Lynch Law In Georgia A Six Weeks Record In The Center Of Southern Civilization 1899

"The ability of the press to incite mob violence would continue to be Wells's focus in later writings such as Lynch Law in Georgia." - Press, Platform, Pulpit (2011) "Wells-Barnett published 'Lynch Law in Georgia' to bring to light the horrific acts of lynching taking place in the American South." - Violence in American Society (2020) "Well-Barnett reported...the lynching of Samuel Hose. Hose had murdered a white man...the Atlanta Constitution published several editorials inciting citizens to take the law into their own hands." - Dissent: The History of an American Idea (2015) What happens when a violent mob is incited by journalists to take vengeance into their own hands? African-American Civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) reports just such a scenario in her short, 25-page book "Lynch Law in Georgia," first published in 1899. In introducing her book Wells-Barnett writes: "The purpose of this pamphlet is to give the public the facts, in the belief that there is still a sense of justice in the American people, and that it will yet assert itself in condemnation of outlawry and in defense of oppressed and persecuted humanity. In this firm belief the following pages will describe the lynching of nine colored men, who were arrested near Palmetto, Georgia, about the middle of March, upon suspicion that they were implicated in the burning of the three houses in February preceding." Wells-Barnett covers the lynching of Sam Hose, an African American who was tortured and executed by a white lynch mob in Coweta County, Georgia. The actions of this lynch mob were condemned throughout most of the United States and Europe. A group of prominent citizens in Chicago, led by journalist and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, hired detective Louis P. Le Vin to investigate the Hose lynching. Le Vin's entire report was published in Chapter IV of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett article, Lynch Law in Georgia.