Ida B. Wells Quotes

The appetite grows for what it feeds on.
IDA B. WELLS

Appetite Feed Grow One
The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased.
IDA B. WELLS

Absolute Alleged Country Menace People Suffrage Suppression Universal Vote
There must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice if we only know how to find it.
IDA B. WELLS

Always Find Injustice Know Remedy Wrong
The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival.
IDA B. WELLS

Against Avail Character City Country Dare Demonstrate Himself Man Neither People Person Protect Rival Stand
The lesson this teaches and which every Afro-American should ponder well, is that a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.
IDA B. WELLS

Black Country Every Home Honor Lessons People Person Pinder Place Protection Refuse Teacher Well
The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged and lynched.
IDA B. WELLS

Country Cringe Do Insult Lynch More Outrage To Yield
One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.
IDA B. WELLS

Better Die Dog Had Injustice Like One Rat Trap
What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party.
IDA B. WELLS

Accuse Become Capital Country Crime Deserve Matter Osment Party Punishment Small Table Turn Women
Thus lynch law held sway in the far West until civilization spread into the Territories and the orderly processes of law took its place.
IDA B. WELLS

Held Law Lynch Orderly Place Process Spread Sway Territories Took Until West
The Afro-American is not a bestial race. If this work can contribute in any way towards proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless,
IDA B. WELLS

Arouse Bestial Contribute Country Demand Every Law People Prove Punishment Race Same Time Towards Way Work
The Afro-American is not a bestial race.
IDA B. WELLS

Bestial Country Race
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.
IDA B. WELLS

Although Barbarity Daughter During Effort For Increase Last Lynching Number Philanthropic Single Steadily Twenty Year
Lynching is color line murder.
IDA B. WELLS

Color Line Lynching Murde
The miscegenation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women.
IDA B. WELLS

Against Attract Free Law Leave Legitimate Man Miscegenation Only Operate Race Seduce South Union White Women
The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled.
IDA B. WELLS

Brutalized Degree Foundation Government Inhabitantm Very Law Order Own Realize South
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.
IDA B. WELLS

Come Feeling Home Instinctive Little People Schoo Something Training Weekly
White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women.
IDA B. WELLS

Country Despoiler Lynch Men Offend Smile Succumb Virtue White Women
In slave times the Negro was kept subservient and submissive by the frequency and severity of the scourging, but, with freedom, a new system of intimidation came into vogue; the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed.
IDA B. WELLS

Country Freedom Frequency Kept People Scourging Severity Slave Submissive Time
The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.
IDA B. WELLS

Act Before Compare Educator Know Must People Press
There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.
IDA B. WELLS

Arm Lynching Nothing Now Numbered Out Without
The negro has suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes.
IDA B. WELLS

Against Commission Country Crime Men More People Race Suffer White Women
I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit.
IDA B. WELLS

Already Attack Bit Clearly Determine Little Lynch Possible Score Sell Take
The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant.
IDA B. WELLS

Against Alike Church Close Concert Country Door Hall Hotel Open People Person Place Raedm Room Servant
The emergency no longer existing, lynching gradually disappeared from the West.
IDA B. WELLS

Country Dsaapered Emergency Exist Longer Lynch West
The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box and the Civil Rights Law.
IDA B. WELLS

Box Civil Rights Country Freedom Give Law Resented South Vballot
The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.
IDA B. WELLS

Country Grown Increase Intelligent Mob Spirit
I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish; it makes its own way.
IDA B. WELLS

Emblis Heart Know Lynching Make Mouthpiece Often Only Own Story Told Way

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