Work · African & Africana Philosophy
A Red Record
Lynching statistics for 1892–94, compiled largely from white newspapers: most victims were not even accused of rape.
Introduction
Wells published A Red Record in Chicago in 1895, after two lecture tours of Britain (1893 and 1894) in which she had won the support of British reformers. Its subtitle promises tabulated statistics and the alleged causes of lynchings in the United States since 1892. She relied mostly on the annual tallies of the Chicago Tribune, and listed cases by month, place and alleged offence, showing that many victims had been accused of minor offences or of nothing at all, and that women and children were among them. She also answered Frances Willard, president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who had defended white Southerners. The pamphlet is often cited as an early model of data-based investigative journalism.
Connections
Builds on
- Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases1892 · Ida B. Wells
More works by Ida B. Wells
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