In March of 1892, three Black grocery store owners in Memphis, Tennessee, were murdered by a mob of white men. Lynchings like these were happening all over the American South, often without any subsequent legal investigation or consequences for the murderers. But this time, a young journalist and friend of the victims set out to expose the truth about these killings. Her reports would shock the nation and launch her career as an investigative journalist, civic leader, and civil rights advocate. Her name was Ida B. Wells.
1892年3月, 田纳西州孟菲斯的 三个黑人杂货店主 被一帮白人谋杀。 类似这样的私刑 在美国南部极为普遍, 通常缺乏事后的法律调查 或对谋杀犯的处置。 但这一次, 一位年轻的记者, 同时也是受害者的朋友 着手揭露这起谋杀背后的真相。 她的报道将随后震惊全国 并开启她作为调查记者、 民间领袖和民权捍卫者的职业生涯。 她就是艾达·B·韦尔斯。
Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862, several months before the Emancipation Proclamation released her and her family. After losing both parents and a brother to yellow fever at the age of 16, she supported her five remaining siblings by working as a schoolteacher in Memphis, Tennessee.
艾达·贝尔·韦尔斯于1862年7月16日 出生在密西西比州霍利斯普林斯的 一个黑奴家庭。 就在几个月后,《解放宣言》的颁布 使她和她的家人获得了自由身份。 她16岁时, 黄热病夺去了她父母和弟弟的生命, 她便凭在田纳西州孟菲斯的教书工作 供养其余五个兄弟姐妹。
During this time, she began working as a journalist. Writing under the pen name “Iola,” by the early 1890s she gained a reputation as a clear voice against racial injustice and become co-owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. She had no shortage of material: in the decades following the Civil War, Southern whites attempted to reassert their power by committing crimes against Black people including suppressing their votes, vandalizing their businesses, and even murdering them.
在这期间, 她也开始涉猎新闻工作。 她以“艾欧拉”的笔名写作, 19世纪90年代初期, 她已因反对种族不平等而著名 并成为了报纸《孟菲斯自由言论与前照灯》的 共同所有者和主编。 她从不缺少素材: 南北战争结束后数十年, 南部的白人企图通过不法行为 打压黑人,以重振自身力量, 例如限制黑人的选举, 破坏黑人的生意, 甚至谋杀他们。
After the murder of her friends, Wells launched an investigation into lynching. She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records, and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs. She risked her life to get this information. As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders, she enraged many of the same southern white men involved in lynchings.
在朋友被谋杀后, 韦尔斯对私刑行为进行调查。 她通过相关报道和警方的记录 分析特定案件, 采访因白人暴徒的谋杀 而失去亲友的人们。 她冒着生命危险收集资料。 作为一个调查种族谋杀案件的黑人, 她激怒了许多参与私刑活动的南方白人。
Her bravery paid off. Most whites had claimed and subsequently reported that lynchings were responses to criminal acts by Black people. But that was not usually the case. Through her research, Wells showed that these murders were actually a deliberate, brutal tactic to control or punish black people who competed with whites. Her friends, for example, had been lynched when their grocery store became popular enough to divert business from a white competitor.
她的勇敢有了回报。 多数白人声称并报道说 私刑只是对黑人犯罪行为的回应。 但这并不完全属实。 通过调查, 韦尔斯证明,这些谋杀 实际上是为控制和惩罚 与白人竞争的黑人 而采取的蓄意而残忍的手段。 例如,她的朋友们 开办的杂货店受大众欢迎, 削减了白人同行的生意, 因而被杀害。
Wells published her findings in 1892. In response, a white mob destroyed her newspaper presses. She was out of town when they struck, but they threatened to kill her if she ever returned to Memphis. So she traveled to New York, where that same year she re-published her research in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. In 1895, after settling in Chicago, she built on Southern Horrors in a longer piece called The Red Record. Her careful documentation of the horrors of lynching and impassioned public speeches drew international attention.
韦尔斯于1892年出版了 她的调查结果。 出于报复,一帮白人暴民 放火烧毁了她的出版印刷厂。 暴民袭击时,韦尔斯并不在城里, 但他们威胁她说,如果她敢再回到孟菲斯, 她的性命就不保了。 所以她来到纽约, 同年再次出版了标题为 《南方恐怖:各时期的私刑法》的小册子。 1895年,在芝加哥定居后, 她将《南方恐怖》扩展后 写成《红色记录》。 她对私刑恐怖之处的详细记录 和鼓舞人心的演讲获得了世界瞩目。
Wells used her newfound fame to amplify her message. She traveled to Europe, where she rallied European outrage against racial violence in the American South in hopes that the US government and public would follow their example. Back in the US, she didn’t hesitate to confront powerful organizations, fighting the segregationist policies of the YMCA and leading a delegation to the White House to protest discriminatory workplace practices.
韦尔斯借助新近获得的名声 扩大宣传。 她来到欧洲, 成功激起了欧洲人民 对美国南部种族暴力的愤恨, 以期美国政府和人民 能以欧洲为榜样。 回到美国, 她毫不犹豫地投身到反抗强势组织、 YMCA颁布的隔离主义政策的斗争中去, 并率代表团来到白宫, 对职场上的种族歧视提出抗议。
She did all this while disenfranchised herself. Women didn’t win the right to vote until Wells was in her late 50s. And even then, the vote was primarily extended to white women only. Wells was a key player in the battle for voting inclusion, starting a Black women’s suffrage organization in Chicago. But in spite of her deep commitment to women’s rights, she clashed with white leaders of the movement. During a march for women’s suffrage in Washington D.C., she ignored the organizers’ attempt to placate Southern bigotry by placing Black women in the back, and marched up front alongside the white women.
她组织这一系列活动时, 自己并没有选举权。 直到她近60岁时, 女性才获得了选举权。 但即便那时, 新获得选举权的也只是白人女性。 韦尔斯为争取选举权投入了大量精力, 在芝加哥创建了黑人女性选举权组织。 尽管韦尔斯在为女性争取选举权的斗争中 做出了很大贡献, 她还是与这项运动的白人领导者起了争执。 在华盛顿举行的一场 争取女性选举权的游行中, 领导者为控制南方人的偏激情绪, 将黑人女性安排在游行队伍最后。 韦尔斯无视这一安排, 与白人女性肩并肩地游行。
She also chafed with other civil rights leaders, who saw her as a dangerous radical. She insisted on airing, in full detail, the atrocities taking place in the South, while others thought doing so would be counterproductive to negotiations with white politicians. Although she participated in the founding of the NAACP, she was soon sidelined from the organization.
她还引起了其他民权领袖的不满, 被认为是个危险的激进主义者。 她坚持揭露 发生在美国南部的暴行, 其他人则觉得这样做 会适得其反, 不利于与白人政客协商。 虽然她参与了 “美国有色人种协进会(NAACP)”的创建, 但不久之后还是被组织孤立了。
Wells’ unwillingness to compromise any aspect of her vision of justice shined a light on the weak points of the various rights movements, and ultimately made them stronger— but also made it difficult for her to find a place within them. She was ahead of her time, waging a tireless struggle for equality and justice decades before many had even begun to imagine it possible.
韦尔斯不屈从于任何 与她心目中的“正义”不符的观点, 这使许多维权组织的缺陷 显露了出来, 并促进它们一步步壮大, 但这又使她难以在组织中找到立足之地。 她不知疲倦地为平等和正义而奋斗, 甚至在人们觉醒的数十年前 就开始了这项使命, 不愧为那一时代的先驱。