Whence Disinheritance Holds: On Ida B. Wells and America’s “Unwritten Law”

Abstract

The following article thinks together concepts of the hold and disinheritance through the work and anti-lynching activism of Ida B. Wells-Barnett. In doing so, the paper extends what Wells-Barnett already illuminated on the ways in which the State benefitted from the sexual politics of anti-black lynching violence. The article contends Wells-Barnett’s work and pedagogical implications continue to be critical and relevant in and to the horizons of Black Studies given the radical nature of not only her rhetorical analysis on lynching, but also in her ability to write and stand in her own dangerous mode of thought against the profundity of anti-black violence.