How One Journalist Risked Her Life to Hold Murderers Accountable
How One Journalist Risked Her Life to Hold Murderers Accountable
In March of 1892, three Black grocery store owners in Memphis, Tennessee, were murdered by a mob of white men.
Lynchings like these were happening all over the American South, often without any subsequent legal investigation or consequences for the murderers.
But this time, a young journalist and friend of the victims set out to expose the truth about these killings.
Her reports would shock the nation and launch her career as an investigative journalist, civic leader, and civil rights advocate.
Her name was Ida B. Wells.
Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862, several months before the Emancipation Proclamation released her and her family.
After losing both parents and a brother to yellow fever at the age of 16, she supported her five remaining siblings by working as a schoolteacher in Memphis, Tennessee.
During this time, she began working as a journalist.
Writing under the pen name “Iola,” by the early 1890s she gained a reputation as a clear voice against racial injustice and become co-owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper.
She had no shortage of material: in the decades following the Civil War, Southern whites attempted to reassert their power by committing crimes against Black people including suppressing their votes, vandalizing their businesses, and even murdering them.
After the murder of her friends, Wells launched an investigation into lynching.
She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records, and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs.
She risked her life to get this information.
As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders, she enraged many of the same southern white men involved in lynchings.
Her bravery paid off .
Most whites had claimed and subsequently reported that lynchings were responses to criminal acts by Black people.
But that was not usually the case.
Through her research, Wells showed that these murders were actually a deliberate , brutal tactic to control or punish black people who competed with whites.
Her friends, for example, had been lynched when their grocery store became popular enough to divert business from a white competitor.
Wells published her findings in 1892.
In response, a white mob destroyed her newspaper presses.
She was out of town when they struck, but they threatened to kill her if she ever returned to Memphis.
So she traveled to New York, where that same year she re-published her research in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
In 1895, after settling in Chicago, she built on Southern Horrors in a longer piece called The Red Record.
Her careful documentation of the horrors of lynching and impassioned public speeches drew international attention.
Wells used her newfound fame to amplify her message.
She traveled to Europe, where she rallied European outrage against racial violence in the American South in hopes that the US government and public would follow their example.
Back in the US, she didn’t hesitate to confront powerful organizations, fighting the segregationist policies of the YMCA and leading a delegation to the White House to protest discriminatory workplace practices.
She did all this while disenfranchised herself.
Women didn’t win the right to vote until Wells was in her late 50s.
And even then, the vote was primarily extended to white women only.
Wells was a key player in the battle for voting inclusion, starting a Black women’s suffrage organization in Chicago.
But in spite of her deep commitment to women’s rights, she clashed with white leaders of the movement.
During a march for women’s suffrage in Washington D.C., she ignored the organizers’ attempt to placate Southern bigotry by placing Black women in the back, and marched up front alongside the white women.
She also chafed with other civil rights leaders, who saw her as a dangerous radical.
She insisted on airing , in full detail , the atrocities taking place in the South, while others thought doing so would be counterproductive to negotiations with white politicians.
Although she participated in the founding of the NAACP, she was soon sidelined from the organization .
Wells’ unwillingness to compromise any aspect of her vision of justice shined a light on the weak points of the various rights movements, and ultimately made them stronger— but also made it difficult for her to find a place within them.
She was ahead of her time, waging a tireless struggle for equality and justice decades before many had even begun to imagine it possible.
The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.
—Ida B. Wells
1892年3月，田纳西州孟菲斯市的三名黑人杂货店老板被一群白人暴徒谋杀。
像这样的 私刑处死 事件在美国南部各地屡见不鲜，而且往往在事后没有任何法律调查，凶手也不会受到任何惩罚。
但这一次，一位年轻的记者，也是受害者的朋友，决心揭露这些杀戮事件的真相。
她的报道震惊了全国，并开启了她作为调查记者、公民领袖和民权倡导者的职业生涯。
她就是艾达·B·韦尔斯。
艾达·贝尔·韦尔斯于1862年7月16日出生在密西西比州的霍利斯普林斯，当时她还处于奴隶制下，几个月后《解放黑奴宣言》才让她和家人获得自由。
16岁时，她的父母和一个兄弟都死于 黄热病 ，此后，她在田纳西州孟菲斯市当教师，养活剩下的五个兄弟姐妹。
在此期间，她开始从事新闻工作。
她以 “伊奥拉” 为笔名写作，到19世纪90年代初，她已成为反对种族不公正的清晰声音，并成为孟菲斯《自由言论报》和《前灯报》的共同所有者和编辑。
她不愁没有素材：在内战结束后的几十年里，南方白人试图通过对黑人犯罪来 重新确立 他们的权力，包括压制黑人投票、 破坏 他们的生意，甚至谋杀他们。
她的朋友被谋杀后，韦尔斯对私刑展开了调查。
她通过报纸报道和警方记录分析具体案件，并采访那些因私刑暴徒而失去朋友和家人的人。
她冒着生命危险获取这些信息。
作为一个调查出于种族动机的谋杀案的黑人，她激怒了许多参与私刑的南方白人。
她的勇敢得到了回报。
大多数白人声称并随后报告说，私刑是对黑人犯罪行为的回应。
但事实并非如此。
通过她的研究，韦尔斯表明，这些谋杀实际上是一种 蓄意的 、 残忍的策略 ，目的是控制或惩罚与白人竞争的黑人。
例如，她的朋友被私刑处死，是因为他们的杂货店生意兴隆，足以从白人竞争对手那里 分流 业务。
1892年，韦尔斯发表了她的调查结果。
作为回应，一群白人暴徒捣毁了她的报社印刷机。
他们袭击时她不在城里，但他们威胁说，如果她回到孟菲斯就杀了她。
于是她前往纽约，同年，她在一本名为《南方恐怖：私刑法的各个阶段》的小册子中重新发表了她的研究。
1895年，在芝加哥定居后，她在一篇更长的文章《红色记录》中进一步阐述了《南方恐怖》的内容。
她对私刑恐怖的详细记录和 激昂的 公开演讲引起了国际关注。
韦尔斯利用她 新获得的名声 来扩大她的影响力。
她前往欧洲，在那里她 激起 了欧洲人对美国南方种族暴力的 义愤 ，希望美国政府和公众能效仿他们。
回到美国后，她毫不犹豫地与强大的组织对抗，反对基督教青年会的 种族隔离主义 政策，并率领一个代表团前往白宫抗议歧视性的职场做法。
她在自己被剥夺选举权的情况下做了这一切。
直到韦尔斯快60岁时，女性才赢得选举权。
即便如此，投票权主要还是只给予了白人女性。
韦尔斯是争取投票权斗争中的关键人物，她在芝加哥成立了一个黑人女性 选举权 组织。
但尽管她对女性权利有着深厚的 承诺 ，她还是与该运动的白人领袖发生了冲突。
在华盛顿特区举行的一次争取女性选举权的游行中，她无视组织者为迎合南方的 偏见 而将黑人女性安排在队伍后面的企图，与白人女性一起走在队伍前面。
她也与其他民权领袖发生了摩擦，他们认为她是一个危险的激进分子。
她坚持要 详细地 揭露南方正在发生的 暴行 ，而其他人则认为这样做会对与白人政治家的谈判产生 反作用 。
尽管她参与了全国有色人种协进会的创立，但很快就被该组织 边缘化 了。
韦尔斯在正义愿景的任何方面都不愿妥协，这揭示了各种权利运动的弱点，但最终也让它们变得更强大 —— 但这也让她很难在这些运动中找到自己的位置。
她走在了时代的前列，早在许多人甚至还没有开始想象平等和正义有可能实现之前，她就为平等和正义进行了 不懈的 斗争。
纠正错误的方法就是让真理之光普照。
——艾达·B·威尔斯
Vocabulary, Phrases and Sentences
| Word | Chinese Definition | Phonetic Symbol |
|---|---|---|
| accountable | 问责 | |
| lynch | /lɪntʃ/ | |
| yellow fever | 黄热病 | |
| sibling | 兄弟姐妹 | /ˈsɪblɪŋ/ |
| vandalize | 破坏 | |
| enrage | 激怒 | |
| pay off | 还清（债务） | |
| a deliberate | 蓄意…… | |
| brutal tactic | 残酷的手段 | |
| divert | 转移 | |
| mob | 暴徒 | |
| impassion | 慷慨激昂 | |
| newfound fame | 新成名 | |
| rally | 集会 | |
| outrage | 愤怒 | /ˈaʊtreɪdʒ/ |
| segregationist | 隔离主义的 | |
| disenfranchise | 剥夺选举权 | /ˌdɪsɪnˈfræntʃaɪz/ |
| suffrage | 选举权 | |
| commitment | 承诺 | |
| clash | 冲突 | |
| placate | 安抚 | |
| bigotry | 偏执 | /ˈbɪɡətri/ |
| chafe | 恼怒 | |
| airing | 晾，公开讨论 | |
| in full detail | 详细说明 | |
| atrocity | 暴行 | /əˈtrɑːsəti/ |
| counterproductive | 适得其反 | |
| She was soon sidelined from the organization | 她很快就被排除在组织之外 |
|
| vision | 视力 | |
| wage | 工资 | |
| tireless | 不知疲倦的 |