Discussion of Ida B. Wells

Two theories, claiming different aims of rhetorical discourse, have their origins in ancient Greece – one claiming that rhetoric is power used to persuade others, the other insisting that words ought to be used to help enlighten others by providing clear and understandable explanations. The written and spoken words of Ida B. Wells would falls within the second category since she strove to illuminate the issue of lynching and its true underlying causes so that people would join her crusade to stop the unnecessary racial violence. During the film Ida B. Wells: Passion for Justice she was depicted as an “investigative reporter before [such a profession existed].” The specific goal of her speech Southern Horrors: Lynch Law its All its Phases was to share the information that she thoroughly researched, articulating her conclusions so clearly and factually that no one would be able to deny the hidden motives of white perpetrators – that the main goal of all the violence was to stop strong blacks and discourage others from both integrating and rising into society.

Although Wells had many forces working against her, she continued to gain support both in America and abroad. Wells’ specialty was agitation, convincing others of the horrific nature of the lynching practice that had started to become commonplace. She stood apart from the accommodationist black community led by Booker T. Washington; she refused to passively wait around for the scraps of justice thrown down by white people. Wells needed to offer strong support that she was not stirring up a scene about nothing, that lynching was a legitimate problem and a scheme to keep black people out of positions of power. She needed to show her audience that these were hate crimes, though not simply aimed at protecting the purity of white Southern women. Through multiple examples Wells exposed the trends of hypocrisy among white southern men, who cared not about the injustice of white men raping black women and the lack of trial and protection for the convicted blacks. She also addressed the lack of progress that came from non-action and spoke of people moving West, where the racism was not quite so set or so strong. Her advice, though, for blacks in all locations was to use self defense rather than to passively hope for a miracle because the presence of a weapon had saved some people from impending threats.

As establishing ethos is key in all rhetoric, another rhetorical obstacle of the Wells’ campaign was establishing her credibility. Wells was a black woman with tremendous ability for analytical thinking and a strong writing power, but she grew up in a time where blacks were mistrusted and women were just beginning to take an active role in the public and political spheres. She needed to convince her audience that she knew what she was talking about, and to prove that she incorporated the reports of white newspaper columnists so that no one could deny her stories lest they wanted to deny the truthfulness of prominent white citizens. By using countless stories, she cited large amounts of evidence to build her case by identifying the trends that she spotted.

It must be remembered that Wells remained dedicated to her cause despite the threats that she faced by writing pieces that portrayed Southern citizens in a controversial manner. She enraged the whites by questioning the white women’s virtue, by showing hypocrisy of the white male’s dedication to stopping sexual violence and undermined the excuses for lynching and inequality present throughout the country. Despite having her office ransacked and physically destroyed and warned to stay away from the South, Wells’ persistence never wavered, which added to her credibility. This topic was so important that people were risking their lives to spread information to others. Lynching was such a horrendous and pervasive crime that everyone else needed to be alert to its true causes, standing up just as steadfast and relentless as Wells. She took the measures she thought necessary to bring an end to this reign of terror and sought to defend the blacks so that they could take their rightful place in society as equals. In the face of adversity, and perhaps partially because of it, she was able to rally supporters at home and in Europe, where she co-founded the London Anti-lynching committee.

As previously mentioned, Wells was able to generate more support for her arguments than her own personal stories, though her life experience and culture did lend a hand in her speech and campaign. Primarily her life events had given her the passion to write about these topics; she was a logical writer, but it was clear that she was not only invested in the stopping lynching but absolutely adamant. While anyone can cite sources and draw conclusions, Wells was able to use firsthand experience as the inspiration for her discourse. She could speak about her friend from her hometown that was brutally murdered, bearing testimony to the strength and benevolence of his character. She was full of fervor, which she controlled to articulate the indignation of being forcibly removed from the ladies’ car, and her strength was that she was able to take her righteous rage that could be used for a seething rant and harness that power to support the conclusions and solutions that she meticulously laid out.