With the legalization of so-called Jim Crow laws in the American South
that encouraged racism and segregation (separation of African Americans
from whites), the year 1890 ushered in another violation of justice: the
phenomenon of lynching (unlawful hanging by rope until death).
In the past, white supremacy groups (who believed other races to be
inferior to whites) like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sometimes used lynching as a way to try to control and threaten African American communities and populations. Mostly, the KKK tried to keep the African American
race submissive by restricting their right and ability to vote. Even if the
law permitted them to vote, the KKK terrorized African Americans into
giving up that right in order to stay alive. Those who refused to be intimidated often were the victims of KKK violence and torture.
Lynching gained momentum beginning in 1890. Historians estimate that 233 lynchings took place between 1880 and 1884, and 381
from 1885 to 1889. From 1890 to 1894 lynchings hit an all-time high
for the century of 611.
Antilynching campaign gains momentum
Local and state governments did nothing to deter the lynchings of the
South. One brave woman, a teacher named Ida B. Wells-Barnett
(1862–1931), became known throughout the nation as leader of the
antilynching campaign. Born in Mississippi, Wells-Barnett experienced
the Jim Crow laws firsthand. When a conductor tried to force WellsBarnett to give up her first-class accommodations and move to the Jim
Crow car of the train, she refused. As the conductor tried to physically
remove her, Wells-Barnett bit his hand and then was thrown off the
train. Although she sued and won, the defendant eventually won in
appeals court.
Wells-Barnett became co-owner of an African American newspaper
in Memphis, Tennessee, called The Free Speech & Headlight. Her editorials and essays spoke out against racism and discrimination, and her writing got her fired from her teaching job. She turned to writing full time.
In 1892, three people, one a good friend of Wells-Barnett’s, were
lynched while defending their grocery store from white attackers who
wanted to put the store out of business. In the scuffle, one of the owners shot one of the attackers. An outraged Wells-Barnett criticized the
event in her newspaper and specifically discussed the evils of lynching.
She encouraged African Americans to leave town. While out of town
herself, a white mob ransacked and destroyed her newspaper office and
warned her not to return. Wells-Barnett took her campaign to England,
where she founded the National Afro-American Council and served as
chairman of its Anti-Lynching Bureau. Wells-Barnett eventually helped
establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP).
Lynching continued to be used as a terrorist weapon well into the
twentieth century. Across the nation, nearly five thousand African
Americans were lynched between the mid-1800s and 1955. Most of
these victims were murdered because they were political activists or labor
organizers. Others simply violated unspoken laws of how whites
expected African Americans to behave.