ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a feminist thinker. Wells-Barnett began investigating other lynchings, and she soon discovered that few lynch victims were even accused of rape and that behind many rape charges lay interracial affairs. Although Wells-Barnett continued to advocate black militancy and self-help, she also hoped to turn white public opinion against the South. The lynching-for-rape myth, accepted by white people, North and South, depicted white men as the manly protectors of virtuous white women against uncivilized black men. Wells-Barnett's genius lay in her ability to reverse this trope, casting white southern men as the lustful rapists of black women and the hypocritical murderers of innocent black men. Wells-Barnett embodied the New Negro Woman in her most radical incarnation. While Wells-Barnett joined the suffrage movement, she defined suffrage not as a woman's issue but as part of the larger campaign for racial and human justice.
