Dear Ida B. Wells,

Thank you for your dedication to your anti-lynching campaign. White southerners were unwilling to hear you rightly condemn them as barbarians, as were white northerners, fascinated by yet removed from the horror of lynchings. Thinking way beyond your time, you recognized the Victorian mores that determined sexuality and masculinity, that presented white women as pure and chaste, while painting black women as harlots and barbarians. You took on the responsibility of being living evidence against this misconception, faltering in maintaining your image of purity only with purpose. Your purpose was essential for the safety of the black community, and your methods were effective. Undermining the conception that white women were “pure,” and often voluntarily slept with black men, you deconstructed the notion that black men were predatory towards white women. White men were equally licentious, and you showed how they had for centuries raped black women without any consequences, which in turn disproved their masculinity––defined by their ability to control themselves. Although your arguments were strong and correct, they were born in a time in American when they couldn’t be heard from your mouth––you recognized this, and enlisted Britain’s help. The truth of white American's savagery motivated Britain to speak up, and shame the Americans: since they heard such accusations from their white Anglo-Saxon “kin,” they listened. Even if your method meant losing some ownership of your ideas, you realized the greater importance of disturbing white media with the true horrors of lynchings in the south, and ultimately made an notable impact in the culture of lynching: it went from acceptable to shameful––even still, it was practiced well into the 20th century. Only goes to further show the weakness of the white male’s masculinity, which needed violence against an “other” to prove their own worth and power to themselves. Sadly, Ida, this revelation still applies today. White men commit rape, shoot black men in the streets, take drugs in higher frequencies than any other group, but are rarely convicted, and if so convicted too lightly.