148 / 326
204
●
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) NAACP.
“For the Good of America. Do You Know
that the United States is the Only Land on Earth where Human Beings are
Burned at the Stake?”
Broadside, 14
5
/
8
x 10
7
/
8
inches; wrinkles and some staining; verti-
cal and horizontal creases where folded.
New York, 1922
[1,500/2,500]
A striking anti-lynching poster from the NAACP. Most lynching and race riots began over alleged
rapes. The curious fact is, that during the Civil War, when all able white male Southerners were off to
war, there was not a single instance of the rape of a white woman reported. Conversely, there were
reports of numerous rapes of Southern women by Union soldiers. This poster asks the question “Is
Rape the Cause of Lynching?” There were 3436 people lynched in the United States between 1889
and 1920. This figure represents reported cases.
UNIQUE COPY
205
●
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) WELLS, IDA B.
The Woman’s Forum, Volume I,
Number 3.
16 pages. Large 4to (13 x 10 inches); original printed white wrappers; heavy
horizontal crease in the middle where this was probably folded for mailing; a few light
smudges.
Chicago, November 1922
[8,000/12,000]
A RARE EXAMPLE OF IDA B
.
WELLS
’
MAGAZINE
.
NOT NOTED BY DANKY
;
NO COPIES KNOWN
.
The feature article of this issue is the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, proposed by Missouri Congressman
Leonidas Dyer in 1918. The bill would have made mob violence and lynching a punishable offense.
It was defeated by a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), journalist, news-
paper editor, civil rights advocate, and feminist, was born a slave to slave parents in Mississippi, just
months before Lincoln issued his Proclamation. Her father, a carpenter, was intelligent and considered
to be a “race man,” one who sought to educate and elevate the race. Ida attended the Freedmen’s
School and Shaw University (now Rust College) in Holly Springs, where she was expelled for her
“rebellious behavior and temper” after confronting the president of the college. Rebelliousness became
her strength. On May 4, 1884, a train conductor on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad ordered
204