Gotta mention I saw an ed television documentary on Ida B. Wells last night. Wells was the great anti-lynching crusader. In Memphis there was horrendous racist killing of three Black store owners ( If you get the details of the story , you will feel the horror). In that concrete situation, Wells editorialized and initiated a mass exodus of Black people from Memphis, 6,000 people, a sort of strike. It had a big economic impact. That was a tactic used in that situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells “During her participation in women’s suffrage parades, her refusal to stand in the back because she was black resulted in the beginning of her media publicity. In 1889, she became co-owner and editor of Free Speech, an anti-segregationist newspaper based in Memphis on Beale Street. In 1892, however, she was forced to leave the city because her editorials in the paper were seen as too agitating. In one of her articles, written after three of her friends who owned a grocery store were attacked and then lynched because they were taking business away from white competitors, she encouraged blacks to leave Memphis, saying, “there is …. only one thing left to do; save our money and leave a 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.” Many African-Americans did leave, and others organized boycotts of white-owned businesses. As a result of this and other investigative reporting, Wells’ newspaper office was ransacked, and Wells herself had to leave for Chicago.” Of course, many years later MLKing was assassinated in Memphis, on April 4, 1968, 40 years ago today. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
