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Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism
Lynching announcements from New Orleans States and Jackson Daily News reproduced in The Crisis, August 1919.

Lynching announcements from New Orleans States and Jackson Daily News reproduced in The Crisis, August 1919.

The Crisis magazine was established by W.E.B. DuBois in 1910 as the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). These lynching announcements from southern newspapers were reprinted in The Crisis accompanying a column headed “Crime” listing a number of recent lynchings in the South. The reproduced headlines from New Orleans and Jackson refer to a man named John Hartfield, who was hanged, shot, and burned to death on June 26, 1919 for allegedly having a relationship with a white woman.

Transcript:

The Crisis

(Reprinted from the NEW ORLEANS STATES)

3,000 WILL BURN NEGRO

Kaiser Under Stronger Guard Following Escape of Crown Prince

Frank Simonds Writes for Tates

NEW ORLEANS STATES

VOL 39 NO 177 New Orleans, La. Thursday, June 26, 1919

(Reprinted from the JACKSON DAILY NEWS)

JOHN HARTFIELD WILL BE

LYNCHED BY ELLISVILLE MOB

AT 5 O’CLOCK THIS AFTERNOON

Governor Bilbo Says He Is Powerless to Prevent It -- Thousands of People Are Flocking Into Ellisville to Attend the Event -- Sheriff and Authorities Are Powerless to Prevent It.

Hattiesburg, June 26. -- John Hartfield, the negro alleged to have assaulted an Ellisville, young woman, has been taken to Ellisville and is guarded by officers in the office of Dr. Carter in that city. He is wounded in the shoulder but not seriously. The officers have agreed to turn him over to the people of the city at 4 o’clock this afternoon when it is expected he will be burned. The negro is said to have made a partial confession.

Gov. Bilbo Says

He is Powerless.

When Gov. Bilbo was shown the above dispatch and asked what action if any, he intended to take to prevent the affair, he said:

“I am powerless to prevent it. We have guns for state militia but no men. It is impossible to send troops to the scene for the obvious reason that we have no troops. “Several days ago anticipating… [[object Object]]

...for the lynching has now been fixed for five p.m.

A committee of Ellisville citizens has been appointed to make the necessary arrangements for the event, and the mob is pledged to act in conformity with these arrangements.

Rev. L.G. Bates, pastor of the First Baptist church of Laurel, left here at one o’clock for Ellisville to entreat the mob to use discretion.

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Citation Information
“Lynching announcements,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/e938f4ab14615ef638ddd39417f0db7a.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 7 of 13 in the Primary Source Set Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism

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A legal brief for Ida B. Wells’ lawsuit against Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad Company before the state Supreme Court, 1885.
A portrait of Ida B. Wells, ca. 1893.
The cover page for Southern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases (1892), the first pamphlet by Ida B. Wells dedicated to exposing lynching.
The cover page for A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1893-1894 by Ida B. Wells.
An illustration with portraits of African American leaders, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, ca. 1900.
A political cartoon by Thomas Nast titled “The Union as it Was,” published in Harper’s Weekly October 24, 1874.
Lynching announcements from New Orleans States and Jackson Daily News reproduced in The Crisis, August 1919.
(Warning: graphic material) A photograph showing the aftermath of a public lynching in Columbus, Georgia, June 1, 1896.
An address about Ida B. Wells’ speaking tour in England, adopted by a group of African American citizens in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1894.
A letter from A. M. Middlebrook to Albion Tourgée about a lynching to be held in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Sept. 28, 1894.
A letter from Ida B. Wells to Albion Tourgée, Nov. 27, 1894.
A portrait of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 1920s.
The introduction to The Tragedy of Lynching, produced by the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 1933.

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