The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States

Wells’s work is unique in many ways. It was written by a Black female author when neither women nor Black citizens were well-represented in published literature. The book’s Preface links it to the Black American publishing tradition, which began with autobiographical narratives published by people who escaped slavery. These narratives were often published with prefaces, usually by white abolitionists, that vouched for the story’s veracity and the author’s reliability. In Frederick Douglass’s case, his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was introduced by William Lloyd Garrison, one of the most well-respected abolitionist activists and journalists. In turn, Douglass endorses Wells’s journalistic volume, immediately establishing ethos in the text. Having a Black man’s endorsement over a white one signals both a societal shift and a political statement, elevating Douglass and Wells without relying on a white person’s endorsement.

The text explores the crimes of white mobs and reveals the unfettered racism that underscores their actions, and Wells’s coverage places her at risk of retaliation. In his Preface, Douglass calls her “brave,” but the word does little to encompass the risk the author takes by drawing attention to white violence in the American South. Wells’s work as a journalist and activist drew the ire of white mobs who burned her printing press and ran her out of town. She was told that returning would put her life at risk. However, Wells was not defeated, nor did she turn away from her work. In her opening statement, Wells explicitly condemns the status of Reconstruction and the violence enacted against Black people in the United States:

The student of American sociology will find the year 1894 marked by a pronounced awakening of the public conscience to a system of anarchy and outlawry which had grown during a series of ten years to be so common, that scenes of unusual brutality failed to have any visible effect upon the humane sentiments of the people of our land (17).

Wells’s text is also unique as a work of research. The journalist painstakingly pores through newspapers and testimonies before coding them for commonalities. She uses this technique to develop a comprehensive argument for why Lynch Law has been allowed to supersede the Constitution and due process and to highlight its pervasiveness and recklessness. Rather than utilizing the testimonies of Black witnesses and citizens, which she knows will be ignored by white readers, Wells uses the testimonies of white citizens to expose the criminality of lynching. This method creates logos, an argument based on facts that cannot be refuted. Chapter 2 details the crimes that cause white mobs to execute Black citizens, which include a wide variety of assumed and alleged acts, as well as misdemeanors and minor offenses like insulting white people and using self-defense. Wells uses Research and Testimony as Activism, drawing from a wide range of newspapers and public records to develop a more complete picture of how lynching functions in society.

Wells discusses how white mobs use three excuses to justify lynchings. The final excuse—that Black men are a danger to white women—proves highly effective and is utilized to describe a range of actions and non-actions. Modern readers may find it difficult to read the descriptions Wells provides, but this frank recounting of violence is another narrative technique. By refusing to disguise or downplay what lynchings entail, Wells makes the case against them self-evident; this degree of brutality cannot be justice, no matter what someone is accused of. Moreover, Black citizens are murdered without an opportunity to defend themselves and often for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, white readers during Reconstruction rarely felt compelled to intervene. Wells highlights the desensitization of the American people to racist violence, unveiling how what was normalized during slavery was embedded into American culture during Reconstruction.

Wells links the pervasiveness of lynchings with its association with inoffensive acts to expose Racist Violence as a Mechanism for Power. Desensitization works in favor of white supremacy; the more prevalent violence against Black citizens becomes, the less attention the public affords it. The constant bombardment of stories about Black citizens lynched for crimes creates a frequency illusion, a form of cognitive bias that makes individuals believe something must be true because they see it everywhere. Inundated with stories about Black criminals, white citizens began to believe in the stereotypes perpetuated by white supremacists, including the myth that Black men are dangerous. Along with allowing lynchings and other forms of anti-Black violence to perpetuate, these myths persist to this day.