Digital
History>eXplorations>Lynching>The
Debate Over Lynching Begins>Ida Wells
Ida
B. Wells to William McKinley, 1898
For
nearly twenty years lynching crimes have been committed and permitted
by this Christian nation. Nowhere in the civilized world save
the United States of America do men, possessing all civil and
political power, go out in bands of 50 to 5,000 to hunt down,
shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and
absolutely powerless. Statistics show that nearly 10,000 American
citizens have been lynched in the past 20 years. To our appeals
for justice the stereotyped reply has been the government could
not interfere in a state matter.
|