"They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race (New Narratives in American History) - Hardcover

Davidson, James West

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195160207 ISBN 13: 9780195160208

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Between 1880 and 1930, Southern mobs hanged, burned, and otherwise tortured to death at least 3,300 African Americans. And yet the rest of the nation largely ignored the horror of lynching or took it for granted, until a young schoolteacher from Tennessee raised her voice. Her name was Ida B. Wells.
In "They Say," historian James West Davidson recounts the first thirty years of this passionate woman's life--as well as the story of the great struggle over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the breathtaking, often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi: the spread of education among the free blacks, the rise of political activism, the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom. As Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis, eager to worship at the city's many churches (black and white), to take elocution lessons and perform Shakespeare at evening soirées, to court and spark with the young men taken by her beauty. But Wells' quest for fulfillment was thwarted as whites increasingly used race as a barrier separating African Americans from mainstream America. Davidson traces the crosscurrents of these cultural conflicts through Ida Wells' forceful personality. When a conductor threw her off a train for not retreating to the segregated car, she sued the railroad--and won. When she protested conditions in the segregated Memphis schools, she was fired--and took up full-time journalism. And in 1892, when an explosive lynching rocked Memphis, she embarked full-blown on the career for which she is now remembered, as an outspoken writer and lecturer against lynching.
Richly researched and deftly written, "They Say" offers a gripping portrait of the young Ida B. Wells, shedding light not only on how one black American defined her own aspirations and her people's freedom, but also on the changing meaning of race in America.

About this title

About the Author:

James West Davidson is a historian and writer. His books include After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, Nation of Nations: A History of the American Republic, and Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure.

Review:

"Lynching is the greatest disgrace in our history, and Ida Wells-Barnett was its most courageous assailant. James West Davidson has written an eloquent account of the growth of Wells-Barnett's self-defined persona as a black woman, journalist, and fearless crusader. Refusing to accept an identity shaped by others--'they say'--she boldly told the world that 'I say' who I am and what I stand for."--James McPherson, author of The Battle Cry of Freedom and The Mighty Scourge

"Davidson's narrative looking at the violent, tormented history of the post-Reconstruction South through the prism of the interior life of Ida B. Wells, one of America's undisputed heroes, is a refreshing way to open wider the door on the complexities of race, racism and identity that, regrettably, still haunt and challenge us today. We need highly readable scholarship like this, infused by the example of the redoubtable Wells to help give the lie to that the old adage that says 'we learn from history that we do not learn from history.' As an African-American woman and a journalist, I am grateful and inspired to have this testimony to a woman on whose shoulders I stand and whose legacy inspires me to stay committed to journalism that is informed by the righteous struggle of all peoples to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin."--Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Journalist

"How did Ida Wells become the woman who challenged the silence of America on lynching? James Davidson shows us by re-creating the world of African Americans during the turbulent decades after the Civil War. A touching, compelling portrait of an important life in crucial times."--H.W. Brands, Dickson, Allen, Anderson Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, author of Andrew Jackson and The Money Men

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0195160207
• ISBN 13: 9780195160208
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256