“A Red Record” by Ida B. Wells

A Red Record. Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1893-1894, Ida B. Wells (1862–1931)

Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1894

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

New York Public Library

A Red Record, published in 1894, is a comprehensive analysis of all the public lynchings held in the South between 1864 and 1894. Written by Ida B. Wells, an anti-lynching advocate, journalist, teacher, suffragist and civil rights activist. The publication introduced many people outside of the South to the growing violence inflicted on Black people. It also contextualized that lynching wasn’t just a response to crime, but a violent act of white supremacy to hinder Black success.

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About "A Red Record"

A Red Record was a comprehensive analysis of all the public lynchings held in the South between 1864 and 1894. The compilation was over 100 pages long, and detailed over 10,000 incidents of Black death by white mob violence (NYPL).

The data compiled in A Red Record was carefully gathered from mainstream white newspapers, which would often not just report on lynchings, but advertise them to the public to draw attendance. Lurid details captured in their reporting would also perpetuate racist stereotypes about Black people and encourage violence (NYTimes).

The government which had made the Negro a citizen found itself unable to protect him. It gave him the right to vote, but denied him the protection which should have maintained that right. Scourged from his home; hunted through the swamps; hung by midnight raiders, and openly murdered in the light of day, the Negro clung to his right of franchise with a heroism which would have wrung admiration from the hearts of savages. He believed that in that small white ballot there was a subtle something which stood for manhood as well as citizenship, and thousands of brave black men went to their graves, exemplifying the one by dying for the other.

Excerpt of A Red Record by Ida. B Wells

In “Remedy”, the final section of the publication, Wells encouraged readers to disseminate the data in A Red Record to condemn about white mob violence, and rally their places of worship to protest each time a lynching takes place (A Red Record).

About Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells was born enslaved on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her family was freed shortly after her birth, and Wells grew up directly experiencing the horrors of Jim Crow south. When she was 22, she was forcibly removed from the first-class ladies car of a train, despite having a first-class ticket, because of racist beliefs on access and opportunity for Black people. Later, she lost her teaching position because she spoke out against the unfair conditions of Memphis schools. Her outrage against injustices led her to pursue journalism full-time (Women & the American Story).

Her commitment to antilynching was sparked in 1892 when three African American men – Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart – were lynched after defending their grocery store from jealous white vandals. Wells was close friends with these men and the godmother of Tom Moss’ child. Outraged, Wells wrote a series of articles decrying lynching and white mob violence, urging African American people in Memphis to protect themselves and consider leaving the city.

Over the next few months, she traveled across the South to uncover the facts around other lynchings. She became a popular columnist in Black newspapers in Memphis and eventually became editor and part-owner of the Free Speech and Headlight, a radical press dedicated to liberation (EJI). Through this, she became the first female co-owner and editor of a Black newspaper in the U.S. (Women & the American Story).

Through her investigative reporting, she challenged the notion that all lynchings were “justified,” knowing that they were not the cause of an individual’s actions but a systemic, intentional criminalization of Black lives. She also challenged the false charges of rape that many African American men were accused of, discovering that some African American men were actually in consensual relationships with white women. White women only claimed rape after their illicit affairs were exposed. This notion enraged white men in Memphis. A mob gathered and destroyed her newspaper while she was out of town, causing Wells to flee Memphis and continue her work up north (Thirteen). Because of this, there are no known surviving copies of the “Free Speech and Headlight” (Tennessee Encyclopedia).

The same year she published A Red Record, Wells married African American lawyer Ferdinand Barnett in 1895. Together, the couple had four children (Women’s History). She also assisted in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organized legal aid for victims of the 1918 race riots, and was adamant about the lack of representation in the women’s rights movement. She died of natural causes in Chicago in 1931 (EJI).

In 2020, Wells was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her “outstanding and courageous” reporting – the same year as the incomparable Nikole Hannah-Jones was recognized for the 1619 Project. Wells’ great-granddaughter Michelle Duster released a statement in response:

“Ida used journalism as a tool to fight for justice. She faced great danger and endured harsh criticism. Her printing press was destroyed. Her life was threatened. But she truly believed that by collecting names, dates and circumstances around the lynchings that she could transform attitudes and impact policy and laws.”

Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells via PBS.

Reflection Questions

• Where do you learn about current news right now? How many of those outlets are led by people of color?
• How many of the writers sourced in this text are white? How many of them are Black, or other people of color?
• How can you diversify the news that you consume?
• How has truth-telling changed our country? How can you be a truth-teller?

Learn More

• WATCH: Ida B. Wells | The Early Black Press (PBS)
• WATCH: Nikole Hannah-Jones on Ida B. Wells’ Legacy in Journalism (WTTW)
• WATCH: How one journalist risked her life to hold murderers accountable (TED-Ed)
• WATCH: Race in America: History Matters with Michelle Duster (Washington Post)