"They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race

by James West Davidson

Overview

Richly researched and deftly written, "They Say" offers a gripping portrait of the young Ida B. Wells, shedding light not only on how one black American defined her own aspirations and her people's freedom, but also on the changing meaning of race in America. Historian James West Davidson captures the breathtaking, often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up: the spread of education among the free blacks, the rise of political activism, the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198036326
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/21/2008
Series:	New Narratives in American History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

James West Davidson is a historian and writer. His books include After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, Nation of Nations: A History of the American Republic, and Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure.

Table of Contents

Foreword     viii
Acknowledgments     xi
Prologue: "Dose This Look Natchel?"     1
Into A Changing World     12
A Moral Education     34
Unladylike Lady     53
Edged Tools     76
Ambition To Edit     97
They Say     124
Do Something     137
Exiled     159
Afterword     179
Selected Bibliography     204
Abbreviations     207
Notes     208
Illustration Credits     231
Index     233

Editorial Reviews

Adult/High School
Despite the title, this is not a biography of journalist, teacher, and speaker. However, researchers looking for valuable insight into the changing definitions of race in post-Emancipation America will find a wealth of information here. Davidson immediately draws readers in by including a postcard photograph in which African Americans are posing on a bridge above the dangling bodies of a lynched mother and son. Using the first 30 years of Wells's life as a backdrop, the author chronicles the evolving standards that governed race relations in the southern United States during Reconstruction. Many of the detailed accounts of lynchings, forced exiles, and other dehumanizing acts against African Americans are presented through first-person statements, thereby eliciting a deeper sense of injustice from readers. Other events, such as the discrimination blacks experienced on train cars, are revealed through Wells's diary and other writings. While the scope of this work is limited, the depth will provide students with valuable primary sources related to race relations during this period. The book may require some hand selling, but teens looking for in-depth accounts of the changing racial climate during Reconstruction will not be disappointed.
—Lynn RashidCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

"Lynching is the greatest disgrace in our history, and Ida Wells-Barnett was its most courageous assailant. James West Davidson has written an eloquent account of the growth of Wells-Barnett's self-defined persona as a black woman, journalist, and fearless crusader. Refusing to accept an identity shaped by others—'they say'—she boldly told the world that 'I say' who I am and what I stand for."—James McPherson, author of The Battle Cry of Freedom and The Mighty Scourge

"How did Ida Wells become the woman who challenged the silence of America on lynching? James Davidson shows us by re-creating the world of African Americans during the turbulent decades after the Civil War. A touching, compelling portrait of an important life in crucial times."—H.W. Brands, University of Texas at Austin, author of Andrew Jackson and The Money Men

From the Publisher