March 1892
Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart — co-owners of the People's Grocery in Memphis — were seized from jail and lynched on March 9, 1892. Their offense was competing successfully with a white-owned store. The murders radicalized Ida B. Wells, who had been friends with Moss. In response she called on Black Memphians to leave the city or boycott white businesses. Thousands emigrated to Oklahoma.
After her friends Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart are lynched in Memphis on March 9 — killed because their People's Grocery competed with a white-owned store — Wells publishes a blistering editorial in the Memphis Free Speech. She urges Black Memphians to leave the city and calls out the economic motives behind lynching. Her analysis dismantles the rape narrative used to justify mob murder.
Events
- March 9, 1892Ida B. Wells' Free Speech Editorial After Three Friends Lynched
After her friends Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart are lynched in Memphis on March 9 — killed because their People's Grocery competed with a white-owned store — Wells publishes a blistering editorial in the Memphis Free Speech. She urges Black Memphians to leave the city and calls out the economic motives behind lynching. Her analysis dismantles the rape narrative used to justify mob murder.
- March 9, 1892Ida B. Wells Publishes Free Speech Editorial After Three Friends Lynched
After her friends Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart are lynched in Memphis — killed because their People's Grocery competed with a white-owned store — Wells publishes a blistering editorial urging Black Memphians to leave the city and exposing the economic motives behind lynching.
- March 9, 1892Memphis Triple Lynching 1892: Thomas Moss and Friends Killed
Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart — co-owners of the People's Grocery in Memphis — were seized from jail and lynched on March 9, 1892. Their offense was competing successfully with a white-owned store. The murders radicalized Ida B. Wells, who had been friends with Moss. In response she called on Black Memphians to leave the city or boycott white businesses. Thousands emigrated to Oklahoma.