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Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob.

Ida B. Wells

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Ida B. Wells
Age: 68 †
Born: 1862
Born: July 16
Died: 1931
Died: March 25
Human Rights Activist
Journalist
Sociologist
Suffragette
Suffragist
Writer
Holly Springs
Mississippi
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Ida Wells-Barnett
Ida Bell Wells
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
Insane
Uncontrolled
Hour
Outburst
National
Lynching
Unspeakable
Creatures
Brutality
Crime
Fury
Hours
Sudden
Country
Creature

More quotes by Ida B. Wells

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A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.
Ida B. Wells
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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.
Ida B. Wells
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The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.
Ida B. Wells
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There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.
Ida B. Wells
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Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.
Ida B. Wells
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I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish it makes its own way.
Ida B. Wells
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The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled.
Ida B. Wells
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The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.
Ida B. Wells
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The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.
Ida B. Wells
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It is extremely rough to follow through with my goals, but I felt a responsibility to show the world what the African Americans are facing through this rough patch.
Ida B. Wells
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The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute in any way towards 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
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Virtue knows no color line.
Ida B. Wells
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The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.
Ida B. Wells
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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.
Ida B. Wells
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The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder.
Ida B. Wells
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Lynching is color line murder.
Ida B. Wells
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The Afro-American is not a bestial race.
Ida B. Wells
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The negro has suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes.
Ida B. Wells
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The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant.
Ida B. Wells
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One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.
Ida B. Wells