Book Analysis Essay on They Say by James West

Introduction

In James West Davidson's book, They Say, readers learn that the main character, Ida B. Wells, was born at a time when America was in a civil war. Her parents, however, died of a yellow fever attack when she was only sixteen, forcing her to support the younger siblings. In his book, Davidson informs us how Wells transformed from a teacher whose attitudes were victorious to crusade journalist determined to expose all sorts of racial injustices at the time. This paper takes a look at some racial inequities that took place during Wells time. Moreover, the paper also takes a look at ways in which Blacks in America challenged and confronted racism.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

At the age of nineteen, Wells moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with two of her younger sisters to live with their aunt. While in Memphis, she secured a teaching job. During summer, she opted to take classes at Fiske College in Nashville. She was able to earn state credentials that enabled her to teach in Memphis schools. On one Sunday afternoon of 1884, from a visit to Holly Springs, Wells bought a first-class railroad ticket on her way back to Memphis. She decided to take a seat at a section specifically persevered for white women (Davidson). When ordered by a white conductor to move, she refused. That prompted the conductor together with two other white men to drag her out by force. Wells, later on, sued the railroad for discrimination and assaulting her. To the surprise of many, Wells won the case, and the railroad company was ordered to pay her for damages. However, in 1887, the case was reversed, canceling earlier court decisions. Wells was then forced to pay for the court costs.

In 1892, there was a lynching that occurred in Memphis and brought changes in Wells' life. Lynching meant punishing a person or people, where such punishments were often conducted by a mob and without any lawful trial. The most common form of lynching was hanging a person from a tree. Other kinds of lynching involved beating, torture, shooting, and burning alive. In this 1892 incident, it involved William Barrett, a white grocery store owner, and Thomas Moss, who was a Black man. Barrett got angry after Moss opened a similar store on the opposite side of the street. A dispute erupted that led to a fistfight between supporters of these two men. After the fight, Barrett when and came with the sheriff and his deputies who had come to arrest one of Moss' men for clubbing Barrett during the fight. Surprisingly, after the fight, Moss' men went and armed themselves, and when the sheriff arrived with his deputies, Moss' men thought they were a mob and fired shots (Davidson). Moss was later on arrested alongside two other black men. Days later, a white mob broke into the jail, dragged the three black men to a field, and shot them.

In a free speech editorial, Wells expressed her shock by the lynching and strongly condemned the action. She advised the black community to leave town as they were treated cruelly and could not get justice there. While most took her advice and left, Wells choose to stay and conduct research on the rampant lynching and why they were conducted. Wells discovered that lynching was justified because it punished black men who were believed to have raped white women. In her investigation, Wells found out these claims were not true, and in her editorials, she denounced the 'rape myth.' Later on, a mob enraged by the editorial destroyed the printing press. The mob went further and left Wells with death threats. It was at this point that she now opted that it was time to leave Memphis.

In 1892, Wells got a job as an editor at the New York Age, and she continued to write articles about lynchings that took place in Memphis. She later published a pamphlet commonly referred to as the Southern Horrors. Here, she gave a compressive description of the brutality that took place in the South and also gave reasons why these lynchings were carried out. According to Wells, the real reason for this brutality was to enforce white supremacy while making sure black people are kept down. She explains that the 'mob spirit' had grown as black people advanced in business, education, and property ownership. As a way to fight the racial injustices in the South, Wells urged other African Americans to boycott railroads and business as a way to end racial discrimination and segregation (Davidson). She pleaded with her readers to always get their facts to the press to influence public opinion from the white community.

After the 1892 publication of the Southern Horrors, Wells launched several campaigns against lynching. In collaboration with Frederick Douglass, they wrote a pamphlet aimed at the condition African Americans lived in. Her anti-lynching campaign gained the attention of abolition leaders in Britain, and she was invited to give lectures in Britain. Wells's visit to Britain in 1893 and 1894 yield fruits as it led to the formation of anti-lynching laws. These laws threatened some southern states to stop lynching or lose British bank investments and loans. Although some states passed these laws, the enforcements were, however, weak.

Wells believed that one way for African Americans to fight racism was through the 'sacred ballot.' At the time, Susan B. Anthony was leading a women's right to vote movement and in Wells saw it good to join in. In 1913, the two were part of a group of Blacks who had traveled to Washington to be part of women's right to vote parade. These parades led to ratification on the nineteenth Amendment, and Wells participated in registration of Black women as voters. Later in 1930, she chose to run for state senate, but she lost terribly.

In the book, 'they say' IDA B. Wells and the reconstruction of race, Davidson weaves plenty of colorful details. The author tells how Wells attended three or four church services. Davidson also gives a comprehensive description of the rotten streets. The main focus of the story, however, is the incident where a mob executes three African Americans. When questioning the validity of rape charges and reporting the lynchings taking place in the South, Wells faces death threats. Later on, she becomes a famous lecture in Britain and Northeastern America. Davidson uses Wells to tell his audience a story on racial violence across the nation towards the end of the nineteenth century. Davidson, however, stops his story when Wells is now an advocate for racial justice.

Work Cited

Davidson, James West. They Say. Oxford University Press, 2009.