Ida B. Wells Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders.”

“The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled.”

“I had an instinctive feeling that the people who have little or no school training should have something coming into their homes weekly which dealt with their problems in a simple, helpful way... so I wrote in a plain, common-sense way on the things that concerned our people.”

“Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.”

“Although lynchings have steadily increased in number and barbarity during the last twenty years, there has been no single effort put forth by the many moral and philanthropic forces of the country to put a stop to this wholesale slaughter.”

“The Afro-American is not a bestial race.”

“In fact, for all kinds of offenses - and, for no offenses - from murders to misdemeanors, men and women are put to death without judge or jury; so that, although the political excuse was no longer necessary, the wholesale murder of human beings went on just the same.”

“The white man's dollar is his god, and to stop this will be to stop outrages in many localities.”

“The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.”

“The Afro-American is thus the backbone of the South.”