Question

4. Does Wells place blame only on those that orchestrate the lynching? Whom else does she blame?

Answer 1

Wells blames a system in which racist ideology and violence against blacks has become a norm.

She describes in her text that there is an "unwritten law" that whites in particular white women, are in danger when living surrounding by blacks. The lynchings are public and made into a media spectacle. This behavior supports the mob, encourages the mob, and escalates the violence taking place because it literally supported or at the very least no one speaks out against it.

Lynching in America became common following the passage of the Civil War amendments and the end of Reconstruction. To maintain power structure in states where whites were completely outnumbered by blacks, fear and violence ruled. Ida B. Wells was considered a "muckraker", a journalist who exposed the muck or dirt of society. She investigated and exposed the lynching culture of the South. Despite, the support and disgust by many Americans who read her work, no anti-lynching law ever went to effect.