Bennett 1 Chase Bennett Dr.

Hallenbeck ENG 496 17 November, 2013 Across the Atlantic: How Rhetorical Strategies Demanded Racial Justice Seventy-one years before Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying a white bus driver, Ida B. Wells was a victim of racial prejudice. In 1884, Wells was forcibly removed from her seat on a train and placed in a smoking cabin with other African Americans. Unlike Parks, Wells instigated the litigation surrounding her mistreatment by suing the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad for discrimination. Wells initially won the case, but the Railroad appealed to the Tennessee Supreme court, paying-off her lawyer in the process, and the decision was reversed. While this situation was a legal and monetary disadvantage for Wells, it ultimately served as the foundation for her civil rights advocacy. Like the African American Civil Rights movement of 1955-1968, the racial tension during Wells life was high, but exceedingly more dangerous. African Americans in the southern U.S. were targeted by lawless lynch mobs who were pushing a racist agenda under the guise of controlling rowdy individuals. Victims were often accused of rape, assault, or theft, their fates imprinted on postcards. However, Wells became aware that the suppression of blacks had economic motives: The Black people of the South were never allowed to get out of debt. Their former masters traded on their credulity and ignorance. The southern white does not want the black man to leave, for the black man is the greatest wealth producing factor of the south and no one knows it better than the white man. (Curry 465-466)

Bennett 2 In becoming a civil rights activist Wells was putting herself in physical danger, but she continued her work in order to end violence against successful African Americans and newly freed slaves. Her rhetorical strategies consist of two different styles: in the U.S. her work was described as militant activism, inspired by the work of Timothy Thomas Fortune, whose published work called for aggressive retaliation against whites. However, when her campaign expanded to Europe, her style was reported to be more educational, employing pedagogical techniques to inform Europeans of the plight in the United States. The duality of her styles greatly increased the effectiveness of Wells campaign and allowed her to navigate her audiences depending on the intent of her message. Wells worked for several newspapers in her life and used them as a channel for spreading her campaign. Inspired by T.T. Fortune, Wells was convinced that white citizens lacked the capacity to condemn lynching on moral grounds; any change would come as a result of economic pressure. So Wells employed social agitation in many of her published editorials to incite supporters, openly advocating for fighting violence with violence (Curry 465). The development of her rhetorical styles is a product of her life journey. Wells was born to enslaved parents in northern Mississippi in 1862, just six months before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. She spent most her childhood indulging in what was formerly forbidden to slaves: an education (Fradin and Fradin 5-7). But at the age of 16, Wells lost her parents to the yellow fever epidemic, and took a job as a school teacher to support her siblings (Fradin and Fradin 15-17). Following the end of the Reconstruction period, white southerners regained control of the south and reversed most of the progress toward racial equality. After only two years of teaching, and dwindling rights, Wells was exhausted. She moved her family to Memphis, TN, where she

Bennett 3 could earn better wages and further her education (Fradin and Fradin 20). It was here, during her commute to work, that she was forced from her seat on a train. While teaching, Wells joined the Lyceum, a literary club, and began writing for its newspaper, The Evening Star. Over the course of her journalism career, Wells contributed to several other newspapers, often under the pen name Iola (Fradin and Fradin 26-27). One such newspaper was The New York age, run by T. Thomas Fortune. Fortune was an advocate of social agitation in response to white lawlessness; There are times when oppressed people have no other medium through which to make their protest hear[d] than that of violence (Curry 465). In time, Fortunes aggression began influencing Wells work. In 1889, Wells became the co-owner of Free Speech and Headlight, a black newspaper in Memphis. Through the Free Speech, she openly addressed the racial injustices that she, and many others, had endured. Wells condemned the lynchings of African Americans that had occurred under the accusations of rape, which had become a fairly common. Part of Wells strategy was to discourage white women from framing innocent African Americans in attempt to save face and hide taboo intimacies. Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that negro men rape white women (Royster 52). She warned that the claims could spark a change in public sentiment that would tarnish the reputation of white women. Wells articles enraged the community and a committee of offended whites formed in protest. The fact that a black scoundrel is allowed to live and utter such loathsome and repulsive calumnies is a volume of evidence as to the wonderful patience of Southern whites (Royster 52). At that time, Wells identity as the writer was not known to the committee and she escaped immediate danger. However, following the wrongful murder of her fellow Free Speech editor, Thomas Moss, her identity was discovered and a white mob destroyed her office. The mob

Bennett 4 threatened that her sex would not save her, so Wells relocated to New York and began writing for Fortunes The New York Age (Curry 459). As she began writing for New York Age, Wells published one of the most detailed articles about lynching at that time. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was deeply moved by the article and suggested that Wells write a pamphlet (Fradin and Fradin 59). Wells took this advice and published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases, an attack on the morality and white justification of lynching, thus beginning her anti-lynching campaign. Wells became convinced that white citizens lacked the capacity to condemn lynching on moral grounds; any change would come as a result of economic pressure. And echoing Fortune, Wells began employing social agitation in many of her published editorials to incite supporters, openly advocating for fighting violence with violence. Fundamentally, men have a right to defend themselves when lawful authority refuses to do it for them; and when a whole community makes itself responsible for a crime it should be held responsible (Curry 465). In the fifth chapter of Southern Horrors, titled Self Help, Wells suggests that the only hope that African Americans have of protecting themselves from lynching is to own a gun: [A] Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. When the white man who is always the aggressor knows he runs as great risk of biting the dust every time his African American does, he will have a greater respect for African American life. (Royster 70) When not being accused of rape or assault, many blacks were murdered for actions that were taken as disrespectful or sassy to whites. In advocating for gun ownership and usage, Wells was contributing to the hostility between blacks and whites by encouraging self-defense. This

Bennett 5 would have unsettled the white community, conjuring the hysteria that African Americans were preparing to revolt, and mobs would arise to extinguish the threat. While addressing an audience in Philadelphia, Wells was discovered by Catherine Impey, a British reformer. Impey was appalled that Americans tolerated lynching and invited Wells to expand her campaign to the United Kingdom (Fradin and Fradin 63). One goal of the travels was to pressure the U.S. into officially denouncing lynching as Great Britain could exert significant economic influence over the south. The treatment Wells received in the U.K. was considerably better than in the U.S. On her first return voyage, she noticed that white Americans were nearly absent. Wells remarked that one group of European travelers was as courteous and attentive to me as if my skin had been one of the fairest (Totten 47). She noted that this was the first time that white people had extended to her the courtesy they would have offered to a woman of their own race. While her first trip was only moderately successful, this treatment indicated a chance for a promising second trip. Wells second trip to the U.K. was initially successful, as many newspapers and journals reprimanded the lack of action in the U.S. One Scottish journal condemned the American South, stating freedom is mocked in the country that boasts itself the freest in the world (Fradin and Fradin 70). However, she eventually was met with skepticism when she began showing photographs of lynched victims; the British citizens couldnt believe that such inhuman activities were occurring uninhibited in the U.S. When asked why she traveled so far to spread her message she responded, Our own country remains silent on these continued outrages. It is to the religious and moral sentiment of Great Britain we turn. These can arouse the public sentiment of America so necessary for the enforcement of law (Fradin and Fradin 70).

Bennett 6 While abroad, Wells was contracted to write articles for the Chicago Inter-Ocean, the only white American newspaper that consistently denounced lynching. In both her travels and articles, Wells avoided the tourist mindset, focusing solely on the purpose of her campaign instead (Fradin and Fradin 80; Totten 48). By avoiding leisure Wells fortified her position as a champion of justice and was able to avoid any controversy by adversaries wishing to frame her travel as a holiday. Wells recognized that the accusations of rape were predominantly made by men and sought to dispel this illusion in the U. K. She assumed that assaults by black males were the fantasy of white men whose jealousy had overcome them: [The laws] leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of a white woman. (Curry 469-470) Additionally, African Americans were characterized as barbarians with savage tendencies. Wells likened this fascination and subsequent treatment to homosexual rape. Focusing on this situation, Wells employed pedagogical techniques to reverse the accusations, arguing that white men were actually the rapists of black Americans, men and women alike (Pinar 157). Wells further employed pedagogical reversals to distance the notion of white supremacy from lynching. With African Americans excluded from the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, white Americans were able to portray themselves and their culture as supreme the epitome of civilization. Wells in turn reversed this notion by suggesting that the victims of lynching were far manlier than the white aggressors or those who tolerated its existence. She

Bennett 7 applied this concept to womanhood as well, suggesting that black women were the truer women as opposed to the white women who were pedestalized with Victorian ideals (Pinar 167). Religion became a major point of Wells campaign in the U.K. since African American Christians were still alienated in the U.S. Blacks were routinely turned away from the Young Mens Christian Association and church congregations remained segregated (Duster 16). By exposing this, Wells received support from prominent lords, ladies and clergy which empowered her to make bolder statements. In an article for the Inter-Ocean she wrote: Our American Christians are too busy saving the souls of white Christians from burning in hell-fire to save the lives of black ones from present burning in fires kindled by white Christians (Fradin and Fradin 88). In A Red Record, Wells describes the Ku Klux Kans attempts to stanch African American voters as a long, gory campaign; the blood chills and the heart almost loses faith in Christianity (Royster 77). The failure of American religious leaders combined with the threat of anyone losing their faith was alarming to sympathizers in the U.K. which caused the clergy to publicly condemn lynching. The drastic differences between Wells rhetorical style in the U.S. and abroad are evident. Whether she was encouraging her fellow African Americans retaliate in self-defense or exposing the horrors of lynching to the unknowing United Kingdom, Wells was always to fighting against the injustices that plagued her people. As Wells continued to fight inequality and racism she seemed to embody words and views of T. T. Fortune: There is no half way ground between right and wrong Agitation, constant protesting, always standing up to be counted, to be heard, or to be knocked down this spirit breeds respect and dulls the edge of tyranny (Curry 468). Wells exposed herself to criticism and physical harm all in the name of equality. Her dueling styles reached members on both sides of the spectrum; gaining support from European audiences

Bennett 8 and inciting the anger of white supremacists in the American south. Her work ultimately formed the base of the civil rights movement that would grant African Americans equal rights nearly eight decades later.

Bennett 9 Works Cited Curry, Tommy J. The Fortune of Wells: Ida B. Wells-Barnetts Use of T. Thomas Fortunes Philosophy of Social Agitation as a Prolegomenon to Militant Civil Rights Activism. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 48.4 (2012):456-482. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 October, 2013. Duster, Michelle. Ida B. Wells. Quill, 97.1 (2009): 14-16. Online. Fradin, Dennis Brindell and Judith Bloom Fradin. Ida B. Wells: mother of the civil rights movement. New York: Clarion Books, 2000. Print. Pinar, William F. The Emergence of Ida B. Wells. Curriculum & Teaching Dialogue. 8.1/2 (2006): 153-170. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 October, 2013. Royster, Jacqueline Jones, ed. Southern horrors and other writings: the anti-lynching campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. Print. Totten, Gary. Embodying Segregation: Ida B. Wells and the Cultural Work of Travel. African American Review, 42.1 (2008): 47-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 October, 2013.