Ethical Complications of Lynching: Ida B. Wells's Interrogation of American Terror

by A. Sims

Overview

In an increasingly globalized economy, Sims argues that Ida B. Wells s fight against lynching is a viable option to address systemic forms of oppression. More than a century since Wells launched her anti-lynching campaign, an examination of her work questions America s use of lynching as a tool to regulate behavior and the manner in which public opinion is shaped and lived out in the private sector. Ethical Complications of Lynching highlights the residual effects of lynching as a twenty-first century moral impediment in the fight to actualize ethical possibilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349384112
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	04/14/2010
Series:	Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice
Edition description:	1st ed. 2010
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

ANGELA D. SIMS is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Black Church Studies at the Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Table of Contents

PART I: IDENTITY AND FORMATION: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND THE SHAPING OF A 'CRUSADER FOR JUSTICE' The Black Slave Family's Moral Situation in Mississippi during the Civil War The Freed-Person of Color's Moral Situation in Mississippi during Reconstruction The Head of Family's Response to the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic PART II: A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: IDA B. WELLS'S CRITIQUE OF LYNCHING Wells on Lynching: An Overview Investigating Facts Interpreting Data Challenging 'Alleged Causes' PART III: BEYOND ROPE AND FAGGOT: A WOMANIST ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF LYNCHING The Issue of Race and Lynching The Social Construction of Gender and Lynching The Intersection of Economics and Lynching PART IV: A PARADIGM SHIFT: REFORMULATING IDA B. WELLS'S 1892 RECOMMENDATION AS RESOURCES FOR A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIAN ETHIC OF RESISTANCE Re-orientation: Viewing Justice in a Racially Violent World Re-evaluation: Demythologizing Hegemonic Structures Re-interpretation: Defining Hope from a Minority Perspective Just Act: A Mandate to Talk about the Lynched

Editorial Reviews

"We all know about the horrors of lynching, but Sims takes us beyond the obvious by conducting a thorough analysis of the motivations leading to and cultural consequences of this technique of discipline.The richness of this book is that the analysis is done through the eyes of Ida B. Wells, who serves as a model upon whom to construct ethical paradigms indigenous to the African American community." - Miguel A. De La Torre, Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Iliff School of Theology, Denver

From the Publisher