Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

[Review Of] Jacqueline Jones Royster, Ed. Southern Horrors And Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign Of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, George H. Junne Jr

Ethnic Studies Review

Ida B. Wells (Barnett) was the first writer to document the lynchings of African Americans. Born in 1862, at age sixteen she had to raise her four brothers and sisters after the 1878 deaths of her parents. Still, she managed to attend Rust College and Fisk University. While teaching school in Memphis, Wells first began writing articles for a church newspaper and then contributed to other Baptist newspapers. She used the pen name of "Iola," and the popularity of her articles led to her becoming co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. It was the lynching of …