The MEMPHIS SCIMITAR advocated a violent response: "It will be the duty of those whom he has attacked to tie the wretch to a stake, brand him in the forehead with a hot iron and perform upon him a surgical operation with a pair of shears." A mob destroyed Wells' newspaper while Wells was out of town. Wells did not sign her name to her editorials, the white press assumed a man had written the article. Would willingly have sexual relations with black men enraged white Memphis. If Southern men are not careful, a conclusion might be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women." "Nobody in this section of the community believes that old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women. As Wells investigated the reasons for lynching, she discovered that a number of victims were lynched not for rape, but for having sexual relations with consenting white women.
Wells was now shocked into recognizing that even innocent middle-class black people could be targets. Like many middle-class African Americans, Wells had accepted the myth that only poor blacks were lynched for heinous crimes. She began to investigate and reveal the real motivations that lay behind lynching. The lynchings were a turning point in Ida B. She encouraged blacks to protest with boycotts of white-owned stores and public transportation. Enraged by their deaths, Wells lashed out at the refusal of Memphis police to arrest the well known killers. To a deserted railroad yard, and shot them to death. Several nights later, masked vigilantes dragged Moss and his two friends from their cells, took them Moss, his two friends, and one hundred other black supporters were arrested. A gun battle broke out and several deputies were wounded. Not knowing the men were deputies, resisted. A white competitor, enraged that Moss had drawn away his black customers, hired some off-duty deputy sheriffs to destroy the store. Moss was a highly respected figure in the black community, a postman as well as the owner of a grocery store. Tom Moss and two of his friends, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart, were arrested for defending themselves against an attack on Moss' store.
Wells, a journalist and former Memphis school teacher, started a crusade against lynching after three friends of hers were brutally murdered by a Memphis mob.
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