Q&A with Philip Dray
Q: You are renowned historian and a widely quoted expert on lynching in America. What inspired you to write a book for children?
A: When I published At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (Random House) in 2002, I appeared before many groups to speak about the history and legacy of lynching in this country. What my research had taught me was that lynching (the execution by a mob of a person accused of a crime or racial transgression but not given due process rights) was not an aberrational event that occurred once in awhile, but rather a systematic means of oppressing and terrorizing black people from the late 19th century until the 1950s. In a sense it was a mechanism, a violent one among many other features of Jim Crow, that replaced slavery as a method of maintaining white supremacy in the South. In the 1890s and early 1900s, a black American was lynched almost every other day, sometimes in horrible "spectacle" lynchings where huge crowds of whites would gather to cheer and take part. While the most awful forms of lynching are now past, it's important to know that we still live with its legacy -- the presumption of black criminality, racial profiling, police brutality, black distrust of the police and courts, bias in prison sentencing, etc.
When I spoke about lynching's long trajectory and its legacy to teachers, as I sometimes did, I would ask whether or not their young students knew of lynching and might want to know more. Almost universally I was told that even very young people tended to know something about it already, that, contrary to common belief, they were not afraid to learn of such things, and that a book directed at them, if done sensibly, would possibly be well-received.
Q: What drew you to Ida B. Wells as a historical figure?
A: Just as the historical trajectory of lynching is central to the story of black America, so equally is the far more positive story of those who fought against it. They were called anti-lynching crusaders, and beginning with a few brave souls in the 1890s, the crusade went on to become perhaps the largest and certainly one of the more vocal civil rights causes in the years prior to World War II. The NAACP and many other groups led efforts to educate the public about this heinous practice, while advocating in Washington for a federal anti-lynching law that would confront mob violence that the states seemed unable or unwilling to address. Indeed, one problem with stopping lynching was that local police were often in cahoots with the mob.
I chose journalist Ida B. Wells as my heroine because she was the first well-known opponent of lynching, and a particularly courageous one. In 1892, at a time when few dared speak out, she made it her obsession to track and investigate lynchings, to catalog and describe them, and to editorialize against them in her newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech. For her trouble her paper's office was destroyed by an angry mob and she was basically run out of the South. Yet she did not flag in her efforts; from New York and later Chicago she continued to write and publish articles and booklets about lynching's evil, and toured widely—even in Britain—to arouse public sentiment. Only five feet tall, but a spitfire when it came to speaking her mind, Ida Wells backed down to no one; she took her message everywhere, even to the White House, and probably more than any other person she deserves credit for awakening America to a practice that was an insult to our democracy.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about your writing and researching process? What type of sources did you use and how did you decide what to include?
A: For research, Ida's articles in the Free Speech are of course revealing of her thinking. Many of her activities were also covered in the mainstream Memphis papers and later, the New York Age and the Chicago Inter-Ocean (influential black publications) as well as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. One of the greatest sources on lynching, however, proved to be the so-called Lynching Archives at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. While lynchings were much talked about and written about, their true nature was that officially they were not supposed to exist; there were no court transcripts or lawyers' arguments, and even the coroner would cite as the cause of death on his official report, "Death at the hands of persons unknown." This was a euphemism intended to exonerate a community guilty of a lynching. But brave students and faculty at Tuskegee, beginning in the 1890s, carefully collected every news clipping they could find about lynching. By the 1980s, there were 63 packed file boxes at the Tuskegee Library telling details of almost 4,000 lynchings. For a researcher trying to understand crimes that were supposed to have been forgotten, this archive was an invaluable resource.
Q: message do you hope young readers will take from Yours For Justice, Ida B. Wells?
A: Ida's message for young readers will hopefully be the same as her message for all Americans of any age. Here was a bright young woman who came from a very humble background, orphaned at age 16, and a kind of third parent to her many younger siblings. Mostly self-educated and extremely self-possessed, she was determined to make her mark on the world -- as a teacher, a writer -- but, most important, by living a life of value, self-respect, and always striving to improve herself. Of course we prize her example most because, when challenged by a tremendous evil, by danger that could have easily consumed her, she chose not to flinch or back away. She spoke up; she fought; she loved her race and her country so much that she believed there could be no such evil as lynching in America.
Ultimately I think that is the principal lesson of her life, and perhaps a particularly valuable one for children, that there are moral choices one is confronted with, and that it is essential at times not to conform and just let things be as they are, but to speak, to act, to write, to stand up against what is wrong. As Ida discovered, if you speak the truth, and do so firmly and sincerely, others will rally to your side. That a young black woman managed to do this in a world in which she had little status or authority, that her brave words helped compel a nation to recollect its own creed of justice, says much about the potential all of us possess if we believe in ourselves as Ida did.
Contributor: Peachtree, Atlanta
Reviews
Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist
Philip Dray
Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn
Ida B. Wells was strong, determined and outspoken and she came by it all naturally. Her father lost his job as a carpenter when he failed to vote as directed by his white boss in Holly Springs, Mississippi not long after the Civil War. By the time she was sixteen, Wells’ parents had died of yellow fever; Wells raised six younger siblings and became a teacher. She fought Jim Crow laws that tried to hold her back at every step. She began to write about discrimination and injustice, first for a church publication then for a local newspaper and finally for a respected black newspaper called the New York Age, always signing her columns and letters “Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells.” It was while writing his award-winning At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America that Philip Dray knew he wanted to tell Wells’ story, struggle by struggle, article by article – especially her fight against lynching. “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press,” Wells would write. The book provides excellent historical background for the stories of lynching and nooses that are even now back in the news. Although Yours for Justice is a large format picture book, the stylized, art deco illustrations by Stephen Alcorn should broaden its appeal to a wider age range. Readers who are reluctant or struggling will meet quite a role model in perseverance. The back pages include photos, resources, a timeline and additional background on Well’s role in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the history of lynching in America. 2008, Peachtree, Ages 8 to 12, $19.85. Reviewer: Karen Leggett
ISBN: 978-1-56145-417-4
ISBN: 1-56145-417-6
Added 1/25/08
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