46 Incredible Ida B Wells Quotes Every Young Woman Should Know

The following Ida B Wells quotes will make you understand the impact of a single person's voice.

Ida B Wells was an American investigative journalist, educator, and leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Every conscious social being should know these Ida B Wells quotes and what they mean for the growth of a nation, for civil rights amidst chronic abhorrent circumstances, for the press, and individuals' rights. These Ida B Wells quotes on women are a must-read for every woman irrespective. In these Ida B Wells quotes, wrongs of social pursuit are presented as a mirror in front of the society. Be it the Ida B Wells quotes on women's suffrage or the Ida B Wells quotes on rape, the bone-chilling factual description is undeniable, inescapable, compels one to think, over and over again.

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In these Ida B Wells Quotes, eternal vigilance is brutally reflected. Be they Ida B Wells quotes from 'Southern Horrors' or from 'The Red Record', every woman should read these.

1. "Then these lynchers went quietly away and the bodies of the woman and three men were taken out and buried with as little ceremony as men would bury hogs."

- Ida B Wells.

2. "Five human beings were lynched and that the matter was considered of so little importance that the powerful press bureaus of the country did not consider the matter of enough importance to ascertain the causes for which they were hanged."

- Ida B Wells.

3. "I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit."

- Ida B Wells.

4. "I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked."

- Ida B Wells.

5. "The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt."

- Ida B Wells.

6. "There can be no possible belief that these people were inspired by any consuming zeal to vindicate God's law against miscegenationists of the most practical sort."

- Ida B Wells.

The Ida B Wells quotes are a must-read for everyone.

7. "The shorter Negro stood gazing at the horrible death of his brother without flinching. Five minutes later he was also hanged."

- Ida B Wells.

8. "Lee Walker, colored man, accused of raping white women, in jail here, will be taken out and burned by whites tonight. Can you send Miss Ida Wells to write it up?"

- Ida B Wells.

9. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and it does seem to me that notwithstanding all these social agencies and activities there is not that vigilance which should be exercised in the preservation of our rights."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

10. "Meredith Lewis was arrested in Roseland, La., in July of last year. A white jury found him not guilty of the crime of murder wherewith he stood charged."

- Ida B Wells.

11. "To this add the fact of the inherent prejudice against colored people, and it will be clearly seen that a white jury is certain to find a Negro prisoner guilty if there is the least evidence to warrant such a finding. "

- Ida B Wells.

12. "The entire system of the judiciary of this country is in the hands of white people. "

- Ida B Wells.

13. "Yet colored women have always had far more reason to complain of white men in this respect than ever white women have had of Negroes."

- Ida B Wells.

14. "Not only is it true that many of the alleged cases of rape against the Negro, are like the foregoing, but the same crime committed by white men against Negro women and girls, is never punished by mob or the law. "

- Ida B Wells.

15. "In nearly all communities wife-beating is punishable with a fine, and in no community is it made a felony."

- Ida B Wells.

16. "Virtue knows no color line, and the chivalry which depends upon complexion of skin and texture of hair can command no honest respect."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

17. "White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women."

- Ida B Wells.

18. "They leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. "

- Ida B Wells.

These Ida B Wells quotes on writing are the best possible journalistic records of her times.

19. "Burning and torture here lasts but a little while, but if I die with a lie on my soul, I shall be tortured forever. I am innocent."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

20. "The matter came up for judicial investigation, but as might have been expected, the white people concluded it was unnecessary to wait the result of the investigation—that it was preferable to hang the accused first and try him afterward."

- Ida B Wells.

21. "If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women."

- Ida B Wells.

22. "A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

23. "One had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap."

- Ida B Wells.

24. "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."

- Ida B Wells.

25. "I honestly believe I am the only woman in the United States who ever traveled throughout the country ."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

26. "The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American."

- Ida B Wells.

27. "The South is brutalized to a degree not realized by its own inhabitants, and the very foundation of government, law and order, are imperilled."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

28. "No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders."

- Ida B Wells.

29. "The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased."

- Ida B Wells.

30. "The negro has suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes."

- Ida B Wells.

31. "The white man's victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation, and murder."

- Ida B Wells.

32. "I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish; it makes its own way."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

33. "The South resented giving the Afro-American his freedom, the ballot box, and the Civil Rights Law."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

To know the evolution of female voice in society and thereby evolve further, one must know the best Ida B Wells quotes and their significance. Here are some Ida B quotes that give voice to those who aren't heard.  

34. "The Afro-American is not a bestial race."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

35. "The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant."

- Ida B Wells.

36. "Although lynchings have steadily increased in number and barbarity during the last twenty years, there has been no single effort put forth by the many moral and philanthropic forces of the country to put a stop to this wholesale slaughter."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

37. "The nineteenth-century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd."

- Ida B Wells.

38. "The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival."

- Ida B Wells.

39. "The appetite grows for what it feeds on."

- Ida B Wells.

40. "Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense."

- Ida B Wells.

41. "The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience."

- Ida B Wells.

42. "I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. "

- Ida B Wells.

43. "There must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice if we only know how to find it."

- Ida B Wells.

44. "What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party."

- Ida B Wells.

45. "In slave times the Negro was kept subservient and submissive by the frequency and severity of the scourging, but, with freedom, a new system of intimidation came into vogue; the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed."

- Ida B Wells.

46. "The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press."

- Ida B Wells-Barnett.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Ida B Wells quotes then why not take a look at Emmeline Pankhurst quotes, or Toni Morrison quotes.