Abstract
The year 1878 was a defining moment for Ida B. Wells. From slavery to freedom, she had witnessed and benefitted from African Americans who reinterpreted concepts of domination and autonomy, compliance and resilience, calibrated violence and moral courage, and power lessness and agency. And when a particularly virulent variety of yellow fever1 swept up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Memphis, responses to this plague provide additional insight about the moral character of the black family during a time of community and family crisis.
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Notes
Alfreda Duster explains that as an educator, Wells “took advantage of every opportunity to improve her own academic skills with private lessons from older teachers and those skilled in elocution and dramatics. She attended summer sessions at Fisk University and traveled on excursions for teachers to places of interest and value.” Alfreda Duster, “Introduction,” Ida B. Wells, Crusade for justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, ed. Alfreda Duster (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1970), xviii.
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© 2010 Angela D. Sims
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Sims, A.D. (2010). Head of Family’s Response to the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic. In: Ethical Complications of Lynching. Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106208_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106208_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-38411-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-10620-8
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