Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900 (TPB, 1997, $2)
The word "lynch" is supposed to come from a Judge Lynch, who in 1780 illegally fined and imprisoned British loyalists. The term came to mean any acts of punishment not sanctioned by law. Eventually, though, lynching came to mean any unlawful sentence of death. Before the Civil War, lynching of blacks was uncommon. Slave owners wouldn't want to damage their property! After the Civil War, lynching changed to violence against blacks. Ida B. Wells was the journalist and public speaker who decided to bring the horrors of lynching into public awareness. She "believed that the public influence of good and righteous citizens should be brought to bear on the unspeakable horror of mob violence and that white citizens had the power, authority and resources for change, and thereby the obligation to bring it about. She believed that African Americans also had obligations, central among which was the responsibility to be well informed about atrocities and not to remain silent in the face of injustice. Wells was never silent"
You can find this book in the African-American section, avail. 11/29.
