Citation Needed - Ida B Wells

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American investigative journalist, educator, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[1] She arguably became the most famous black woman in America, during a life that was centered on combating prejudice and violence.[2]   Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I will keep this brief. I would like to offer my sincere apology for the introduction. I performed to episode 97 of the Citation Needed podcast about civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. I am not proud of what I did, but I plan to move forward as a better podcaster and a better man. Thank you. Mr. Bosnick. Mr. Bosnick.

Is it true that you managed to put blackface on your whole cast without their consent? I did. Yes, my castmates are all heavy sleepers. And so, you know, when opportunity knocks. Mr. Bosnick, will you be retiring from podcasting? No, no, I feel as though that would be the easy way out. Instead, I hope to move forward as a new man with the same job who hopes to be better.

Mr. Bosnick, New York Times, you're in blackface right now. I am. It appears I am. Is that what that is? Ah, right now. Wow. I cannot emphasize enough how much I have quit. Wait, you're fucking job. You racist piece of shit. No. No, thank you. Hello, and welcome to Citation Needed, the podcast where we choose a subject. Read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts because this is the

internet and that's how it works now. This is very serious. I'm Heath and White Guilt is a real problem that affects hate, disproportionate number of white people every single year. And we're going to talk about why that is because again, it's very important. And joining me for this very special episode is a diverse panel that's first up, sporting the shades of pointy sheet hat white and cotton entrepreneur white. We have Noah and Cecil. Well, come on in this crowd, I'm borderline Hispanic, I'm just a diversity, just a real

thing. That includes your white switer, the new Thai blood and soil. What are they, such a blood and soil, a lot of stuff. You know, you got to ask yourself, what's happening in your life? No, don't answer. Don't answer. And sporting the shades of recessive come white and for knowledge, bone white, we have Eli and Tom. I mean, sure, any sperm can make it first to the egg,

but only I made it last. And for knowledge, I will have, you know, I made it last. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing.

That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing.

That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. or event, are we going to be talking about today? We'll be talking about civil rights crusader, Idaho Wells, I create the podcast. And Cecil, you chose this topic to match the expertise of our oppressed panel.

Are you ready to do a bunch of editing later? Hope the audience likes room tone. Cecil, who was Idaho Wells? I did a bunch of editing later. Oh, the audience likes room tone. Penetone. Cecil, who was Ida Wells? Ida B Wells or Ida Bell Wells, Barnett, was born into slavery in July of 1862. Oh, so close, mom, just hold out for a few more years. Come on.

We're right there. We're like getting shot on armistice today. You know, it's just fuck really. Her mother was Lizzy Wells, one of 10 children, born also into slavery and sold off, separating her from her birth family. And her father was James Wells, a half white, half black carpenter who was quote, a hired out slave living in the town, end quote. Half white, half black carpenter who was quote, a hired out slave living in the town. End quote.

Half white, half black hired out. This feels indecisive. You got a pick. It was the best of times it was the worst. I as dad was into politics, a Republican during the reconstruction. And he was a member of the Union League Club. Now Chicago has a Union League club and I, and I've been there a few times and I thought it was just a weird place

that wouldn't let women in without a skirt heels and a pad on the ass, but I just found out that they were created to promote loyalty to the Union after the Civil War, which is also what the Civil War was created to do. I guess that's right. We feel sure that we will kill you again. Seem sufficient, right? Right. Right. It's the 50 states club. We're all in the 50 states club.

No, no, no, those clubs had a lot to fight against when salty earth was going on. Is it just me? It's just me like, lesser now. Have we tried or will kill you again? It's the first club didn't work. Well, I don't went to a black school named Rust College. Rust College. I guess she got wait listed at Milldo University.

How would I even say that? Do you, as the kids call it? She was, she was one of eight kids in her family, but soon to be one of five is three of her siblings and her parents died during a fever epidemic in 1878. Ida was at her grandmother's house at the time and didn't get ill. Not willing to let her siblings go into foster care. She and her grandmother basically took some jobs and took care of them.

Her grandmother watching them during the week while Ida worked and then Ida took care of them on the weekends. You look, I'm not saying that the 1800s were better times, but I am saying that if you had too many kids, you could wait a few of them out. Now, yeah, that happened. Her career in civil rights starts in 1884 when she was on a train in Tennessee. There she is, minor on business, sitting in a first class section of the train, when she's told to give up her seat

to a white person and go to the smoking car, or as Trump would say, the smoking car. She, of course, refused. Two men, it doesn't say whether they work for the railroad, dragged her out of the car. She's just like, guys, guys, it's 1884. This is embarrassing. What the fuck? Just like, tell you what?

Try again in 1955. It won't go that way. It's no great, but you could try it that way. Drag your out of the car. Even though United had train service. That's it. It's a little while. It's an earlier time.

Now, at this time, kicking someone out of a clearly white seat was an interesting legal question. There was a law called the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that was supposed to, quote, protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights, giving them equal treatment in public accommodations and public transportation. And quote, but the Supreme Court had already ruled against this in the previous year. Good. Yeah. No, originalism, that's important. That's good stuff. You know, who gets that joke? Merrick Garland.

Merrick Garland is that joke. Yeah, you know, who doesn't? People who just couldn't with the stamps and the post office. Idiots. So Wells, who was also making a partial living as a journalist, not only wrote about it, but also decided to sue the railroad. Her first lawyer was paid off by the railroad and wasn't much on the wall. So she decided to hire another attorney and won a $500 settlement, which would be about $2,500 in today's currency.

The railroad appealed and won and she was ordered to pay the court costs. The conclusion of the court was that she was in it for the money and not for the comfy seat. She wrote about the decision, quote, I felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things from my suit for my people. Oh, God, is there no justice in this land for us? And quote, yeah, you got to be patient, lady. So I mean, we said 1955 earlier that admittedly naive, give us till 2020, we got this. Oh shit. Yeah. All right, Heath, but you know, look, there were very fine people on both sides of her as

they dragged her out. That's nice. That's nice. During the time she worked as both an elementary school teacher and an editorial writer for the evening star in Washington DC under the pen name Lola. She also became a co-owner and editor for the speech and headlight, which was a black-owned newspaper in Memphis. She would have her job as a schoolteacher for a few years before getting dismissed, quote,

due to her articles that criticize conditions in the black schools of the region, end quote. And really, hey, lady, we're still just doing separate at this point. her articles that criticize conditions in the black schools of the region." End quote. Hey, lady, we're still just doing separate at this point. I mean, we're not even going to disingeniously add but equal for another decade. You're way ahead of your time. How does it even work? It's like, look, we know the conditions are bad. We don't need you telling like what?

The other black people like they knew. What's the controversy? Now, in order to describe her start in investigative journalism on lynching in the South, I have to give a little backstory. Takes place in Memphis in 1892. There's two grocery stores in a neighborhood nicknamed the curve. The bell curve. One of these stores is white-owned a William Barrett and the other is black owned by Thomas Moss. They're right across the street from one another. Yeah, the white store has got a black's only entrance. Just turns into a hallway that goes back

across the street to the other one. Fun fact, Valdosta, Georgia has wal-marts like that. I mean, they're not like exactly across the street from each other, but they're close enough that it's obvious. Yeah, additional fun fact, Chicago has a west and a south that are like that. So it's a kid. Oh, compass points. On March 2nd, two little kids are playing marbles

outside the black owned store. One of these kids is white, cursed as his surname, and the other is black. Harris is his last name. Well, they get an old fist fight. Harris starts getting the better a Hurst, so her stat intervenes and starts beating the hell out of the black kid. Well, two employees come out of the black establishment to help Harris. They're both black. Then this causes the people nearby to quote, gather in what quickly became a racially charged mob and quote, or in being heathed hometown, what's known as a little league game. The next day, the white grocery store owner came to the black store with a deputy.

He was looking for one of the employees that helped break up the fight the previous day. Well, that guy took a vacation day and wasn't around. So at one point, the white store owner says, quote, blacks are thieves and, quote, and smacks the black employee that didn't take the day off upside the head would have pissed off. Jesus. Well, they get no wrestling match over the gun. The white guy loses the match and the gun and also has the dodge a bullet because he doesn't have that gun anymore. He loses the gun. Just like, all right, I'll stop if you stop. I retire. It's done. There's Trump's flag right there. A white racist who just lost his gun calling timeout. I can all make it their Twitter profile picture. Seriously, a recurring theme with all of this shit where like the white guy keeps getting

their ass kicked in an already unfair fight. Like maybe stop doing that. This is not your thing, right? So the white team comes back two days later with more people, six dudes, including a sheriff deputy and their shot at again. So they decide to deputize as the article says, quote, hundreds of whites to put down what was perceived by the local Memphis newspapers as an armed rebellion by black men and Memphis. So they arrested the two employees of the Black grocery store and the owner.

It's like, all right, civil war second half goes to the South. That's one one on the school board. So over time, I guess fun fact, cool, Bella check is on our side this time. So it's not braiding definitely is. Not braiding is. Well, and to be fair here about the hundred deputized white guys with the guns that they had back then, it took a lot of white people if you wanted to fire 50 bullets into a car full of unarmed dudes. Oh, shit. Jesus Christ.

I like that the deputizing is really what makes it legitimate. Like if they hadn't done that, it would just been an unruly mob, you know. I've just been mad at the confusion on these guys faces like, oh, this used to be easier when they had to let us kick the ass. This is working out. So four days later in the middle of the night, 75 men wearing black masks took these three from jail, marched them one mile away from the city and shot them all. The grocery store owner Thomas Thomas Moss, was recorded

as saying, quote, tell my people to go West. There is no justice here. And quote, meanwhile, in the West Coast, Nathan Phillips, great grandpa's like, I got bad news for you, dude. That's what you were. I just want to know like, how fucking brave do you feel in that moment when you're like, only pleased with 25 to one odd like, yeah, I was kick his ass. 23, 24, 25. All right, yeah, let's kick his ass. Yeah. And he just chained up in a jail, right? And you know, yeah.

Ida Wells reported on this in the newspaper. She said, quote, there is, therefore, only one thing left to do, save our money and leave town, which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons. End quote. Yeah, that could literally be part of a news story in Tempe, Arizona from 2019. And, uh, yeah, there's not much more room to go west from there, either. It was justice in the Pacific Ocean somewhere. I don't know.

Maybe head back east again. Uh, Virginia? No. Oh, no. Virginia. Okay. Every brainstorm and we'll take a quick break for some opera pove, nothing. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OUT PASTIC BOYS! Really got some good buzz going. I even told that very very important story about when my friend was raped. Friend was raped?

Yes. Liam, seriously, you're not talking about that story when you hunted black people for a week. Is that what you're describing right now? Indeed, but don't worry. I explained what a shameful, horrible thing I did to a reporter. Yes, because vengeance is wrong. Right, so wait, sorry, did you say vengeance is wrong? I did, and I regret my actions. But you also mentioned what you did was racist, right? You apologized also for the racist. Ah, I see the confusion guys.

Oh, guys, you see boys, the rapist was black. The rapist was black. Stop saying that. Don't say that again. I'm sure can't get anything for you guys. Whiskey? Yeah, just bring the bottle. The case, the case.

You had a honey lemon tea a couple weeks ago. Could I have some of that? Yeah, sure. I'll be right back. Okay. Liam, we need to get you somewhere where you can apologize like right away and acknowledge that you regret looking to commit a hate crime. That's, did you get that? Boys, boys! You don't understand. It was 40 years ago. It was legal to hunt a black man in those days. No, wasn't. No, no, no, it was not. Positive.

And we really need you to understand that before we put you like on, like another press conference. Yeah, here's your tea, Mr. Nieson. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. thank you so much. On television, before we put you on television. I hit a woman in the face in the 80s with a teapot that reminds me. Jesus!

Bought! Come on man, don't butt! Say anything. I realize now, you mustn't break teapots. Nope, not the lesson there buddy. No, that's not the lesson. That's not the lesson Liam. Do you know how to moonwalk?

And we're back. When we left off, black people were looking into finding justice in Atlantis I think. Wet footy equals. Let put equal. This is fun. What's next, C-Train? Fun topic. All right. All right.

I actually knew Thomas Moss, the owner of the grocery that was killed. And so this motivated her to start a series of interviews about lynchings in Mississippi. I must have had us, you centuries to kill. Well, I mean, she was waiting for equal rights. Yeah. There is a notable mention in the Wikipedia entry on one of the lynchings. Quote, in Tunica, Mississippi, in 1892,

where she concluded that the father of a young white woman had implored a lynch mob to kill a black man she was sleeping with to save the reputation of his daughter. And quote, who says can of honor killings in America, guys? Yeah. Well, it depends on how you interpret Riffra, honestly, sincerely held lynchings are still being debated, not even uncuriously. LAST NOISE.

Yeah. We debated that last March in reality, in real reality, 2018, 2019, grownups, grownups said that with their eyes and their faces. Things gave to Ed in 1892 and Wells wrote an editorial and said, quote, that old thread bear lie that Negro men rape white women. Yeah, I mean, that's ridiculous. It's consensual and the white women love it. That's crazy.

Continuing, if Southern men are not careful, a conclusion might be reached, which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women." As a counterpoint, someone burned her office to the ground. Jesus. Folds up a piece of paper, slides it across the table to Ida Wells, just says, your building is on fire, is my counterpoint. Yeah, but what do I get for my trade-out? I don't know what's worse. The story or the fact that you could add a hundred years to it and I'd believe you. So she took the research and wrote a pamphlet called Southern horrors, lynch law, and all its phases.

Her conclusion, after a great deal of research, was that lynchings that had to do with a rape of white women were actually used as an excuse to stifle, quote, black economic progress, which threatened white southerners with competition and white ideas of enforcing black second- class status in the society." And quote, she advocated fighting against people who tried the lynch with armed retaliation. So much for the tolerant left. Right.

Give me money. But honestly, imagine how many white people read that and then on ironically said that defending your life was going too far. That whole thing, I'm right there. It's like it's fucking insane that there's even a discussion to be had. We're fighting against being lynched, wasn't an accepted norm. Like the incredible part, like imagine if there was white people being lynched, I guarantee in fucking tea, they wouldn't sit around writing fucking pamphlets about whether they were

going to defend themselves. Yeah, no shit. This was a time in the South too, when government went out of its way to disenfranchise blacks. That time is still happening, by the way, I have no idea why I should differentiate, but I did. In any case, they were instituting poll taxes. Which were, if you think about it, preferable to what Brian Kemp did, we could have bought it. And about poll taxes, which were if you think about it, preferable to what Brian Camp did. We could have bought it. And about poll taxes, an interesting side note, the grandfather clause is when they wanted to discriminate against really fucking poor black people, but not really fucking poor white people. So they exempted from the tax any adult male whose father or grandfather had voted.

Okay, no lynching unless your dad had an active lynching account with the state. Just silver level or better to be fair, but it wouldn't be crazy. They also had literacy tests, but I have no idea how anyone in the South pass those. But white people only had to know the letter K. pass those. So white people only had to know the letter K. She did more research and released a hundred page pamphlet called the red record. Oh, excuse me, I'm going to say a hundred page pamphlet for the hundred. I know the whole of pamphlet, I don't know why. The work covered in detail, lynching in the United States since the emancipation

proclamation in 1863. See, before the Civil War, lynching was bad business because blacks were property. But after the Civil War, well, things changed pretty dramatically in the South. Suddenly the whites were outnumbered. So if you were accused of a serious crime and you were black, you were probably going to have a bad day. She said in the book, quote, 10,000 Negroes have been killed in cold blood through lynching without the formality of judicial trial and legal execution. End quote. Okay, but that's 6,000 lynchings in 19th century.

Yeah, let's just be accurate about everything we said. It's a workplace for a beep. Like when you were safer, when you were a forced labor commodity, like that, you have fucked up your society. That is not it, man. She explored the reasons why whites would do this and what excuses they gave. The first is that since the white people were outnumbered, they use violence and lynching to keep the black populace in check. The next is to squash any political activity by black people in the South.

And the last was to myth that black men lusted after and rape white women and that any relationship between people in these demographics was a rape. What it boiled down to is that any tiny step in the direction of equality, the white southerners would take as a direct threat to their own power. So they would lash out. Maybe I'm showing my wokeness here, but has anyone ever really been curious

as to why these lynchings were happening? Who was like, whatever, could it be? I don't think that's your wokeness showing Eli. I feel like asking why racist violence happens is one of them super important questions. Like, maybe top 10. I don't know because I'm wondering who the audience is. It was like, there's like a bunch of black people holding this enormous pamphlet. Just like, well, I don't know.

Maybe if there's a good reason in here, I'm going to get to it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. Tom gets it. I'm going to get to it here now. So the real audience was Northerners. They really didn't have a grasp on how bad it was in the South for Black people. And these two books on lynching really exposed what was happening. Another thing that Northerners were appalled by was how often the people around the lynching knew who committed the crime and there were even photographs taken with the perpetrators in the shot and they would not be charged for the crime. Yeah, no, that wasn't a lynching, Your Honor.

They were all planking. You got to know your name here. That's not what it looks like. Again, even then, the left couldn't mean. I'd used another tactic. She basically told mom on us. She traveled to Great Britain and went on a speaking tour in 1893 and 94.

She had hoped that the tours would help create sanctions for this kind of atrocity and shame the US and to do in the right thing. The right thing here, just to be clear, is not to kill someone because of their brown. Yeah. And yet she was trying to plan L at this point. That's true.

She toured the UK for two months and thousands of people came to watch her speak. Yeah, this seems like this should have been a very short speech, but like, if the pamphlet was a hundred pages, I can't imagine the PowerPoint. She did get a lot of press coverage in the US for this, and not all of it was favorable. The failing New York Times called her quote, a slanderous and nasty, nasty-minded malatrous. And quote, Jesus.

Oh, no, you gotta go to the opinion page of the New York Times for that kind of racism. You gotta flip. But even the negative press was bringing much needed attention to the subject, which gained her a lot of supporters in the U.S. and abroad. Extra, extra white people are way better at lynching. Look at this bell curve. Yeah, even then, there was no such thing as bad publicity.

Unless you were fucking a white lady, I guess, Jeff Peasos. But so we'll find out. Wells was also part of a boycott of the world's Colombian exposition in Chicago. The world's fair had chosen to exclude African-American exhibits. I guess that's why they call it the white city. So Wells, along with several other notable black public figures, including Frederick Douglass, wrote a pamphlet called The Reason Why. The colored American is not in the world Colombian exposition, which included a portion on lynchings

in the United States. They worked to get the pamphlet distributed at the fair to more than 20,000 people. She was also involved in the creation of women's clubs, quote, most of which had started out as social and literary gatherings and eventually became a source of reform for various issues in the United States. Both African American and white women's clubs were involved with issues surrounding education,

temperance, child labor, juvenile justice, legal reform, environmental protection, child labor, juvenile justice, legal reform, environmental protection, library creation, and more." Yeah, okay. A serious question. What if women are in charge of everything forever, just, you know, balance it back out? That feels like a good move. Don't buy it. He's a egalitarianism here is just for him to get out of work. It's just... Also, I mean, I'm for it, but the rate of lost phones would go up 800% here. They would have the same number of phones. It's zero summing up.

Constantly. These clubs were fighting for women's suffrage, but for Wells, the plight of black people in the United States was something she could not politically let fall to the wayside. in the United States was something she could not politically let fall to the wayside. She wanted women to vote so they could help elect black leaders. And that in turn would help with the enfranchisement of blacks. And as you can imagine, this didn't go over well with white suffragists. Okay. What if black women are in charge of everything forever? Wait, I just like, just like I said before, whatever the opposite of white men is. That's what it feels like the opposite. And we've seen what we do with the place. So it's a very true, man. Black non-binary. I'm fine with that too. Whatever. So she and several other black women, including Harriet Tubman, founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in

1896. She'd be part of the group that went on to create the NAACP 15 years later, but she would not be listed as one of the founding members, either because of her choice or drama and the wiki really isn't that clear about it. Wells died in 1931 and she left behind an amazing legacy. She had a postage stamp, scholarships in her name. She's constantly listed as one of the greatest African-American leaders in our history. And a few days ago, Chicago renamed Congress Parkway to Ida B. Wells Drive, prompting a bunch of people to ask, where are all the wards? We should remember her because she played a huge role in both the women's movement and in

empowering African Americans in our country. Okay. And if you had to summarize what you've learned in one sentence, what would it be? I'm just happy no one said anything obscenely racist. Wow. Post edited post all of time. Post edit post edit.

It's amazing. Post edit is amazing. All right. Are you ready for the quiz? Abs friggin' lootily. See, so this essay comes just in time for Black History Month, which we definitely don't need because everything is fine now except a we're literally rehashing conversations about voter ID laws right now.

Yeah. Yeah. Saga Gation isn't legal. It's only social and financial and geographically acceptable. Yeah. Right. Right. See, we're still deciding if black people drugs count more than white people drugs. And instead of the answer being 100 to one, yes. Now it's 18 to one. Yes.

Progress. Right. Right. Or D. Seriously, just turn on the news. Literally any station right now. And now because we've had the same now for 200 years. And it's a minstrel show.

It's the president doing a minstrel show. And it's the other channels too. Look at that. It's every channel I'm flipping through. It's a sympathy piece about the minstrel show. I'm confused. I realize that you're trying to pull me off hererel show. I'm confused. I realize that you're trying to pull me off here with D. I think you want me to choose D.

But I'm going to go with C. It's also all the rest, but especially C. It's 18 to one on the drug sentencing and it's a one to 12 on history months. So. All right. Well, C. So question on everyone's lips is, why did you set up your four fellow white guys for 40 minutes of lynching jokes? Is it a, you want that sweet, sweet, Northam retirement package? B, you'd like $70 million from NBC or C, never mind I get it now, question with John the secret answer.

D doesn't matter. You somehow made a story about some rights activists and centuries of unpunished lynching about you Eli. I'm because of my. See. So many would argue on the only one here. So all right. So I got a good one for you.

See, so if you've asked me before tonight, who I to be well was, I would have a regretted my lack of accessible smoke bombs. Be assumed she was a late series garbage pill kid from when they ran out of puns that worked. See, demonstrated how Caucasian could be a verb as in just Caucasian my way through life. We're de-blamed the schools. I'm going to go with secret answer. E would have thought she was married to rice smogal uncle Ben.

Oh, I can see why you would have thought that,, but no, it actually was a mostly because any time I don't have smoke bombs at the ready, I started. I always want more smoke bombs. Yeah. Good point. All right. Good work, Noah. You stumped him.

You are the winner. All right. Well, Caesar wrote this whole essay in human sentences and let's not get spoiled here. I'm more of a fan of painting a scene with the grammatical equivalent of cave art. So I would like to be a say next. Oh, Arab is really conflict. Looking forward to it. All about the benchmarks.

All right. Well, for Tom Cecil, Noah and Eli, I'm Heath. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week, and by then, Eli will be an expert on something else. Between now and then, you can hear Thomas Isle on Cognitive Disnance, and you can hear Eli Noah and myself on God-Off-Affel movies,

The Skating Atheist, and The Skeptocrat. And if you thought our show had a value above zero, you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com slash citation pod. And if you're thinking it's a value of less than zero, you can send us a bill at one go fuck yourself street Chicago go fuck yourself. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, listen to past episodes. There is a white street Chicago nice

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