Ida B. Wells, Memphis, 1892: "the destruction of my paper"

SUMMARYIda B. Wells, Memphis, 1892: "the destruction of my paper" (Nov 8, 2026; TANASI line research)

RECORD (Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, preface signed "IDA B. WELLS," "New York City, Oct. 26, 1892"; Project Gutenberg text)the Free Speech editorial of May 21, 1892 opened "Eight negroes lynched since last issue of the Free Speech" and said "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women"; she writes the editorial was held "sufficiently infamous to justify the destruction of my paper, the Free Speech"; "Mr. Fleming, the business manager and owning a half interest the Free Speech, had to leave town to escape the mob"; the Evening Scimitar wrote "it will be the duty of those whom he has attacked to tie the wretch who utters these calumnies to a stake"; "Creditors took possession of the office and sold the outfit, and the Free Speech was as if it had never been"; "letters and telegrams sent me in New York where I was spending my vacation advised me that bodily harm awaited my return"; on March 9, 1892 three men were lynched in Memphis, "the president, the manager and clerk of the grocery"; "a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home." Frederick Douglass's letter to her is dated "Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C., Oct. 25, 1892."

PATTERNthe paper was not answered; it was erased, and its editor exiled, for telling the truth in print

DISPUTED"office destroyed by a mob" is the common telling; her own text says the paper was destroyed and the outfit sold by creditors after the mob threat. Use her words

LENS (WW9)RECEIPTS. A Memphis woman's own paper is the receipt

OPENthe three men's names (Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, Will Stewart in later sources) are not named in Southern Horrors; confirm from Memphis papers of March 1892 (Chronicling America); check the Gutenberg spelling against an 1892 scan (transcriber's note). Connects: P868, P870.