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Audiobook edition · 3 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a journalist uses the press’s own records to expose the violence it excuses?
In The Red Record, Ida B. Wells-Barnett gathers the numbers, cases and excuses behind lynching in the United States. A Black journalist driven out of Memphis for her reporting, she builds her case largely from white newspapers and white officials. Her demand is direct: look at the evidence.
Wells moves from statistics to individual accounts drawn from reports and letters. She challenges the claim that rape accusations explain lynching, showing that only a fraction of victims face that accusation. She also examines the press and churches that excuse mob violence, then asks what ordinary people can do in response.
What you’ll discover
- Evidence that challenges excuses See how Wells uses records from white sources to confront attempts to deny racial violence.
- The accusation under scrutiny Follow her examination of rape charges and the excuses used to defend lynching.
- Lives behind the tables Encounter individual cases that make the meaning of mob rule painfully concrete.
- Responsibility beyond the mob Consider Wells’s challenge to the press and churches that explain or excuse the violence.
- A call to act Explore her answers to despair through speaking out, leaving, refusing and voting.
Who will love it
This book is for readers drawn to American civil rights history built on primary sources and statistics. It also suits those who admire investigative journalism and courageous voices that argue through clear evidence.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Wells answers violence with evidence
- The excuses change but violence remains
- The counts undermine the central excuse
- Mobs ignore protections the law provides
- An accusation takes the place of proof
- A fair trial must hear both sides
- Outside attention breaks through public silence
- Public opinion must demand lawful trials
- Evidence must lead to public action
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The Red Record
by Ida B. Wells-Barnett · 1895
A Memphis editor, driven from her home, lays out the white press's own records of lynching, case by case.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Virtue knows no color line, and chivalry that depends on skin color and hair texture can command no genuine respect.”
In short
In May 1892, a young Black editor in Memphis printed a few lines saying nobody believed the old story that Black men rape white women. Within days a mob destroyed her press and warned her never to return on pain of death.
The Red Record at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 15 min1 h 45 min fast, 2 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 31,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1895by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Wells answers a deadly lie with evidence
Wells opens by naming what she is up against. A lawless system had spread for ten years, until scenes of terrible cruelty no longer moved anyone.
Her own story sits inside it. On May 21, 1892, her Memphis newspaper, Free Speech, ran an editorial on eight lynchings in a single week. After a mob wrecked her property and barred her return, she took her work to lecture platforms in the North and England.
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Details
- First published
- 1895
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 30 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. The Red Record. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-record.
Wells-Barnett, I. B. (2026). The red record. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-record (Original work published 1895)
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. The Red Record. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-record.
@book{wellsbarnett2026red,
author = {Wells-Barnett, Ida B.},
title = {The Red Record},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-red-record},
note = {First published 1895}
}
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What is The Red Record about?
It is an 1895 pamphlet by Ida B. Wells that documents lynching in the United States. She uses statistics and case histories drawn from white newspapers to show how mobs killed Black people on weak or false charges.
What does The Red Record mean by its three excuses for lynching?
Wells says Southern whites offered three excuses in turn: putting down race riots after the Civil War, preventing Negro domination in politics, and avenging assaults on white women. She argues each excuse failed against the evidence.
Is The Red Record a true account and where did Wells get her facts?
Yes, it is nonfiction, published in 1895. Wells took her figures from the Chicago Tribune's yearly lynching count and quoted reports by white journalists, so readers can follow each case back to its source.
The author
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
1862–1931 · American journalist and civil-rights activist
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an American journalist and civil rights activist. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1862 and died in Chicago in 1931. She lived in Memphis before moving to Chicago. She wrote Southern Horrors in 1892 and The Red Record in 1895, documenting lynching in America.
“Virtue knows no color line, and chivalry that depends on skin color and hair texture can command no genuine respect.”
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