Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice
SBS Television
November 19, 8.30 p.m. (8 in Adelaide)
Reviewed by Ignatius Kim
One of the most fascinating, yet little-known, phases in US history is the period of Radical Reconstruction, which began two years after the Civil War in 1867 and lasted until 1877.
In this documentary, we witness the period and the subsequent backlash through the memoirs of Ida B. Wells, an African American activist of the time.
The Civil War was the result of a struggle for control over the newly colonised western territories between Northern industrialists, organised in the Republican Party, and the Southern slavocracy.
When the Republican Lincoln won the presidency in 1860, the slavocracy chose secession. War followed inevitably, the Northern victory clearing the way for US industrial growth, crucial to that nation becoming the leading world power in the 20th century.
While not the motive, destruction of slavery was implicit in the North's battle. This led to the arming of African Americans to fight what was, for them, a war of liberation. It shattered the oppressive social relations that were the basis of racist ideas and won respect from many white working people.
But when the war ended, the triumphant Republicans did not politically dominate the South, facing competition from the rural-based Democrats.
For the Republicans to continue governing, the black vote in the South became decisive. This led to the federal Reconstruction acts of 1867, which granted African Americans democratic rights to vote, marry, own property etc. Washington stationed troops in the South to enforce these acts.
During Radical Reconstruction, public education was vastly expanded to cater for the former slaves. Moreover, many acquired property and became lawyers, councillors, judges and parliamentarians.
Born during the Civil War, Wells was among those educated during Reconstruction. When she moved to Memphis to teach at the age of 18, almost half the city's population was black. Black cultural and self-improvement societies were forming, many with their own newspapers.
Wells joined the Lyceum and was soon elected editor of its Evening Star.
It was around this time that the backlash began, for Reconstruction eventually contradicted the interests of the ruling class as black working people began to organise beyond their civil rights and, at times, in unison with poor whites.
When Southern capitalists began terrorist campaigns against this activity, the federal government gradually stopped intervening. By then, too, the North had consolidated its control over the South.
Around this time lynching and the Ku Klux Klan arose.
By 1877, the federal Supreme Court had overturned the Reconstruction laws, and the states regained control over civil rights. Segregation was soon law in many states.
Wells was among the many African Americans radicalised as they sought to defend the gains of Reconstruction. The turning point in her life was a suit against a railway company that evicted her from a carriage because of new segregation policies. Initially, she won $500. The company appealed, and the decision was overturned.
She wrote: "I had hoped for such great things from my suit for my people generally. I'd firmly believed all along that the law was on our side and would, when we appealed to it, give us justice. I feel shorn of that belief and utterly discouraged."
Her disappointment was profound, but she embarked on a lifelong campaign for racial and sexual equality.
Writing a column syndicated nationally by black newspapers, Wells spoke out against lynching and segregation. She helped organise consumer boycotts, anti-lynching groups and international pressure against Jim Crow states.
Along with W.E.B. Du Bois, Wells led the radical wing of African American politics. She helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), but was manoeuvred out of leadership by moderates.
Later, Wells became active in the women's suffrage movement, working alongside Susan B. Anthony and Jane Adams.
This fascinating documentary not only gives a taste of the Reconstruction period but also explores the life of one of its most militant and uncompromising defenders.