The Red Record Summary

Ida B. Wells created a crusade against lynching in 1895, The Red Record. The reason she chose to use a provocative title such as The Red Record was to illustrate the brutal, inhumane and ignored murders of Blacks specifically in the South. “Red” embodied the blood being shed by the Blacks who were murdered by the white supremacists. “Record” signified the thousands of lives lost due to these hate crimes. The overall pamphlet discussed the maltreatment and racism Blacks endured during this period and show the senseless reasoning behind it. Wells included fourteen pages of statistics of lynching cases that took place from 1892-1895 as well as graphic images displaying some of the lynchings. Those statistics and images confirmed that this is occurring,

this is traumatizing, this is malicious, and something needs to be done to eradicate lynching. The statistics and images speak for themselves, there were not proper burials for the people lynched and these were just the ones recorded. Once the Civil War came to a closing, lynching became a common way that white men dealt with their hatred and hostility against free Blacks.

White men had three reasons for executing these acts. The first reason was a claim that Blacks were having a rebellion, so they had to use the force of killings to overpower Blacks from following through with the plans. Since these rebellions were false predictions, they had to find a better reason to eliminate the Black population. Blacks were now being given the right to vote, which placed fear in the White men that Blacks would take over so groups such as the Ku Klux Klan formed to attack Blacks and kill Blacks. The government deserted Blacks because they thought since Blacks were given freedom then they were fine, but in actuality, they needed to be secured too. The third reason, Whites claimed that they needed to protect White women from Black men because Black men were “alleged” raping White women. White men did not believe that a consensual relationship could occur between a white woman and a black man and always assumed of rape. Many other lynchings occurred and might not have been recorded. The Whites had no good reason for these unjust acts and just did them because they knew they could and were just vicious

people. White men also wanted to remain in control economically, politically and socially. The White men feared the power of free Blacks especially a free Black man. Wells knew writing this pamphlet would not guarantee change or justice for the people murdered but she hoped for it. This was to shed light on these racist acts and bring awareness to the world, the Northern states, and even Britain. She achieved fighting for the rights of Blacks and informing the world about the horrifying, insane and spiteful crimes being committed amongst Black people.