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Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930

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Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930 Patricia A. Schechter. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930. Gender and American Culture Series. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. x + 386 pp. $23.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8078-4965-1. Reviewed by Joan Marie Johnson Published on H-South (March, 2002) Ida B. Wells-Barnett: A Visionary Pragmatist deeply inspired by religious faith than many Patricia A. Schechter has written a brilliant white Protestant Progressive era reformers, who biography of Ida B. Wells-Barnett which enriches were beginning to move to a more secular reform our understanding of a complex and devoted re‐ rhetoric, and that she used politics and the ballot former, both beloved and condemned for her vi‐ among other tactics as a means of uplifting her sionary thinking and outspoken rhetoric. Rather community. Wells-Barnett's visionary pragmatism than presenting a straightforward narrative of guided her as she fought lynching and sought so‐ her life, Schechter is more interested in exploring cial justice through women's clubs, community or‐ Wells-Barnett's ideas and their reception. Her ganizations, and fnally through running (unsuc‐ work spanned several decades, and Schechter ex‐ cessfully) for political office in Chicago. plores how and why Wells-Barnett's reputation Wells-Barnett was and still is best-known for rose and fell over time. Her work builds upon and her role as an outspoken crusader against lynch‐ expands recent histories of African American ing in the 1890s. The dramatic incident most asso‐ men and women working to uplift the race during ciated with Wells-Barnett is undoubtedly the con‐ the rise of Jim Crow and Progressive era reform. troversial editorial she wrote in response to the In particular, because Wells-Barnett was more lynching of friends in Memphis. In it she claimed outspoken than many other prominent black that lynchings were most often not related to rape women reformers at the time, her experiences but to economic and political control of African provide insight into the resistance black women Americans. Furthermore she dared to hint that faced from whites, black men, and each other as sex between white women and black men was they sought to improve their communities. consensual--a suggestion which resulted in the Schechter argues that Wells-Barnett operated burning of her newspaper office in Memphis and on the basis of her "visionary pragmatism" (p. 3). her exile from the South. Using brilliant gender By this, she means that Wells-Barnett was more analysis, Schechter explores Wells-Barnett's rise H-Net Reviews and fall in the anti-lynching movement, produc‐ nett followed this convention, she could not draw ing the two strongest chapters in the book. attention to their vulnerability to sexual attacks Wells-Barnett understood and articulated by white men. Instead, Schechter points out that well before many other African American leaders Wells-Barnett settled on using cases of sexual as‐ that lynching was a form of social, political, and sault against young black girls, whose innocence economic control. At the end of the century, white was more easily established. In so doing, she fears of black progress amidst a time of social helped break down the idea that moral virtue was change led not only to black disfranchisement the birthright of white women only. and segregation but also a dramatic rise in the But Schechter also shows that Wells-Barnett's public spectacle of lynching black men. Whites claims, particularly because they were made by a commonly defended lynchings on the basis that black woman, were too much for whites and even their victims were black rapists of white women. many blacks--they assaulted her character, ques‐ In Southern Horrors, a pamphlet published soon tioned her color, and moved her to the sidelines. after the Memphis editorial, Wells collected data As an outspoken black woman, Wells-Barnett her‐ to prove that less than 30 percent of lynchings self was pushed aside in the anti-lynching move‐ were related to rape charges, repeated her asser‐ ment even as her argument concerning the lack of tions regarding white women, and argued that rape charges stuck. However, her more inflamma‐ black women were frequently the victims of sexu‐ tory discussion of rape of black women and white al assault by white men. Schechter shows that by women's virtue were lost. Her focus on rape and drawing attention to the plight of black women, racism and the tangling of sex and race was con‐ Wells-Barnett broke down the false distinction be‐ sidered too incendiary. Instead, the discussion in tween private (rape) and public (lynching) crimes the early twentieth century became one of against African Americans by showing how "con‐ progress and social harmony, led by men in the cepts like 'race' and 'rape' were socially construct‐ NAACP, especially Walter White, who focused on ed and politically employed" (p. 88). lynching as extralegal murder and legislative so‐ Wells-Barnett fought lynching by trying to lutions. Schechter argues that Wells-Barnett un‐ change public opinion--she wrote pamphlets and derstood that the general public saw both lynch‐ gave speeches in the North and on two trips to ing and rape as wrong and therefore was unable England. Her second pamphlet, A Red Record, to analyze the relationship between the two criti‐ continued many of the arguments in Southern cally. Black men's focus on the law neatly solved Horrors, with a few significant differences. This this blindness. pamphlet stressed the negative consequences of Wells-Barnett also found herself eclipsed for lynching not only for African Americans, but also several other reasons. Her rhetoric including her for America as a civilized society. Wells-Barnett comments regarding the need for blacks to de‐ also tried to balance two images of African Ameri‐ fend themselves with arms if necessary was also can men: both as fully developed men, stressing beyond the comparatively more mainstream their manhood, and as the powerless victims of NAACP approach. Furthermore, after WWI many lynchings. black male leaders focused more on manliness Portraying African American women was just and masculinity, leaving even less space for wom‐ as fraught with tension. At the time, black club‐ en like Wells-Barnett. Black women in general women and other female leaders stressed the were moved to the sidelines where they contin‐ moral motherhood of black women in order to as‐ ued their valuable contributions to race uplift, but suage attacks about their morality. If Wells-Bar‐ they worked locally and without the press that 2 H-Net Reviews black male leader received. This is of course true duty. This was an interesting change from her for the role of black and white women in much anti-lynching work, which was a moral crusade Progressive era reform. Because the National As‐ rather than a legal one. sociation of Colored Women aligned themselves Because women got the ballot in 1913 in Illi‐ with the NAACP in the crusade for the Dyer Anti‐ nois, Wells-Barnett worked for woman suffrage lynching Bill, Wells-Barnett lost the support of or‐ nationally, but also quickly tried to organize wom‐ ganized black women in the NACW who preferred en in Chicago to take advantage of their new elec‐ to focus on motherhood and morality than to sup‐ toral power, at frst through non- partisanship, port her controversial platform. then through support of the Republican party, and In the context of Wells-Barnett's difficulties as finally through running for office themselves. In a black woman, Schechter also explores her rela‐ these two chapters, the clear marginalization of tions with Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wells-Barnett which Schechter described in the her husband Ferdinand Barnett, and other men. anti-lynching crusade becomes more nebulous. It Orphaned at an early age, she sought the protec‐ seems as though depending on the day of the tion and sponsorship of various men throughout week and the activity, Wells-Barnett was praised, her life. In particular, in the 1890s during her damned, or ignored by other African Americans anti-lynching campaign she asked Douglass for and reformers in Chicago. his support several times, including for letters of Schechter's title, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and introduction and defense of her character against American Reform is an interesting choice, be‐ various charges. When she was in conflict with cause it draws attention to Wells-Barnett's role in him, she found it necessary to apologize, because American, rather than African American reform. his sponsorship legitimized her work. Yet, Wells- While she does suggest ways in which Wells-Bar‐ Barnett had difficulty sustaining these relation‐ nett differed from white female reformers of her ships because she was too outspoken, and later generation, particularly in her religious outlook, because she was not well-educated. Schechter could have furthered this line of think‐ In the last two chapters, Schechter turns to ing. She never fully articulates how Wells-Barnett Wells-Barnett's activism on the local level in can help us to reconsider Progressive era reform Chicago--including the Negro Fellowship League, more generally. woman suffrage, electoral politics, and women's Given the complexity of Wells-Barnett's char‐ clubs. Even as she was becoming marginalized in acter and her reform career Schechter faced a the national anti-lynching movement, Wells-Bar‐ challenge to produce a coherent manuscript. Al‐ nett became more active in Chicago. She founded though it wanders at times, particularly in the in‐ the Negro Fellowship League, a social settlement troductory chapters, Schechter does as excellent which differed from Hull House and other well- job of using visionary pragmatism to pull together known institutions built by black and white wom‐ the various strands of Wells-Barnett's work in en at the time.
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