Ida. B.

Wells was effective in her crusade against what she called "the last relic of barbarism and savagery" — lynching of African Americans — because she was a good journalist who did not mince words. And she supported her stories with facts. In A Red Record she printed the name of every one of the 197 lynched black men in America in 1894, the date of his murder, the reason, and the place. One-third more blacks were killed that year by* lynch mobs than were legally executed. It was assumed, she pointed out, that sex crimes against white women most often aroused lynch mobs, but in fact only about one-third of all lynchings were for alleged sexual indiscretion. Moreover, she said, many white women enjoyed the sexual attentions of black men and made false accusations of rape to save their own reputations. She followed...