The Light of Truth by Ida B. Wells is not for the Faint of Heart

 This is a very good book and I don’t recommend it.

The average reader is unlikely to pick up The Light of Truth because most people don’t find accounts of lynching, massacres and other racial violence particularly amusing. But such is the journalism of Ida B. Wells, anti-lynching crusader of the late 19th- and early 20th century. People interested in this collection of her writings should be aware that The Light of Truth’s contents tend toward the gruesome.

Nevertheless, they are fascinating insights into American history between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Great Migration. During that time, millions of “Afro-Americans”—Wells’ preferred term—in the newly-liberated American South lived under the threat of violence from their white neighbors. In 1892 alone, 241 people, mostly black men, were hung, shot, or burned alive by extra-legal mobs. Southern authorities tended to ignore or condone these crimes because they belived lynching was an appropriate response to sexual assault, but Wells worked tirelessly to prove that most targets were innocent victims and that the true cause of lynchings was “race prejudice.” Other topics she covered include racism in Britain, the Tuskegee Institute, and economic power of African-Americans as customers. Well-written articles on these topics educated people across America about the problem of racial violence and continue to inform readers today.

I don’t recommend reading all 570 pages over the course of two days as I did. Instead, I would like to highlight some of The Light of Truth’s most interesting excerpts:

• “‘Iola’ on Discrimination”: Ida B. Wells initially wrote under the pen name ‘Iola,’ and in this article she condemns self-segregation by African Americans. An interesting subject in 19th-century discourse. Pages 22-23.

• Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases: One of Wells’ most famous works, this examines major myths about lynching and recounts the success of a railroad boycott in Kentucky that Wells lead. She explains, “The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals made to his conscience” (79). Pages 57-83.

• Selections from The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition: A collaboration between Wells and renowned activist Frederick Douglass, this pamphlet also discusses the disturbing frequency of lynching, as well as the exploitation of African-American prisoners. Pages 125-146.

• “The Bitter Cry of Black America: a New ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’”: Not her own writing, but a British journalist reporting on her international lecture tour. A good overview of Wells’ work and of great quotes. Pages 164-171.

• Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to the Death: The account of a Louisiana man who killed two police officers in self-defense and sparked a citywide manhunt. Wells denounces shocking incidents of mob violence, and ultimately defends Chalres against posthumous detractors. This article also includes a brief overview of the International Migration Society, a group dedicated to voluntarily resettling African-Americans in Liberia. Pages 339-394.

• “The Northern Negro Woman’s Social and Moral Condition”: Wells praises the hard work of oft-underlooked African-American women while examining the societal factors that limit their opportunities. Lighter in tone than many of her other works, and really good nonfiction writing. Pages 432-438.

• The East St. Louis Massacre: The Greatest Outrage of the Century: The testimonies of several women who survived a race riot in Illinois form the basis of this article, which Wells supplements with reports of other local newspapers. Massacres like this one tend to be overlooked in American history, especially when the primary targets of violence are African-American. Pages 456-496.

Of course, all of the articles are quite good, especially as primary sources. In Wells’ time, many prominent activists knew one another and engaged printed debates about the best ways to reform society. As I was reading about Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington and the Dreyfus Affair, I felt once again as I did at the age of 10, when, after leafing through a book of Shakespeare’s plays, I realized that Henry V was the son of Henry IV, who came after Richard II. For readers interested in 19th- and 20th-century history, The Light of Truth is a first-rate reference.

But if you’re not an academic, or are sensitive at all to violence, I cannot advise you to read it.