Lynch Laws in America - Grade: 86.67 PDF

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Description of source: 12 out of 16 points. You give some good details about the document, but I think you missed the overall picture and some more relevant details, in part because the paragraph here is fairly short. What about the whole second half of the document, in which she mak...

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Sarah Bowman U.S. History September 20, 2018 Lynch Laws in America “Lynch Law in America” was a speech made by Ida B. Wells to crowd in Chicago in 1900. She wrote this speech to point out the “unwritten laws” that allowed white men to get away with the murder of African Americans. She felt there was a toleration for white men to kill and slaughter whoever they see fit, meanwhile blacks did nothing to deserve such treatment. She states that white families claim that “the charge is made that these homes are in as great danger as if they were surrounded by wild beasts (“(1900) Ida B. Wells, ‘Lynch Law in America’ | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed.” Redlining (1937- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, www.blackpast.org/1900-ida-b-wells-lynch-law-america.).” Towards the end of the 19th century, Industrial America was on a rise. During this time, slavery came to an end and machines and industrialization began to simplify American living. Slavery was all the South had to keep their agricultural economy thriving. White southerners were outraged that free African American slaves were allowed to walk freely. “White southerners took back control of state and local governments and used their reclaimed power to disenfranchise African Americans and pass “Jim Crow” laws segregating schools, transportation, employment, and various public and private facilities (“Life in Industrial America, Section 4: The New South and the Problem of Race,” American Yawp, http://www.americanyawp.com/text/18-industrialamerica/#IV_The_New_South_and_the_Problem_of_Race).”They also decided to reestablish their power and dominance through various lynchings, shootings, and executions of many black

men, women, and children. Many of these barbaric acts were carried out by organized white supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Wells brings up many cases of lynchings in America, many of them being in the south. She gives a report of the number of lynching in 1892 and out of 241, 160 0f them were African American ((1900) Ida B. Wells, "Lynch Law in America" | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed). Most of the cases were caused by accusations of African Americans raping or murdering whites. Through this, many African Americans were accused of being monsters and they felt suppressed. Because all of this is happening, Wells wants to see change. She claims that she is ashamed of her country. “Although lynchings have steadily increased in number and barbarity during the last twenty years, there has been no single effort put forth by the many moral and philanthropic forces of the country to put a stop to this wholesale slaughter. Indeed, the silence and seeming condonation grow more marked as the years go by ((1900) Ida B. Wells, "Lynch Law in America" | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed).” Because of this speech by Wells, she explains that if whites have anybody to blame for their economic failures and lack of trust it is their own fault....