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Chronicle Page 6
Monday, February 14, 2011
Black history via Barnett, an unsung hero By KARA DeMENT Staff Writer Imagine living in a world where you were limited to what you could and could not do. A world where you were told where to sit, what places you could go to and even what drinking fountain you were allowed to drink from. February is Black History month and people everywhere are remembering those who have changed the lives of millions of African Americans in the United States. You’ve all heard of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman but there are many more African American heroes that made an impact on the movement. Ida Bell Wells Barnett is one of those heroes. Born in Holly Springs, Miss., Barnett was the oldest of eight children. She always had a passion and desire to be a role model for her siblings. However, being that role model came sooner than expected when both her parents died of yellow fever plague. To sup-
port her brothers and sisters she became a teacher at age 14. Becoming a teacher and standing up for what she believed in led her to become one of the most well-known African American journalists of her time. In 1891 she wrote a few articles that aimed towards the availability of education for African American children in the United States. Due to these articles her teaching contract was taken away and she turned to journalism. She began her career as an editor and co-owner of a local black newspaper in Memphis called, The Free Speech and Headlight. Many of her stories, if not all of them, were focused on the gruesome lynching that was becoming almost a trend in Mississippi. Three of her friends were victims of this crime and that’s what really pushed her to speak out in her articles. Barnett’s passion for writing about anti-lynching and the tragedies that came along with those who disagreed with her led her to write for the New York Age and to become
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Borderless hatred continues ing. The types of crimes have changed before and post 9/11, vandalism and attacks on Islamic mosque properties are on the increase. But he said you can’t blame it all on 9/11. His theory is if there was a direct correlation than the hate crimes would have reached their peak directly after 9/11. “The principal villains are the terrorists of 9/11. If you want to put blame somewhere,” Ibish said, who has written several books and articles on Arab American hate crimes. Ibish compared the hatred towards Islam that has been growing through the years since 9/11 to the anti-Semitism between the World Wars. His comparison was drawn from part of his “25 Essential Themes of Islamophobia” list: Islam is a pathological and evil religion, Europe has already fallen, America’s biggest threat is Muslim immigration and Muslim’s don’t condemn the terrorism. He explained some of the myths of the Islamophobe. At the top was “There is one such thing as Islam/Muslim.” He explained there are many different types as there are many different churches for the Christian faith. The Criminal Justice Club, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism co-sponsored the event with a grant from the Intellectual Life and Visiting Scholars Committee.
Courtesy of Bucknell University
Ida Bell Wells Barnett was an activist in the Civil Rights movement. She shed the light on lynching through her writing. a lecturer of anti-lynching societies. Barnett also formed the Women’s Era Club, which is known today as the Ida B. Wells Club. This was the first civic organization for African American women, according to biography.com. “A Red Record” was a book that Barnett published in 1895. It focused on lynching and the statistics of lynching in the United States. One of Barnett’s most profound mo-
ments was when she was asked to be a member of the “Committee of 40”, which is now known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP helped her reach out to African Americans and bring awareness to lynching until her death in 1931. Barnett changed the lives of many Americans throughout her lifetime and was a hero to many who decried lynching in the country.