Ida B Wells-Barnett

Mob Rule in New Orleans Ida B Wells-Barnett

She was an American investigative journalist, educator, and an early leader in the civil rights movement. n the 1890s, Wells documented lynching in the United States through her pamphlet called Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases, investigating frequent claims of whites that lynchings were reserved for black criminals only. Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the South used to intimidate and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition-and a subsequent threat of loss of power-for whites. A white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses as her investigative reporting was carried nationally in black-owned newspapers.