Ida B. Wells Quotes
The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.
I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish; it makes its own way.
The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.
It is extremely rough to follow through with my goals, but I felt a responsibility to show the world what the African Americans are facing through this rough patch.
Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.
Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.
The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant.
What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party.
The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.
The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder.
Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob.
The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.
I honestly believe I am the only woman in the United States who ever traveled throughout the country with a nursing baby to make political speeches.
The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.
The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.
The negro has suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes.
No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders
There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.
The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled.
No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders.