9
Ida B. Wells

Excerpt from "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition"
Published in 1893; available at Digital Library (Web site)

"Our failure to be represented is not of our own working and we can only hope that the spirit of freedom and fair play of which some Americans so loudly boast, will so inspire the Nation that in another great National endeavor the Colored American shall not plead for a place in vain."

America in the last decade of the nineteenth century found itself in a whirlwind of change. The Industrial Revolution (approximately 1877–1900) changed nearly every aspect of American life: Skilled craftsmen were being replaced by machinery, and big business took over the country's booming economy. Cities were built to accommodate those people leaving the countryside in search of steady work. Immigrants sailed to America's shores in hopes of starting new and better lives. Americans applauded their nation's progress even as they feared their changing and uncertain circumstances.

The Chicago World's Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition, was held from May 1 through October 31, 1893. Although the theme was the four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's (1436–1506) discovery of America, the real meaning of the fair was obvious: America was becoming an empire whose power and influence rivaled that of Europe. The fair was the perfect opportunity to show the rest of the world who America was—culturally, socially, and commercially.

Fair planners knew the event was going to be a success. From the planning process through the last day of its operation, newspapers and magazines covered the goings-on in great detail. Three thousand people each week paid twenty-five cents to sit and watch as fair buildings were constructed. The fair and its grounds took three years to plan and build, and all that time, the public's excitement was building as well. On opening day, one hundred thousand people walked through the main gates to enjoy a spectacle like they had never seen before. Sixty-five thousand display booths, a midway with carnival rides (including the first Ferris wheel), and its own railway system were just some of the attractions that made the Columbian Exposition the first fair of its kind.

Not everyone was thrilled with the fair, however. Although the event's planners wanted the fair to showcase America's diversity and goodwill, they refused active participation of one segment of its population: African Americans. Fair designers had an essential belief that society was shaped like a pyramid, with white Americans at the peak. Those who were not white were, according to the designers and much of society in general, born to serve.

In order to have exhibits at the fair, individuals, companies, and organizations first had to earn the acceptance of the selection committee. Nearly all African American exhibits were denied entrance. This outraged many in the African American community, but they had already been refused representation in the planning process. Not one of them was appointed to a position of authority on a commission or board in the planning and governance of the fair. According to historian Robert Rydell, as reported on the Web site World's Columbian Exposition: A Vision of the Future, A Reflection of Its Present, when some national leaders approached U.S. president Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901; served 1889–93) regarding this obvious act of racism, the president replied that to appoint an African American to a commission would "be distasteful to the majority of commissioners."

The only jobs for which African Americans were hired were waiters, train porters, and laborers. They were refused admittance to the police squad that protected the fairgrounds. Instead, they were given jobs as janitors and chair men (employees who rolled visitors around the ground in wheeled chairs).

Some African Americans accepted their lower status in the fair. Prominent African Americans who participated in the event included reformer Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) and writer Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872–1906). African Americans with this attitude believed some exposure and representation in the fair was better than no neat all. This group was led by abolitionist (antislavery activist) Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), who advised African Americans to take the opportunity to show how much progress their race had made since the outlaw of slavery after the Civil War (1861–65).

Other African Americans refused to attend the fair in protest of the racist treatment. One person who joined in the protests was Ida B. Wells (1862–1931). Wells had already gained notoriety as an activist with her tireless efforts to fight lynch laws, unwritten "laws" that led to hanging, primarily of African Americans. She was respected throughout the African American community, even by those who disagreed with her philosophical beliefs.

Wells herself reluctantly participated in the Columbian Exposition. She used her time there to speak out against lynching, to educate the public about the horrors and injustice of government-sanctioned murder of her fellow African Americans and their supporters. In addition, she found a way to silently reach millions of people—American and foreign—to make them aware of the unfair treatment of African Americans at the fair.

Wells, Douglass, and two other activists wrote a pamphlet that detailed the progress African Americans had made since the Civil War. The booklet also covered topics including lynch laws, legislation unfair to African Americans, and the convict lease system (see box). The pamphlet also criticized the planning commission of the fair—and society in general—for embracing racist policies.

Things to remember while reading an excerpt from
"The Reason Why the Colored American Is
Not in the World's Columbian Exposition":

• African Americans were divided into two main philosophical camps. One believed the race should take whatever opportunities were given them and make the best of each situation. The other believed African Americans should not have to settle for fewer or unequal rights than whites.
• The Chicago Exposition was not the first world's fair to be held in America, but it was given far more attention in the media and by planners because it was an opportunity for the nation to demonstrate its recent progress to the world. The first world's fair in America was held in 1829 in New York.
• Fairs were the single most culturally and socially influential events of the nineteenth century. By including demonstrations and information booths from manufacturers and companies as well as displays showcasing various cultures from around the world, fairs helped shape the modern world. To be left out of the Chicago Exposition was to miss a major opportunity to be seen—throughout the world—as an important participant in America's culture.

The Convict Lease System

The emancipation (freeing) of hundreds of thousands of African American slaves in the mid-1800s left whites in the South feeling uneasy. People they once owned and used to their advantage for labor now had rights. This was a direct threat to the concept of white supremacy (superiority), on which the South was built.

In addition to this problem, the emancipation of slaves left Southern whites in a serious business dilemma: How were they to find cheap labor to farm their fields, pick their cotton, and work the plantations now that slavery was illegal? The whole South was war-torn; rebuilding was necessary, but would be extremely costly if laborers had to be paid fair wages. The Southern economy was in serious danger.

The convict lease system solved this problem for the white South. Southern states enacted (or, in some cases, reinstated) Black Codes. These codes were actually laws that allowed whites to continue their rule over African Americans. Under the codes, African Americans could be thrown in prison for "crimes" such as standing on a sidewalk too long, or wandering around aimlessly, as if homeless.

The enforcement of the Black Codes caused prison populations to rise dramatically. In Mississippi, for example, the African American population in prison quadrupled between 1871 and 1879. In Alabama, it increased from 121 in 1870 to 1,302 in 1890. The prisons were not equipped to house so many people, so state governments had to find a resolution to the overcrowded conditions.

Under the convict lease system, convicts would be leased, or rented by the state government to private companies for hefty sums of money. These companies, in return, hired out the convicts to anyone who needed cheap labor. The South was rebuilt, the whites retained all the power, and African Americans lived in fear. It was a system that worked well for everyone except the prisoners, of whom two-thirds were African Americans.

The convict lease system eventually disappeared in the first half of the twentieth century, but not before thousands of African Americans, many of them innocent of any real crime, paid for the color of their skin with their lives.

Excerpt from "The Reason Why the
Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition"

To the seeker of the truth:

Columbia has bidden the civilized world to join with her in celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America and the invitation has been accepted. At Jackson Park are displayed exhibits of her natural resources, and her progress in the arts and sciences, but that which would best illustrate her moral grandeur has been ignored.

The exhibit of the progress made by a race in 25 years of freedom as against 250 years of slavery, would have been the greatest tribute to the greatness and progressiveness of American institutions which could have been shown the world. The colored people of this great Republic number eight millions—more than one-tenth the whole population of the United States. They were among the earliest settlers of this continent, landing at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 in a slave ship, before the Puritans, who landed at Plymouth in 1620. They have contributed a large share to American prosperity and civilization. The labor of one-half of this country, has always been, and is still being done by them. The first credit this country had in its commerce with foreign nations was created by productions resulting from their labor. The wealth created by their industry has afforded to the white people of this country the leisure essential to their great progress in education, art, science, industry and invention.

Those visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition who know these facts, especially foreigners will naturally ask: Why are not the colored people, who constitute so large an element of the American population, and who have contributed so large a share to American greatness,—more visibly present and better represented in this World's Exposition? Why are they not taking part in this glorious celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of their country? Are they so dull and stupid as to feel no interest in this great event? It is to answer these questions and supply as far as possible our lack of representation at the Exposition that the Afro-American has published this volume.

The Civil War of 1861–5 ended slavery. It left us free, but it also left us homeless, penniless, ignorant, name less [sic] and friendless. Life is derived from the earth, and the American Government is thought to be more humane than the Russian. Russia's liberated serf was given three acres of land and agricultural implements with which to begin his career of liberty and independence. But to us no foot of land nor implement was given. We were turned loose to starvation, destitution and death. So desperate was our condition that some of our statesmen declared it useless to try to save us by legislation as we were doomed to extinction.

"Lynch Law," says the [magazine] Virginia Lancet, "as known by that appellation, had its origin in 1780 in a combination of citizens of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, entered into for the purpose of suppressing a trained band of horse-thieves and counterfeiters whose well concocted schemes had bidden defiance to the ordinary laws of the land, and whose success encouraged and emboldened them in their outrages upon the community. Col. Wm. Lynch drafted the constitution for this combination of citizens, and hence 'Lynch Law' has ever since been the name given to the summary infliction of punishment by private and unauthorized citizens."

This law continues in force today in some of the oldest states of the Union, where courts of justice have long been established, whose laws are executed by white Americans. It flourishes most largely in the states which foster the convict lease system, and is brought to bear mainly, against the Negro. The first fifteen years of his freedom he was murdered by masked mobs for trying to vote. Public opinion having made lynching for that cause unpopular, a new reason is given to justify the murders of the past 15 years. The Negro was first charged with attempting to rule white people, and hundreds were murdered on that pretended supposition. He is now charged with assaulting or attempting to assault white women. This charge, as false as it is foul, robs us of the sympathy of the world and is blasting the race's good name.

The men who make these charges encourage or lead the mobs which do the lynching. They belong to the race which holds Negro life cheap, which owns the telegraph wires, newspapers, and all other communication with the outside world. They write the reports which justify lynching by painting the Negro as black as possible, and those reports are accepted by the press associations and the world without question or investigation. The mob spirit had increased with alarming frequency and violence. Over a thousand black men, women and children have been thus sacrificed the past ten years. Masks have long since been thrown aside and the lynchings of the present day take place in broad daylight. The sheriffs, police, and state officials stand by and see the work done well. The coroner's jury is often formed among those who took part in the lynching and a verdict, "Death at the hands of parties unknown to the jury," is rendered. As the number of lynchings have increased, so has the cruelty and barbarism of the lynchers. Three human beings was burned alive in civilized America during the first six months of this year (1893). Over one hundred have been lynched in this half year. They were hanged, then cut, shot and burned.

The following table, showing the number of lynchings from 1882 to 1891, was published by the Chicago Tribune in January 1892.

Recognizing that the spirit and purpose of the local management of the Exposition were inimical to the interests of the colored people, leaders of the race made effective appeals to Congress and asked that the general government reserve out of its appropriation to the Exposition a sum of money to be used in making a Statistical Exhibit which should show the moral, educational and financial growth of the American Negro since his emancipation. The colored people recognized that the discrimination which prevented their active participation in the Exposition work could not be remedied, but they hoped that the Nation would take enough interest in its former slaves to spend a few thousand dollars in making an exhibit which would tell to the world what they as freedmen had done.

But here they were disappointed again. Congress refused to act. One appropriation bill passed the Senate and at another time an appropriation was made by the House of Representatives, but at no time did both bodies agree upon the same measure. The help that was expected from Congress failed and having failed in every other quarter to secure some worthy place in this great National undertaking the Colored American recognized the inevitable and accepted with the best grace possible one of the severest disappointments which has fallen to his lot.

In consideration of the color proof character of the Exposition Management it was the refinement of irony to set aside August 25th to be observed as "Colored People's Day." In this wonderful hive of National industry, representing an outlay of thirty million dollars, and numbering its employes [sic] by the thousands, only two colored persons could be found whose occupations were of a higher grade than that of janitor, laborer and porter, and these two only clerkships. Only a menial is the Colored American to be seen—the Nation's deliberate and cowardly tribute to the Southern demand "to keep the Negro in his place." And yet in spite of this fact, the Colored Americans were expected to observe a designated day as their day—to rejoice and be exceeding glad. A few accepted the invitation, the majority did not. Those who were present, by the faultless character of their service showed the splendid talent which prejudice had led the Exposition to ignore; those who remained away evinced a spirit of manly independence which could but command respect. They saw no reason for rejoicing when they knew that America could find no representative place for a colored man, in all its work, and that it remained for the Republic of Hayti [Haiti] to give the only acceptable representation enjoyed by us in the Fair. That republic chose Frederick Douglass to represent it as Commissioner through which courtesy the Colored American received from a foreign power the place denied to him at home.

That we are not alone in the conviction that our country should have accorded an equal measure of recognition to one of its greatest citizens is evidenced by the following editorial in the Chicago Herald of Sunday, August 27th, 1893: "That a colored man, Douglass, Langston or Bruce, should have been named a National Commissioner, will be admitted by fair-minded Americans of all political parties. That President Harrison should have omitted to name one of them is apparently inexplicable. That the race has made extraordinary progress will also be conceded."

The World's Columbian Exposition draws to a close and that which has been done is without remedy. The colored people have no vindictiveness actuating them in this presentation of their side of this question, our only desire being to tell the reason why we have no part nor lot in the Exposition. Our failure to be represented is not of our own working and we can only hope that the spirit of freedom and fair play of which some Americans so loudly boast, will so inspire the Nation that in another great National endeavor the Colored American shall not plead for a place in vain.

What happened next …

The Columbian Exposition was a phenomenal success, though it did not make a profit, despite bringing in $28 million. What it did do is cement America's place as a powerful society among the rest of the world.

The fair was meant to reflect reality, and even in its underlying racism, it met that goal. American society at that time believed in the separate-but-equal doctrine, which stated that African Americans could enjoy rights equal to those of white Americans, but still be kept separated. That same philosophy infiltrated the fair, evidenced by the decision of the planning commission to set aside one day, near the end of the six-month event, as "Negro Day."

At the same time, the planning commission had wanted the fair to represent America as an enlightened, progressive nation. In that regard, evidence of racism and prejudice prohibited them from achieving that goal. Seated at a table in Frederick Douglass's exhibit on Haitian culture, Wells silently handed out ten thousand copies of her pamphlet to Americans and foreigners alike. No one who read the arguments in that pamphlet, who understood the statistics that supported the African American community's claim of progress, could believe America's foundation was built on enlightened ideas. African Americans did not achieve a status of equality with whites at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, but Wells's effort spread the word that, emancipation aside, America was still a racist country.

Did you know …

• The Ferris wheel made its debut at the Columbian Exposition. U.S. engineer George Washington Gale Ferris (1859–1896) installed the ride, described by some as the exposition's answer to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which had been built only four years earlier.
• The 1893 World's Fair was such a success that it became the model for all subsequent theme and amusement parks, including Disneyland.
• According to a report by Dr. Arthur Raper, which is discussed in an article on lynching on Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, 3,724 people, most of them men and more than four-fifths of them African American, were lynched in America between 1889 and 1930. The bodies were tortured, burned, mutilated, and dragged. Of the tens of thousands of lynchers and onlookers, only four were sentenced to a fine, a prison term, or both.
• Any statistics on lynchings are generally considered to be low. Many lynchings went unreported because African Americans feared further punishment if they spoke out.
• Wells became known as Ida Wells-Barnett after she married Chicago lawyer and newspaper publisher Ferdinand L. Barnett. The couple would have four children.

Consider the following …

• You are an African American at the time of the Columbian Exposition. You are fully aware of the racist attitude underlying the event, but there are many exciting spectacles to see. Would you go, and how do you justify your answer?
• If you could have appointed one African American to serve in a position of authority on the planning commission, what would his or her responsibilities have been?
• How has America's general attitude toward African Americans changed since 1893? How has it stayed the same?

For More Information

BOOKS

Bolotin, Norman, and Christine Laing. The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1992. Reprint, Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Muccigrosso, Robert. Celebrating the New World: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1993.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892–1900. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Wells, Ida B., et al. The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition. Chicago, 1893. Reprint, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

WEB SITES

"The Culture of Empire." American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning.http://www.ashp.cuny.edu/video/acts6.html (accessed on August 11, 2006).

"Lynching." Spartacus.http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlynching.htm (accessed on August 11, 2006).

"Progress Made Visible: World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893." University of Delaware Library.http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/colum.htm (accessed on August 11, 2006).

Sheldon, Randall G. "Slavery in the Third Millennium, Part II—Prisons and Convict Leasing Help Perpetuate Slavery." The Black Commentator.http://www.blackcommentator.com/142/142_slavery_2.html (accessed on August 11, 2006).

"The World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath." American Studies at the University of Virginia.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/WCE/title.html (accessed on August 11, 2006).

World's Columbian Exposition: A Vision of the Future, A Reflection of Its Present.http://mason.gmu.edu/~ssaltzgi/Worlds_Fair/world_fair_essay.htm (accessed on August 11, 2006).

OTHER MEDIA

Wilder, Gene, narrator. EXPO—Magic of the White City. DVD. Mark Bussler, director. Pittsburgh: Inecom Entertainment Co., 2005.

Industry:

Work.

Afforded to:

Allowed.

Constitute:

Make up.

Is derived:

Originates.

Liberated serf:

Freed servant or slave.

Implements:

Tools.

Destitution:

Complete poverty.

"Lynch Law":

Punishment of persons suspected of a crime without a fair trial.

Appellation:

Name.

Bidden defiance to:

Ignored.

Executed:

Upheld.

Flourishes:

Is widely upheld.

Convict lease system:

A program based on Black Codes, which made illegal many innocent acts of African Americans beginning in the 1870s. Something as simple as standing on a street corner could put a man in jail, resulting in years of hard physical labor, done for free for the county, state, or private companies.

Mob spirit:

Concept of thinking as a group, based on emotions, rather than thinking as an individual, based on fact.

Rendered:

Decided upon.

Inimical:

Unfriendly.

Appropriation:

Money dedicated.

Emancipation:

Freedom from slavery.

Remedied:

Resolved.

His lot:

In this instance, his race.

Color proof character:

Unprejudiced attitude.

Menial:

Unskilled worker.

Evinced:

Upheld.

Conceded:

Acknowledged.

Vindictiveness actuating:

Desire for revenge motivating.

In vain:

Without success.