Ida B. Wells writes in his 1892 excerpt United States Atrocities, about how the African American society was treated during the time of reconstruction after the civil war. The white southern Americans did not believe that blacks were capable of any kind of self-government. The Southern belief was that the white man must and will rule. The Southern white men have not allowed the black man to vote or to have any kind of civil rights. The so called “lynch law” was spreading fast throughout the South and the government was doing little to make it stop. Ida B. Wells believes that the African Americans should start to boycott certain activities that white men make money off of. He believes that the way to win victory over the white man is to hit him in the pocket book. He thinks that if you threaten to boycott things
Wells’ plan also contained many risks for the African Americans. If the blacks were to boycott or to quit labor, many southern whites might have taken their anger out on them, and there might have been even more lynchings. Another danger would be that if a black man did not work then the chances of him starving to death would become pretty good. So Wells plans for African Americans would not have been a safe one.
Ida B. Wells also believes that the black men should start to bear arms. He mentions that the one case when a proposed lynching did not carry through was when the black men decided to arm themselves. Wells believes that all African Americans should start to arm themselves for self-defense. He believes that if the white man knows that there is a risk in trying to assault a black man then he will be less likely to go trough with the assault.
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