workingclasshistory:

On this day, 16 July 1862, feminist, anti-racist and anti-lynching activist Ida Wells was born. After the lynching murders of three of her friends for the crime of setting up a grocery store which competed with a white-owned store she undertook a detailed investigation of lynchings and their causes. Her work countered the popular myth that most lynchings were to punish rapists, and showed that instead most were for such “crimes” as failing to pay debts, competing with whites economically or drinking alcohol. She recommended that African-Americans arm themselves for “protection which the law refuses to give”; she herself bought a pistol after being threatened by white racists.
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