Final answer:
The anti-lynching campaign was led by Ida B. Wells, alongside the NAACP and other activists. Wells was a driving force after publishing her book on lynching and advocating to make it a federal crime. The NAACP worked to gain political power and raise awareness, despite anti-lynching legislation being defeated in the Senate.
Step-by-step explanation:
The anti-lynching campaign in the United States was led by several prominent activists, but the most recognized leader is Ida B. Wells. After a personal tragedy in 1892 when a friend was lynched, Wells became of the most vocal and influential leaders against lynching. She published a book entitled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, which documented the lynching practices and their consequences. Wells also spearheaded the movement to make lynching a federal crime because of the failure of local courts, particularly in the South, to convict whites for lynching crimes.
Alongside Wells, other individuals and organizations played significant roles in the anti-lynching campaign. This included leaders from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), such as W. E. B. Du Bois and other figures like Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, descendants of abolitionists. They were instrumental in advocating for racial justice and equality. The NAACP became a powerful force in the struggle to end racial violence and continued to gain political power over the decades.
Despite the continuous efforts and the introduction of anti-lynching legislation in Congress in the 1920s, the anti-lynching bill was defeated in the Senate, primarily due to the opposition by Southern Democrats. The campaign against lynching brought national awareness to the racial violence directed against African-Americans, but it would be many years before substantial progress was made in the fight against this form of racial injustice.