"They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race (review)

Many of us know that Ida B. Wells spearheaded an attention-getting international campaign against the American practice of lynching. Historian James West Davidson's book focuses on the back story to Wells's activism, not only tracing her experiences as she grew up in the postemancipation South, but also cataloguing the dramatic changes that accompanied this period. As the author explains, the book "is not a biography strictly speaking" (10). Rather, it portrays the world in which Wells lived and in which she learned—and attempted to "reconstruct"—what it meant to be an African American woman in the post-Reconstruction United States. The question of meaning occupies a central role in the book. With the end of slavery (very close to Wells's 1862 birth), a key factor in defining the relative status of blacks and whites evaporated, leaving a void to be filled. As signaled by the title, "They Say," Davidson's treatment of Wells's life foregrounds the competing efforts to define the status of African Americans in these turbulent decades. Davidson draws on newspapers and journal entries as a means of chronicling the competing efforts to "say," to define African American citizenship.

Davidson gives extended attention to two important events in Wells's life. The first occurred when she commuted from Memphis to her teaching job in a small town twelve miles away. Wells bought a first-class train ticket that would allow her to travel in the ladies' car rather than the smoking car. The conductor, however, would not allow her to sit with white women in the ladies' car and insisted that she move to the smoker. Wells attempted to resist, clinging to her seat until the conductor and two passengers physically ejected her from the train. In this battle over whether Wells could consider herself a "lady," Wells lost, although her successful lawsuit brought some satisfaction. The second event was the highly publicized lynching of three men, among them a friend of Wells's. Davidson devotes an entire chapter to reprinting the local newspaper coverage of the lynching and, through this medium, the newspaper's attempt to take control of the story. Wells entered the conversation, offering her own perspective in a Free Speech editorial against the practice of lynching. She challenged the veracity of "the old thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women," provocatively suggesting that white women entered into consensual relationships with black men (156). Her words caused a strong reaction, including threats on her life. As a result, she left Tennessee permanently, relocating to Chicago, from where she took up her international antilynching campaign.

"They Say" may appeal more to a general audience than a scholarly one. Many details of Wells's life—such as her early courtship or her attendance at The Mikado or at a baseball game—appear without commentary, seemingly for their intrinsic interest rather than for their connection to the book's overall theme. At other times, the author provides extensive commentary on topics familiar to scholarly readers—such as background on the sexual exploitation of women under slavery. Davidson tends to let the material speak for itself. Nevertheless, while some scholars may find this approach unsettling, wondering what significance the author finds in various events and episodes, Davidson relegates to the afterword the critical work of analyzing the events surrounding Wells's life and treating the theoretically complex concept, "the reconstruction of 'race'" (179). Indeed, if readers looking for a more analytical treatment of the material in the text will be patient, they will be amply rewarded in the after-word. Overall, "They Say" is highly engaging, immersing readers in the experiences and environment of Ida B. Wells.