ABSTRACT
On February 14, 2019, the United States Senate passed anti-lynching legislation, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act. Championed by senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Tim Scott, the bill not only reflects a culmination of efforts by United States legislators, but those first spearheaded in 1892 by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a black woman anti-lynching/rape activist, journalist and critical cultural scholar. Despite its overwhelming significance as black feminist cultural production igniting cross-generational, interracial anti-lynching movement(s), Wells-Barnett’s activism, which is noted by biographer Patricia A. Schechter to be made up of “protest activity and community building,” was subject to concealment “within the discourses and practices of female reform and black politics in the United States.” Black women’s political and artistic challenges to lynching reflect their view of the practice as whiteness cultural performance despite efforts to characterize it otherwise. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
