ible subject
of lynching, Miss Willard laughingly replies by cracking a joke. And the
concluding sentence of the interview shows the object is not to
determine how best they may help the Negro who is being hanged, shot and
burned, but "to guard Miss Willard's reputation."

With me it is not myself nor my reputation, but the life of my people,
which is at stake, and I affirm that this is the first time to my
knowledge that Miss Willard has said a single word in denunciation of
lynching or demand for law. The year 1890, the one in which the
interview appears, had a larger lynching record than any previous year,
and the number and territory have increased, to say nothing of the human
beings burnt alive.

If so earnest as she would have the English public believe her to be,
why was she silent when five minutes were given me to speak last June at
Princes' Hall, and in Holborn Town Hall this May? I should say it was as
President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of America she is
timid, because all these unions in the South emphasize the hatred of the
Negro by excluding him. There is not a single colored woman admitted to
the Southern W.C.T.U., but still Miss Willard blames the Negro for the
defeat of Prohibition in the South. Miss Willard quotes from
_Fraternity_, but forgets to add my immediate recognition of her
presence on the platform at Holborn Town Hall, when, amidst many other
resolutions on temperance and other subjects in which she is interested,
time was granted to carry an anti-lynching resolution. I was so thankful
for this crumb of her speechless presence that I hurried off to the
editor of _Fraternity_ and added a postscript to my article blazoning
forth that fact.

Any statements I have made concerning Miss Willard are confirmed by the
Hon. Frederick Douglass (late United States minister to Hayti) in a
speech delivered by him in Washington in January of this year, which has
since been published in a pamphlet. The fact is, Miss Willard is no
better or worse than the great bulk of white Americans on the Negro
questions. They are all afraid to speak out, and it is only British
public opinion which will move them, as I am thankful to see it has
already begun to move Miss Willard. I am, etc.,

May 21

IDA B. WELLS

Unable to deny the truth of these assertions, the charge has been made
that I have attacked Miss Willard and misrepr