The Constructing and Deconstructing of the Myth and Curse of Black Men Raping White Women as Told by Ida B. Wells

This paper examines Ida B. Wells’s work Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases for the purpose of providing an explanation behind how the act of lynching gave birth to the myth or lie, as is it referred to throughout this paper, regarding Black men raping White women. This paper breaks down how Wells’s work displays this lie is a form of European cosmology born after the Civil War that Whites utilized to help them maintain control over the Black race. This paper also breaks down how Wells’s work highlights the effects of this lie over the years in addition to performing brief case studies on four specific events that showcase these effects. This paper concludes by pointing out how Wells’s work also provides a solution to ending this lie.