What do you think?
Rate this book
Mob Rule in New Orleans
Collecting her information from two New Orleans newspapers, Wells-Barnett recounts in graphic detail the events of one particularly violent week in early 20th century New Orleans during which a mob "roamed the streets day and night, searching for colored men and women, whom they beat, shot and killed at will." A worse massacre was avoided, as stated by the author, because of "the determined stand for law and order taken by these great [newspapers] and the courageous action taken by the best citizens of New Orleans, who rallied to the support of the civic authorities." This account serves as chilling documentation of the mindless savagery of an anger- and hate-driven mob.
Born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, leader in the Civil Rights Movement, and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, leader in the Civil Rights Movement, and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
69 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1900
114 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
112 books226 followersIda Bell Wells-Barnett (1862–1931) was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, often under the guise of rape charges. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician, and traveled internationally on lecture tours.
(from Wikipedia)
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 3, 2021
1900s New Orleans, a cheap book from Amazon, and a housewife from Estonia are three things that are almost impossible to consolidate to give the readers an objective review. Lack of whatsoever knowledge about African Americans except for the 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' doesn't make the task easier.
I picked up the book 'Mob Rule in New Orleans' by Ida B. Wells-Barnett solely because of the low price. It's interesting to scroll through Kindle without a clear purpose in mind, the same as running a finger along book spines in a library. Most of the low-price or no-price books are romance, not my cup of tea. This book stood out by its topic, African American history. Low price, readable sample, only 80 pages. I started to read it and immediately fell victim to the comprehendible, understandable flow of Ida B. Wells-Barnett's narrative. So I bought two other books by the author.
The book documents the events of one week of July 1900 in New Orleans. A mob of young white men chased and butchered people of color after one 'desperado' killed and wounded several policemen. The crowd kicked, bit, drowned, shot the victims, and then mutilated dead bodies. Some of the victims were never identified, and nobody, except for a few fines, was persecuted.
If to judge from the height of the 21st century, the book is poorly constructed journalistic research. Most of the chapters contain copies of newspapers' articles juxtaposed with brief commentaries in emotionally charged language. The last three chapters analyze the situation, starting from Robert Charles' background (he was a murderer of policemen) and up to the lynching record of the previous decade.
On the other hand, to measure a book written more than 100 years ago against modern standards would be insufficient. Ida B. Wells-Barnett's investigation into the causes of racial injustices is well-argued, structuralized, and accurate. She could look through the stigmas of her contemporaries, of both races, and dared to speak up instead of obediently accept oppression as an inevitable ill. Her account of the events is an invaluable contribution to African American history.
According to her record, in 1899, Sam Hose killed his employer in forced self-defense and presumably assaulted the employer's wife.
'The Governor of Georgia was in Atlanta while excursion trains were being made up to take visitors to the burning. Many fair ladies drove out in their carriages on Sunday afternoon to witness the torture and burning of a human being. Hose's ears were cut off, then his toes and fingers, and passed round to the crowd. His eyes were put out, his tongue torn out and flesh cut in strips by knives. Finally they poured coal oil on him and burned him to death. They dragged his half-consumed trunk out of the flames, cut it open, extracted his heart and liver, and sold slices for ten cents each for souvenirs, all of which was published most promptly in the daily papers of Georgia and boasted over by the people of that section.'
Time and again, I am reminded how elusive is our so-called civilization.
I picked up the book 'Mob Rule in New Orleans' by Ida B. Wells-Barnett solely because of the low price. It's interesting to scroll through Kindle without a clear purpose in mind, the same as running a finger along book spines in a library. Most of the low-price or no-price books are romance, not my cup of tea. This book stood out by its topic, African American history. Low price, readable sample, only 80 pages. I started to read it and immediately fell victim to the comprehendible, understandable flow of Ida B. Wells-Barnett's narrative. So I bought two other books by the author.
The book documents the events of one week of July 1900 in New Orleans. A mob of young white men chased and butchered people of color after one 'desperado' killed and wounded several policemen. The crowd kicked, bit, drowned, shot the victims, and then mutilated dead bodies. Some of the victims were never identified, and nobody, except for a few fines, was persecuted.
If to judge from the height of the 21st century, the book is poorly constructed journalistic research. Most of the chapters contain copies of newspapers' articles juxtaposed with brief commentaries in emotionally charged language. The last three chapters analyze the situation, starting from Robert Charles' background (he was a murderer of policemen) and up to the lynching record of the previous decade.
On the other hand, to measure a book written more than 100 years ago against modern standards would be insufficient. Ida B. Wells-Barnett's investigation into the causes of racial injustices is well-argued, structuralized, and accurate. She could look through the stigmas of her contemporaries, of both races, and dared to speak up instead of obediently accept oppression as an inevitable ill. Her account of the events is an invaluable contribution to African American history.
According to her record, in 1899, Sam Hose killed his employer in forced self-defense and presumably assaulted the employer's wife.
'The Governor of Georgia was in Atlanta while excursion trains were being made up to take visitors to the burning. Many fair ladies drove out in their carriages on Sunday afternoon to witness the torture and burning of a human being. Hose's ears were cut off, then his toes and fingers, and passed round to the crowd. His eyes were put out, his tongue torn out and flesh cut in strips by knives. Finally they poured coal oil on him and burned him to death. They dragged his half-consumed trunk out of the flames, cut it open, extracted his heart and liver, and sold slices for ten cents each for souvenirs, all of which was published most promptly in the daily papers of Georgia and boasted over by the people of that section.'
Time and again, I am reminded how elusive is our so-called civilization.
October 4, 2018
This true story is so sad and disturbing. It goes into major details on the lynchings and mob attack’s that occurred in New Orleans around the 1890s. This is such a good and quick read. I suggest it to anyone wondering if they should or anyone interested in civil rights.
March 30, 2025
Written in 1900, by journalist (and one of the founders of the NAACP) Ida B. Wells-Barnett, this book focuses on the case of Robert Charles (and the mob violence triggered by it) in New Orleans that same year. Much of the book is excerpts from local newspapers and public documents from the time. Not to put to fine a point on it, but Charles was judicially murdered for essentially the "crime" of being a black man defending himself. Before the rioting died down, many local black men and women were assaulted and, in many cases, murdered by white mobs. The extent that the local papers went to portray Charles as a "white-hating desperado" and to excuse the police department from failing to make any real effort to quell the violence is ridiculous. At one point, the papers were mentioning that blacks and whites were arrested, but it turned out that the one white arrestee was a New Yorker arrested (and fined) for stating that a black man was just as good as a white man. The descriptions are horrific but not graphic (after all, the author is writing in 1900). This book also includes some especially awful cases of lynchings throughout the South and some statistical data on the same. Tot for the sensitive reader or those with a weak stomach. 3.5 stars.
Read
October 7, 2021This is an impressive, moving, and disturbing account of racial violence and lynchings, with the central part of the story focused on the final fight for his life of Robert Charles. Charles appears nearly heroic even as he kills four police officers and two civilians and wounds twenty more by gunfire, because Ida B. Wells-Barnett portrays this as the fallout of an unprovoked assault upon Charles and his desperation to fight against his own lynching by a senseless and enraged mob. The fact that dozens of innocent black men and women, in no way involved with Charles or the police, were murdered throughout many days of attacks and lynchings gives the context to see Charles as a resistance fighter rather than the immoral, savage spree-killer he was portrayed as by most of the white press.
None of the ugliness of violence is obscured here, and the author includes an inventory of vicious lynchings and burnings in the south in the late-nineteenth century.
Admittedly, the writing is a hodge-podge. The narrative voice and quotations from news reports become ambiguously blended together, events are at times non-chronological, and there are redundancies. That's not enough of a defect to take away from the power and importance of this narrative.
None of the ugliness of violence is obscured here, and the author includes an inventory of vicious lynchings and burnings in the south in the late-nineteenth century.
Admittedly, the writing is a hodge-podge. The narrative voice and quotations from news reports become ambiguously blended together, events are at times non-chronological, and there are redundancies. That's not enough of a defect to take away from the power and importance of this narrative.
September 12, 2018
It is amazing all the things Ida B. Wells- Barnett accomplished in her lifetime. Although it makes me sad that with all that was accomplished in her life. The issue she recorded in Mob Rule In New Orleans is as much as an issue with police brutality i.e Trayvon Martin and countless others as it was when she wrote this book.
April 24, 2016
A poorly researched polemic. Hair's " Carnival of Fury" is a much better history of the events concerning Mr. Charles. But for a contemporary view of a Negro "progressive" concerning the events, it is interesting.
December 7, 2019
Heartbreaking and infuriating. Should be required reading for all.
October 30, 2025
“Men and women of America, are you proud of this record which the Anglo-Saxon race has made for itself? Your silence seems to say that you are. Your silence encourages a continuance of this sort of horror. Only by earnest, active, united endeavor to arouse public sentiment can we hope to put a stop to these demonstrations of American barbarism.”
The immortalisation of the memories of Robert Charles, as well as those who fell victim to the most repugnant acts of racial hatred humanity has ever borne.
The immortalisation of the memories of Robert Charles, as well as those who fell victim to the most repugnant acts of racial hatred humanity has ever borne.
June 25, 2024
shocking…
…but not. Ida B. Wells has quite a way of sharing history, especially for the time in which she was alive. Her writings are so important to remembering or just to learn about the ugly history of America.
…but not. Ida B. Wells has quite a way of sharing history, especially for the time in which she was alive. Her writings are so important to remembering or just to learn about the ugly history of America.
Read
January 21, 2026Wow! The evil things America has done to African American people is just terrible. Each person named in the book and what was done was just so sad.
August 22, 2017
Read after The Red Record and Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans. Those books will give context to this one.
May 13, 2023
This book shows racial hatred in New Orleans in 1892. The book has comments from the author and actual newspaper articles from the time.
It all starts with a couple of black men just sitting on some steps and talking. Some cops confront the two men and this ends up leading to violence.
'The police, however, secure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they wanted...' Sound familiar? One of the two black men has a gun and there's shootout while his companion surrenders.
This ends up being a mob situation where any black person that is scenes is fair game and this leads to murders which are so incredible vicious that the description of what happens to them is quite upsetting. The blacks killed also range in ages from young to very old.
Taking bodies apart is used along with immolation.
Some terms used to describe the black who is being chased include desperado and to blacks in general include 'bad Negroes in the area,' a murderer, a desperate fiend and so on.
It also goes into the real reason the violence finally ended and that reason is also disgustingly believable.
The book also discusses lynchings and notes how many were lynched (virtually all black) from 1895 through 1899 which totals 448 dead.
What is most upsetting, though, is that this viciousness directed against blacks (and now almost anyone who was not born and bred in the U.S.) continues. Perhaps not on such a scale, but it does continue.
As Peter, Paul and Mary sand, 'When will they ever learn?"
It all starts with a couple of black men just sitting on some steps and talking. Some cops confront the two men and this ends up leading to violence.
'The police, however, secure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they wanted...' Sound familiar? One of the two black men has a gun and there's shootout while his companion surrenders.
This ends up being a mob situation where any black person that is scenes is fair game and this leads to murders which are so incredible vicious that the description of what happens to them is quite upsetting. The blacks killed also range in ages from young to very old.
Taking bodies apart is used along with immolation.
Some terms used to describe the black who is being chased include desperado and to blacks in general include 'bad Negroes in the area,' a murderer, a desperate fiend and so on.
It also goes into the real reason the violence finally ended and that reason is also disgustingly believable.
The book also discusses lynchings and notes how many were lynched (virtually all black) from 1895 through 1899 which totals 448 dead.
What is most upsetting, though, is that this viciousness directed against blacks (and now almost anyone who was not born and bred in the U.S.) continues. Perhaps not on such a scale, but it does continue.
As Peter, Paul and Mary sand, 'When will they ever learn?"
February 13, 2023
Good historical overview
While it is not to be confused with a dry, clinical analysis, this work is an eye opener despite the emotional content. There is no exaggeration in the factual presentation (as is often the case in today's woke movements) but the absolute depravity of my ancestors is revolting. The American Black population has certainly born the brunt of more abuse than can be imagined by an ordinary white man. Even my own grandparents, who I freely characterize as openly racists, were mild by 19th century standards. Every middle class white man who thinks "It couldn't be that bad" should read this and other first hand source material.
While it is not to be confused with a dry, clinical analysis, this work is an eye opener despite the emotional content. There is no exaggeration in the factual presentation (as is often the case in today's woke movements) but the absolute depravity of my ancestors is revolting. The American Black population has certainly born the brunt of more abuse than can be imagined by an ordinary white man. Even my own grandparents, who I freely characterize as openly racists, were mild by 19th century standards. Every middle class white man who thinks "It couldn't be that bad" should read this and other first hand source material.
May 29, 2023
The grotesque descriptions of racist mob violence on a number of black individuals is very disturbing to read, but necessary to truly picture the extent of human cruelty and prejudice. The author paints a very compelling picture of the talented, intelligent and hard-working young man Richard Charles who is another one of the victims of racism, in a very ugly way imaginable. Hunted and prosecuted, many of these young men had no choice and no path to true freedom in those times. Born today, Richard Charles might have had a better chance at life and would no doubt be a successful contributing individual in the modern society, talented that he was. Definitely a life cut too short.
January 5, 2025
This was an engaging read from the not so distant past that opens your eyes to the true brutality and prejudice that was flowing through the southern parts of the United States post-slavery. The story of Robert Charles is a heartbreaking story that every American should read. Although the language used in this book is very slightly outdated, it was easy to follow along with my flights for the day. Not only did I learn of the eye-watering account of Robert Charles but many other unfortunate victims of our dark, tragic past. It's definitely a read to keep in circulation. We must not forget the horrors uneducated humans are capable of. Accounts such as this help us keep those important souls in our hearts.
May 22, 2024
This book was so, so hard to read. Wells shows the insidiousness of racism and white supremacy through an analysis and retelling of white mob violence and lynchings against Blacks in New Orleans in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to look so closely at those incidences of racist, unconscionable brutality and write this book. Ugh.
Read
February 22, 2025 “Thus have the mobs of this country taken the lives of their victims within the past ten years. In every single instance except one these burnings were witnessed by from two thousand to fifteen thousand people, and no one person in all these crowds throughout the country had the courage to raise his voice and speak out against the awful barbarism of burning human beings to death.”
February 23, 2022
Informative
Although physical violence in the most extreme cases (i.e. lynchings and hanging) has stopped, there is still a lot of injustice happening that appears to be similar to that of which Wells discusses.
Although physical violence in the most extreme cases (i.e. lynchings and hanging) has stopped, there is still a lot of injustice happening that appears to be similar to that of which Wells discusses.
January 3, 2026
Ms Ida B. Wells, my hero.
This magnificent woman wrote and highlighted the plight black ppl had to endured during Jim Crow. I didnt know about Mr. Robert Chales. May GOD continue to bless his soul.
This magnificent woman wrote and highlighted the plight black ppl had to endured during Jim Crow. I didnt know about Mr. Robert Chales. May GOD continue to bless his soul.
September 5, 2022
4 stars
February 17, 2023
Devastating reality to live in where people were treated so cruelly with so little evidence of doing something wrong... The mobs in the south were absolutely brutal. Everyone should read this book.
September 10, 2024
(read for school) an important part of history that deserves to be remembered and well-researched as wells did. it’s sad how little has changed since this was written.
Read
December 10, 2024I want to get it on the record all this has been for my early African American lit class. not for fun. powerful and incredible reads, but holy disturbing
April 5, 2021
It is books like this that make you wish you had an Uzi and a time machine. Anyone who can get through this book without stopping and catching your breath has something wrong with them. I am in Barris to know this happened in New Orleans. Robert Charles and his friend were sitting on the stoop and chatting three policeman walk up and start harassing them, beating them and eventually trying to shoot them. Robert Charles shot officer Mira in the hip before getting away And it was immediately open season on black men. Players Robert Charles companion on that night was arrested and taken to jail and eventually the New Orleans prison and thank God it was because the next day when the mob showed up they’re wanting to hang him the prison wouldn’t allow it. So they left to go kill other black men. These gang members were so full of eight but after they found Robert Charles and he was shot to death the mob writing up and started shooting some more then “set him on fire“ Was a cry every white man head on his lips. The cops prevented this, not because they weren’t with the mob… They were. This isn’t an isolated incident at the time it was a first for a black man to shoot back into thin his self. I am talking about it being open season on black men a few years before and Grant Paris, the white man of that parrot killed 82 black men Ian and Shreveport 12 black men were killed. The list goes on and on and it seems it didn’t bother The majority of citizens as they went on punished. Remember this is only in Louisiana and I only mention three incidents there were thousands more. It really is so sad. White men were so intimidated by these black men but they killed them. So now that they couldn’t enslave in abuse The black community they wanted to kill them all, because yes I was remiss in mentioning that they also killed women. In New Orleans while looking for Robert Charles they shot into a random house and killed an elderly lady and dragged off her daughter her daughter‘s husband and their infant child. They have never been seen cents. This is horrible I’d be Wells also wrote a book about the fallacy that black men rape white women and had many instances where white women were in Love and or enticed a black man only to cry right because she was scared she may be pregnant. When a white woman gave birth to a mixed child at a Catholic charities house and refused to say the black man’s name they sent her to the public hospital. Praise God! I don’t think that’s what Jesus would’ve done buried either way these are atrocities that I am glad are no longer in our boat we hear about the occasional shooting of a black man by police and that is sad but after reading this I know now are used to be so much worse. Any good life loss is a tragedy no matter what color the person no one has the right to take a life. I’m sure these white men who are now deceased found that out. I highly recommend Ida B Wells‘s books. I just wish I had been warned.
August 17, 2021
Still stunningly relevent today, I recommend every American reads this to understand the generational traume that many Black people speak of to this day. Understanding the true horror of the past is the best way to imform ourselves of the future.
February 16, 2019
LibriVox audiobook read by Holly Jenson.
August 11, 2020
It’s both fascinating and disturbing to see how much has changed and how much remains the same.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews