Ida B Wells: Southern Horrors
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Throughout Southern Horror, Ida reports on the numerous stories and crimes African Americans were subjected to. This document is important to history because it finally gave a platform for the African American experience in America to share with the world. Due to Ida’s fearlessness to be a voice and a pioneer for speaking out against the vigilantism against African Americans in the South set her on a path to pull the curtain back on American policies for the whole world to see. An example of one of the many accounts found in “Southern Horror” was one of Willian Offett. Offett was arrested and falsely convicted of raping a white woman with who he had a consensual affair with. Years after Offett was sentenced the woman retracted her confession stating that she had purposefully lied of fear to preserve her reputation (Southern Horror, 7). Wells goes on to address the propaganda spread by the White press. False headlines and alternative narratives villainizing African Americans swept the South to sway the public into believing that Whites were under attack and lynching was necessary to maintain order (Southern Horror, 17). Despite the dissolution of slavery, Wells argues that the African Americans were still treated the same. Civil rights are still being violated and Ida goes on to state “there is little difference between the Ante-bellum South and The New South” (Southern Horror, 19). This document showcased the true reality of how the United States turned a blind eye to the ongoing events in the Southern state and allowed the world to see the United States behind the mask.
