"A WITNESS FOR OUR TIME"

 “A WITNESS FOR OUR TIME”

    In 2019, Dr. Catherine Meeks and I wrote a book on Ida B. Wells, entitled “Passionate for Justice: Ida Wells as Prophet for Our Time.” We celebrated the life of Ida B., as well as lifting her up as a model for witness in our time. With the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency and with all the chaos that he has already sown, Wells steps forward as a model for us to contemplate and for us to follow. She had direct engagements with two Presidents, William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson. In both of them, she took them to task: for McKinley’s mild response to a lynching in South Carolina, and for Wilson’s overt racism. 

    Though most of us are not in Wells’ league, Catherine and I suggested that we can draw strength from Wells, as seek to find our way to be a witness for justice and a resister of the reestablishment of white supremacy as the norm in American life.  Wells had been born in Mississippi in slavery in 1862, but she grew up with the legal shackles of slavery broken by the defeat of the South in the Civil War. Her parents had taught her that she was an equal to any person, and she sought to live that idea throughout her life. So, Wells’ first gift to us is to remember who each of us and all of us are: children created with equal dignity by God.

    As neo-slavery began to regain its strength after the Civil War (it is often called “Jim Crow,” but that is a misnomer), Wells began to experience a sense of anger and disgust that white supremacy was seeking to tell her and other Black people that they were inferior. She was outraged that neo-slavery sought to re-establish itself through violence and intimidation, including lynchings.  Wells responded with strength to engage the strength of the return of white supremacy. She would not be defined by white supremacy, and she fought hard to help others find the strength to resist this movement. So, as Trump seeks to re-establish white supremacy in our time, let us remember the deep resistance that Wells demonstrated, and let us find some of that same strength that Wells showed us. We must find ways to resist this Trumpist, white supremacist movement. 

    Second, Wells was not afraid to go public with her resistance. After several Black friends were lynched in Memphis in 1892, she decided to do a study of all the lynchings in the South in the 1880’s-1890’s. The rationale given by white people for the lynchings was that Black men were ravenous for white women, and that these Black men must be put back in their places. In her definitive study published in 1892, she exposed this rationale as totally false and as an excuse to terrorize Black people. Her public stance was both educational and dangerous. Black leaders like Frederick Douglass told her how much her study had helped them. White leaders in Memphis, where she lived at the time of this work, blew up her offices and put a bounty on her head. She was out of town when the terroristic attack happened, and she did not return South for 30 years.

    Third, Wells refused to let white people or men of any racial category define her. Even strong white women like Susan B. Anthony tried to direct her life, and Alice Paul refused Wells’ request to march in the front of the line at the Women’s March for the Vote in DC in 1913.  Undeterred by Paul’s racism, Wells found a way to step into the front of the line in the March.  We do Wells and ourselves a disservice by lifting her high above us, saying that she was so great or so exceptional that we cannot match her work.  While that is true on one level – Wells was truly exceptional – Wells herself would tell us that it is now our tine to step into the March.  The forces of oppression and suppression are gaining strength, and we must speak up and act out.