’ll be bound to repeat it.

[Chrissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is aptly named. The content is truly shocking, and incredibly difficult to read. Having finished it, I feel angry and immensely sad. A shameful history indeed.

[Bonnie Snovelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading

I knew a little bit about the KKK but this book is an eye opener! It should be required reading in every high school American history class.

[Amber Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely horrific history.

[Malakai · Rating 5 out of 5]

😢

[Whatcha Reading Heather? · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone needs to read this. A no fills journalistic approach to the literal horrors going on in American history that the bigots keep trying to hide.