A black man being lynched in Florida.

 

ThingIda's full time journalist career became dominated by her passion for exposing lynching in the United States in all its forms. Her first close encounter with the lawless practice was in the case of the murder of her friend, Thomas Moss, and his two business partners, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart.

ThingThomas Moss was a mail carrier who often helped Ida by gathering information for her articles. She became so closely acquainted with him and his wife Betty, and their daughter Maurine, that she was named Maurine's godmother. Thomas needed another source of income, so he, McDowell, and Stewart opened a convenience store, the People's Grocery, in a predominantly black neighborhood called the Curve. Instantly a white man named W.H. Barrett, who owned his own store nearby, regarded the business in contempt as a dangerous rival and a threat to the exclusive monopoly he had held over the town at that point. The trouble began when a group of white and black boys got into a fight over a game of marbles outside of the People's Grocery.

ThingThe problem spread to the kids' parents. Cornelius Hurst, the father of one of the white boys, decided to whip a black participant in the fight. Later, a group of angry black fathers rallied near the Hurst home, which was close to the People's Grocery. Barrett was able to get the store charged for "maintaining a public nuisance." Afterwards, he spread the word that a band of white men would be attacking the store. Terrified, Moss, McDowell, and Stewart consulted a lawyer. He informed them that since the People's Grocery was outside the city limits, they could not gain the protection of city police officers. Thus, they had the right to defend themselves if targeted. The black owners followed the attorney's words and on a Saturday night, March 5, 1892, McDowell and some other last minute grocers stood guard in the back of the store. Some time later the sheriff of Shelby County and several ordinary men he had deputized that night broke into the store in search of criminals he had been told were laying there in hiding. In the skirmish that followed the blacks fired upon the intruders and three white men were wounded while the rest fled.

ThingBy the next morning white newspapers had already pounced upon the event and blatantly distorted information to set all blame upon the blacks who had been standing guard. One such paper was the Appeal-Avalanche, which claimed the whites had been "led into an ambush and subjected to the murderous fire of a band of Negroes who were without grievance, and were actuated solely by race prejudice and a vicious and venomous rancor." Throughout the following days the Memphis officials scoured the black neighborhoods, arresting several who they deemed suspicious. One of the men they took was Thomas Moss, though he and his wife pleaded that he had been home that night and nowhere near the store at all. Those arrested were locked up in the local jail. At first, the Tennessee Rifles, a militia group of black men, stood post over the jail since many incensed white men had gathered around it, threatening to lynch the accused blacks on the spot. True enough, as soon as the Rifles withdrew a band of white men burst into the jail and hauled out who they saw as the ringleaders of the shooting: the owners Moss, McDowell, and Stewart. The mob dragged the black men about a mile north of the town. Thomas Moss begged to be freed, because of his wife and daughter--to no avail. Right before he was shot he prclaimed, "Tell my people to go West. There is no justice for them here." Stewart was also killed and McDowell, who tried for the gun of one of the men, had his hand shattered by a shot and his eyes gouged out before he met his end.

ThingIda had been away in Natchez during this incident. She was stunned when she learned of what happened, and mourned over the loss of her friend. Immediately she began to fight back the best way she knew how: with the written word. Her article in the Free Speech voiced her indignation:

ThingThe city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching law, as we are outnumbered and without arms. The white mob could help itself to ammunition, but the order was rigidly enforced against the selling of guns to Negroes. There is therefore only one thing we can 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 take us out and murder us in cold blood when accused by white persons.

ThingThe blacks in the city were infuriated over the murders, but felt helpless against the power of the white authorities. As a result, spurred on by Ida's words and Moss' own cry for them to go West, a significant portion of the city's labor force was depleted as thousands of blacks migrated. Those who stayed behind lashed out in another way. They boycotted white shops and other businesses, including the streetcars. Ida applauded all these efforts. She was greatly distressed by the fact the host of witnesses brought before the courts for interrogation said they were unable to identify any of the lynchers. In the end, not one person was charged with the murders. In truth, it was commonly known on the streets who had taken part in the killings. A white man even told Ida that, "You got off light. We first intended to kill every one of those thirty-nine niggers in jail, but concluded to let all go but the leaders."

ThingIda realized grimly that the death of her friend, Thomas Moss, as well as McDowell and Stewart, was senseless and unjustified. Her friend's murder steered her towards the root of the evil, a growing cancer in the whole country: lynching.