Historian: David M. Tucker

In The Atlanta University- Review of Race and Culture, David M. Tucker expounds upon Ida B. Wells’ presence as a writer in history which is “largely as story of men”, stating, in regard to the exposure of lynching that, “Miss Wells deserves more credit than any other individual, having brought this practice before the eyes of the world.” Under the pen name “Iola” (112), Wells made a resounding impact as a serious journalist, exposing the racial atrocities in Memphis and bringing her national attention in 1892 with the publication Southern Horrors (115).  While securing the support of Frederick Douglass, her anti-lynching pamphlet, A Red Record, in 1983 gave her access to an international audience (118).  Her global impact bringing about an influential change in how lynching was perceived especially in the South as seen in the reaction the white business leaders after an 1894 lynching (121). “Never before had the white citizens made such a forthright condemnation of racial lynching” and this was largely due to Wells, “for it was she who held the sins of the city up for the whole world to see and thus shamed white Memphians into doing at last what decent and quality of law has always demanded.” (122). Tucker makes a clear case that Wells had a profound impact through her journalistic endeavors on the global perception of lynching from her editorials to lectures overseas