Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Way
Lynching
Told
Story
Often
Tell
Makes
Stories
Embellish
Heart
Mouthpiece

More quotes by Ida B. Wells

Image
I honestly believe I am the only woman in the United States who ever traveled throughout the country with a nursing baby to make political speeches.
Ida B. Wells
Image
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
Image
The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased.
Ida B. Wells
Image
The appetite grows for what it feeds on.
Ida B. Wells
Image
The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.
Ida B. Wells
Image
Virtue knows no color line.
Ida B. Wells
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.
Ida B. Wells
Image
The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder.
Ida B. Wells
Image
No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders
Ida B. Wells
Image
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
Image
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
Image
One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.
Ida B. Wells
Image
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
Image
A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.
Ida B. Wells
Image
There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.
Ida B. Wells
Image
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
Image
Lynching is color line murder.
Ida B. Wells