Crusaders Documentary Summary PDF

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Ashley Batista Dr. G. Chuku AFST 439 3/5/19 Famous Human Rights Crusaders Summary Ida B. Wells is widely renowned for her consistent journalistic work in bringing worldwide attention to the lynching’s of African Americans following the end of the Civil War. A significant contributor to the occurrences of these lynching’s were the widely disseminated negative stereotypes shown in the media about African Americans. Lynching’s, racist white mobs, frequent violence, and killing sprees became commonplace and an accepted reality in African American life, especially when lynching perpetrators were not stopped at the local and federal levels. Wells’ activism came from her career as a journalist. After losing her teaching job for writing an article in the Free Speech newspaper criticizing the poor conditions of students in schools, she became a full-time journalist. One lynching that killed three of her close friends triggered Wells to inspire African Americans to boycott the local street car system which caused them to lose large amounts of money due to low rider-ship. Wells’ journalism took her to many locations abroad where she was able to bring attention to the lynching epidemic that was overtaking America. Many white journalists began to organize against her to call her a liar, but this did not stop Wells. Wells returned to England in 1894 to draw more attention to the struggle, garnered endorsements from leading political figures and religious groups, and put lynching at the forefront. In 1895, Wells made national headlines for her 3-year compilation review on lynching called “The Red Record”. This documentation revealed African Americans as principal targets of lynching, their lack of rightful due process, and white’s commitment to racism....