Ida B. Wells-Barnett quote: “The government…

Ida B. Wells-Barnett quote:

“The government which had made the Negro a citizen found itself unable to protect him. It gave him the right to vote, but denied him the protection which should have maintained that right. Scourged from his home; hunted through the swamps; hung by midnight raiders, and openly murdered in the light of day, the Negro clung to his right of franchise with a heroism which would have wrung admiration from the hearts of savages. He believed that in that small white ballot there was a subtle something which stood for manhood as well as citizenship, and thousands of brave black men went to their graves, exemplifying the one by dying for the other.”

Ida B. Wells-Barnett portrait, circa 1893
Ida B. Wells-Barnett, circa 1893

Sources:

The Red Record: “Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States” by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, published in 1895 – Project Gutenberg / Photograph of Ida taken circa 1893 – Wikimedia Commons

Notes:

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