How did the media (newspapers) contribute to the presumption

Worksheet – Week 7

Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law in All its Phases,” Address at Tremont Temple in the Boston Monday Lectureship. Feb. 13, 1893.

1. How did the media (newspapers) contribute to the presumption of guilt of the African American men who were accused of attacking the deputies?

2. Why did Wells feel confident in the criminal justice system at first? After the men were killed, how did Wells’ faith and understanding in due process and law enforcement change? How do you think this affected both whites and blacks in Memphis?

Maria Carter – Ku Klux Klan Violence in Georgia, 1871.

1. What was John Walthall crime? How did the KKK act as a law enforcement agency? What laws were they trying to uphold?

Jane Dailey, “Southern Historical Association Deference and Violence in the Postbellum Urban South: Manners and Massacres in Danville, Virginia.”

1. Dailey essentially argues that historians must look at resistance in a situational light (Not all resistance is physically fighting or marching for rights). For Dailey, she looks at public space (sidewalks especially). African Americans had to abide by strict social rules in the South. Explain the purpose of enforcing these “laws” by whites and breaking these “laws” by Blacks. Why is there so much importance to public space – for Blacks and whites?