Ida B. Wells-Barnett as an anticolonial theorist on crime and punishment

Abstract

Treasuring the legacy of Ida B Wells-Barnett as a Black feminist is a vital liberatory commitment, as previous scholarship has commendably demonstrated. Equally important, however, is the need to present Wells-Barnett as an anticolonial theorist whose scholarly texts—Southern Horrors, A Red Record, and Crusade for Justice—should be incorporated into social theory curricula. This article examines Wells-Barnett's acute apprehension of the foundational structures of the US empire-state in her scholarly writings on lynching. As she analysed, the white mob violence epitomised the co-re-formation of race and gender, rule of difference, and subversion of offender-judge relationship. The agency of non-state actors (e.g., lynch mobs) and government agents (e.g., judge and politicians) co-constituted the reformation—not total transformation—of these foundational structures. Lynching, therefore, was the lynchpin of the US empire-state in the post-Reconstruction period: it sustained the white supremacist order by imposing a mass death penalty on Black people, while simultaneously serving as a disgrace to US civilization. To conclude, we highlight how Wells-Barnett's theory offers broader relevance to anticolonial/postcolonial sociology, particularly through her subaltern standpoint, attention to the role of non-state actors, and her commitment to intersectional analysis.