ThingAfter the murders of Moss, McDowell, and Stewart, Ida did some crucial research on lynching history. Stemming from the Revolutionary War era, lynching then had mainly been done on Tories and others who sided with the British against the colonists. Over the years the spectrum of the guilty broadened to include people accused of murder, rape, thievery, and arson, and they were killed in a variety of ways, though most commonly by hanging. What really angered Ida in what she learned, however, was the growing number of victims who were blacks, especially since there were no trials. Rather, the convicted were charged upon circumstantial evidence at best, and were dealt "justice" at the hands of hot-headed mobs. In the case of blacks, often all that was needed was the testimony of a white accuser. In a compilation of information Ida made several years later, the Red Record, she recorded a particularly tragic tale.

ThingIn a town in Little Rock, Arkansas, a white man lied and claimed that a black man named Hamp Biscoe owned him money, seeking to take Biscoe's farm in exchange. In desperation, Biscoe fired at the white official who came after him. The authority fired back, wounding Biscoe in the head. Later on that day white men surrounded Biscoe, his impregnated wife, their son, and their baby in a small house. They fired upon the family and killed Biscoe and his wife instantly. Though they shot Biscoe's son through the chest, he survived briefly to identify the killers. Only the small baby, who had been hit in the face, lived.

ThingNewspapers often did their part by contorting facts to uphold the absolute necessity of the killings. For instance, Ida read once of the lynching of a "big burly brute" of a black man who had supposedly raped a "child" of eight years. Upon further research, Ida discovered that that girl was actually a young eighteen year old woman, who had not been raped at all--she and the young black man had been romantically involved. These lynchings were common because it was a harsh blow to a white man's pride to find out that a white woman would seek a relationship with a black man, and so they reacted violently in response. Ida decided to tackle the controversial issue of white-black relationships. Once again she turned to her pen. She wrote defiantly that too often black men charged of "rape" were simply just found out to be having love affairs with consenting white women. Ida's editorial was the last straw in the eyes of many Memphians. Her insinuations were unheard of in society, and they could not believe she had the audacity to publicly express these delicate views. Newspapers referred to her as the "black scoundrel" and one declared that she needed to be "tied to a stake."

ThingThe fury of the whites in Memphis mounted. As luck would have it, Ida was away during this time at a convention in Philadelphia. Her partner Fleming also narrowly evaded trouble, for he had been warned by a friend and had consequently fled the town. Reverend Nightingale was not so fortunate. Though he had previously retired and relinquished his ownership of the newspaper, the mob of whites who had come for Ida and Fleming pounced on him instead. They held him at gunpoint and forced him to sign a statement condemning Ida's editorial as trash against the virtue of white women. The whites weren't satisfied, and proceeded to ransack the Free Speech office, demolishing everything in sight. They left a note, threatening anyone who might attempt to rebuild the paper (they were most assuredly referring to Ida). As a final measure, men were posted at Ida's home and all trains were watched for her return. If Ida came back, she would be killed.

ThingA friend of hers, T. Thomas Fortune, met Ida when she arrived at New York City from Philadelphia. He informed her of the destruction of Free Speech, and the danger back home. Her whole life built in Memphis, Ida's situation looked bleak. Fortune, seeing her dilemma, gave her a life saving option: one-fourth ownership in his newspaper, the New York Age, and her own weekly column. Ida was ecstatic. She had nothing to her name in New York, but she'd be able to make her own way there as long as she could continue her crusade. She'd make herself heard as loudly in the North as she had in the South.