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Today, we celebrate the birthday of pioneering anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells, who challenged the media to tell Black truths and innovated practices that define the field of investigative journalism to this day.
Wells put her life on the line to count, investigate and report lynchings in America when white-owned media refused to tell these stories. She destroyed the racist narrative that lynching victims were criminals and brought to light the truth: that lynchings were often used as retaliation against Black people who had dared to start businesses, own property and build wealth.1
Today — 159 years after Ida B. Wells’ birth — we’re calling on newsrooms and media organizations to honor her legacy by continuing her fight for justice in the media system: Sign our petition calling on newsrooms to dismantle anti-Black racism in the media and care for Black communities and journalists.
Anti-Black racism has been part of our media system’s DNA since colonial times and continues today: - Media organizations were complicit in the slave trade and profited off of chattel slavery
- Racist journalism led to countless lynchings
- Southern broadcast stations aired vociferous opposition to integration
- In the 21st century, many media organizations continue to prop up police and spread harmful narratives about Black people who have been murdered by cops
We need newsrooms to care for Black communities, to stop parroting police narratives about Black people and to actively trust and support Black journalists. Sign our petition calling on local, regional and national newspapers to pledge to dismantle anti-Black racism in the media and care for Black communities and journalists.
For decades, courageous Black media owners as well as journalists like Ida B. Wells have had to risk their lives to simply tell the full truth. In 1892, while she was away traveling, a white mob attacked and destroyed the office of Wells’ newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee — and threatened to kill her if she returned to the city.
In 2020, it emerged that police were spying on Black journalists like Wendi C. Thomas, who covers law enforcement in the very same city.2
It’s time for the cycle of anti-Blackness to end. Black journalists deserve abundant resources and support, and Black communities deserve news and information that doesn’t reinforce dangerous stereotypes and myths. Tell newsrooms across the country to pledge to dismantle anti-Blackness in the media and care for Black communities and journalists.
Some newsrooms have already committed to dismantling anti-Blackness,3 but many have not. That’s why we’re calling on all media outlets and journalists to gather courage from Ida B. Wells and do this work for the future of our communities and the future of journalism alike.
Alicia and the rest of the Media 2070 team
media2070.org
P.S. Ida B. Wells put her life on the line to reveal the heinous truth of lynchings and other violence against Black people. 159 years later the fight to dismantle anti-Blackness in the media continues. Please share our petition calling on newsrooms to care for Black communities and journalists: Post it on social media with the hashtag #TrustBlackJournalists.
1. “Ida B. Wells: The Unsung Heroine of the Civil Rights Movement,” The Guardian, April 27, 2018 2. “The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them,” ProPublica, June 9, 2020 3. “We’re Calling on Newsrooms and Media Organizations to Pledge to Care for Black Communities and Journalists,” Media 2070 via Medium, April 29, 2021  |
