Last week a special Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Ida B. Wells 89 years after her death. The award citation reads, “For her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.” She was born into slavery in 1861 and became a staunch advocate for civil rights for African Americans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her determination to report on the brutality of lynching started when three black men who were friends of hers were lynched in Memphis, TN for trying to defend their grocery store that was targeted because it was seen as a competitor to white businesses. She went on to write “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases” which became a classic of racial justice literature. Click here to read this classic online. Sadly the final paragraph of the Preface continues to be relevant in 2020:
The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service. Other considerations are of minor importance.
By now most of us have heard about and/or seen the horrific video of the senseless killing of Ahmaud Arbery that happened in Brunswick, GA in February. While jogging through a familiar neighborhood, he was stalked, attacked, and killed by two white men (a father and his son) who justified this murder by claiming that Ahmaud fit the description of a suspect in some recent break-ins in the area. One of the white men is a former local law enforcement officer, and the case would have been justified and covered up except for reporting by The New York Times initiated by a cousin of Ahmaud’s who contacted a Times reporter whom he had previously met. The investigation by another Times reporter revealed the conflict of interest and cover up that has now come to light leading to murder charges against both men who killed Ahmaud Arbery. The legacy of Ida B. Wells continues to live on through the investigative reporting of journalists committed to the truth even when that truth reveals the ongoing reality of acts of racial terror and systemic racism that continues to plague our country.