Question

Write a newspaper article for Ida B. Wells’s newspaper about lynching in the South during the Jim Crow era.

Answer 1

The oldest of eight children, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her parents, who were very active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction, died in a yellow fever epidemic in the late 1870s. Wells attended Rust College and then became a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after she arrived, Wells was involved in an altercation with a white conductor while riding the railroad. She had purchased a first-class ticket, and was seated in the ladies car when the conductor ordered her to sit in the Jim Crow (i.e. black) section, which did not offer first-class accommodations. She refused and when the conductor tried to remove her, she "fastened her teeth on the back of his hand." Wells was ejected from the train, and she sued. She won her case in a lower court, but the decision was reversed in an appeals court.

Answer 2

Jesse Washington was a young American agricultural laborer of black race, illiterate and possibly with intellectual disability, who was lynched in the US town of Waco, in central Texas, on May 15, 1916, in what became one of the most heinous examples of this type of aggression in the United States. Washington had raped and murdered his white employer's wife in a rural area of ​​Robinson, just outside Waco. There were no witnesses to the crimes, but in a second interrogation he admitted his guilt and pointed out where the murder weapon was. He was immediately arrested and interrogated by the McLennan County Sheriff.

Accused of murder, Washington was put on trial in Waco in a court crowded with furious locals. During the trial, Washington pleaded guilty and was quickly sentenced to death. After being sentenced, the crowd dragged him out of court and Washington was lynched in front of the town hall. More than 10,000 spectators, including municipal officials and police, gathered to observe the aggression. There was a festive atmosphere during the events and many children witnessed them, being lunchtime. Peat members castrated Washington, cut off their fingers and hung it still alive on a bonfire. For about two hours, his body was raised and lowered several times over the fire. After the fire was extinguished, his burned torso was dragged throughout the city and some parts of his body were sold as souvenirs. A professional photographer took photos while the event was taking place, which provided unusual images of an ongoing lynching. The images were printed and sold as postcards in Waco.