"They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race

by James West Davidson

Between 1880 and 1930, Southern mobs hanged, burned, and otherwise tortured to death at least 3,300 African Americans. And yet the rest of the nation largely ignored the horror of lynching or took it for granted, until a young schoolteacher from Tennessee raised her voice. Her name was Ida B.
Wells.
In "They Say," historian James West Davidson recounts the first thirty years of this passionate woman's life--as well as the story of the great struggle over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the breathtaking, often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells
grew up in Holly Springs, the spread of education among the free blacks, the rise of political activism, the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom. As Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis, eager to worship at the city's many churches (black and
white), to take elocution lessons and perform Shakespeare at evening soirées, to court and spark with the young men taken by her beauty. But Wells' quest for fulfillment was thwarted as whites increasingly used race as a barrier separating African Americans from mainstream America. Davidson traces
the crosscurrents of these cultural conflicts through Ida Wells' forceful personality. When a conductor threw her off a train for not retreating to the segregated car, she sued the railroad--and won. When she protested conditions in the segregated Memphis schools, she was fired--and took up
full-time journalism. And in 1892, when an explosive lynching rocked Memphis, she embarked full-blown on the career for which she is now remembered, as an outspoken writer and lecturer against lynching.
Richly researched and deftly written, "They Say" offers a gripping portrait of the young Ida B. Wells, shedding light not only on how one black American defined her own aspirations and her people's freedom, but also on the changing meaning of race in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Social Justice, Biography, Race, Historical, School

203 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

James West Davidson is a historian, writer, and wilderness paddler. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and writes full time. He is also co-editor, with Michael Stoff, of New Narratives in American History, a series published by Oxford University Press, as well as the coauthor of textbooks in American history. These include "Experience History," "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," and "US: A Narrative History" for the college level and "The American Nation" for the middle grades.

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts out talking about the process of this dude taking a picture of a bunch of people out on a bridge, setting the scene, giving us some historical context about photography and its popularization, and how postcards came to be so pervasive. Then he tells us this dude is taking this picture because it will be sold on a postcard, and given what I know of American history, I should've known what was coming, but I didn't: I flipped the page and turned the book on its side to see the picture in full. The people on the bridge were all as he described them, different ages and social classes, but most everyone smiling and having a good time. But then I saw the rest of the picture, and I swear to god my heart stopped. The postcard was of a lynching. Two bodies hung from the bridge, a black man and a black woman. What a shocking and effective way to start a book, especially one about Ida B. Wells, who spent her life fighting against that very thing.
Davidson uses the first 30 years of Wells's life as a skeleton to explore the issues of black reinvention and construction of identity in the face of freedom and the end of Reconstruction, the brief period of rights they enjoyed before the white governments "redeemed" themselves by disenfranchising black voters, and it's really interesting. Freedmen and freedwomen had to decide how they were going to treat white people in public, how they would go about getting what they deserved from people unwilling to give it to them. And then there's Ida, trying to figure out how a single, virtuous black woman could guard her reputation and still stand up for herself. It's a really interesting book, half biography, half social and cultural history.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells-Barnett has been whitewashed by history. All too often, she is remembered as a women's rights activist. Yet, she was an investigative journalist, anti-lynching activist, and civil rights activist. Decades before Rosa Parks, Wells-Barnett won lawsuits regarding transportation seating. Her divergence from Susan B. Anthony on the question of race is completely ignored. Anthony, like Catharine E. Beecher and others, bowed to the doctrine of "expediency," a logical if erroneous doctrine of prioritizing one goal at the expense of another. For Anthony, expediency meant seeking women's suffrage at the expense of racial justice.* Wells-Barnett deserves to be remembered as the radical she was, not the suffragette we feel safe remembering today.

I'd recommend Davidson's book to those who want to explore the Reconstruction South. 'They Say' is a short read, but packed full of information about the era, not just about Wells-Barnett's life (it is not a biography). Highly recommended for its excellent use of newspapers.

*Though Frederick Douglass was a lifelong supporter of women's suffrage, largely because white women had been active in abolition, Anthony distanced him from the movement when they went to the South. She feared he would bring up the "race question," not because he would actually bring it up, but because his presence as a black man would raise the "question." Anthony also refused to support black women in forming branches of the suffrage association. Wells-Barnett answered her on this: "'And do you think I was wrong in so doing?' [Anthony] asked. I answered uncompromisingly yes, for I feel that although she may have made gains for suffrage, she had also confirmed white women in their attitude of segregation." [Wells-Barnett, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, ed. Alfreda M. Duster (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), 230.] Anthony was humble enough to not fall out with Wells-Barnett over this issue, though it appears to have strained their relationship.

[Ainoa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable book that explores Ida B. Wells life while showing us to all the social and political issues happening at the time; however, I wish it focused more on her and what happened after she reached her thirties. It still is a great book that gives a lot of background information on racism and lynching during the nineteenth century, but like stated in the afterword, it's principal focus is the reconstruction of race rather than Ida B. Wells life.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought-provoking, concise introduction to one of the most important women in American history.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great analysis of how Ida B. Wells should be remembered.

[Joe Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every home should have a text that unveils Ida. B. Wells
Her power and determination is symbolic of our ancestors will to right human wrongs

[Kelly Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend THEY SAY to everyone; teachers, students, parents, graduates, and anyone who knows anything about Memphis History.

[Gloria ✮]

i had to read this for my history class.

[Pam M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very deep. Very good. Very needed.