3.8 Classwork: Ida B. Wells & Racial Violence in the Reconstruction Era

Black advocates formed national anti-lynching organizations and petitioned for legislation and official intervention in response to lynchings. Howard University students protest outside the National Crime Conference in Washington, DC, 1934.

“This Act is an overdue correction to tragic failures of the past. Congress failed nearly 200 times to get enough votes to pass anti-lynching legislation. “It is both a triumph and a tragedy that only now has our government officially outlawed the horror of lynching with this historic act,” Mr. Stevenson said.

“This should have happened a century ago. But it’s not too late to commit to a new era in which we value the lives of all Americans and never again tolerate mob violence and lawlessness pretending to be justice.”