The Anti-Lynching Bureau
by The Anti-Lynching Bureau was established in 1899 in response to the increasing brutalization of African Americans during the post_Reconstruction era.
A division of the National Afro-American Council, the Anti-Lynching Bureau was dedicated to the investigation of incidents of lynching and other atrocities committed against African Americans. Founded by T. Thomas Fortune in 1898, the National Afro-American Council espoused a less militant ideology of resistance than its predecessor, the National Afro-American League. Through the creation of the Anti-Lynching Bureau, the Council hoped to put an end to the most savage mode of white-on-black intimidation.
In its efforts to combat disenfranchisement and to right the wrongs perpetrated against members of the African American community, the National Afro-American Council served as a precursor of future civil rights organizations such as the Niagara movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). While serving as chair of the Anti-Lynching Bureau, Ida B. Wells-Barnett published a series of pamphlets and articles condemning the practice of lynching as a crime against humanity that threatened the nation’s moral fiber. Detailing the torture, hanging, burning, and dismemberment of victims, Wells-Barnett sought to arouse public sentiment. Unfortunately, the Anti-Lynching Bureau’s desperate financial situation seriously hampered its efforts. With only 300 members, the organization lacked the funds to publish the very documents intended to pressure Congress into passing federal anti-lynching legislation.
In a letter dated January 1, 1902, Wells-Barnett implored the Bureau’s members to renew their memberships and encourage others to join the organization so that the Bureau might continue its efforts to end mob violence and eradicate lynching. Wells-Barnett’s untiring devotion to the Anti-Lynching Bureau and its cause earned her the title of the nation’s foremost anti-lynching crusader
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