I attended the Columbia University School of Journalism's Ida B. Wells Symposium last week. During a Q&A, Professor E.R. Shipp of Morgan State University highlighted a prevalent 2024 election mantra: the constant, yet vague, warnings that, "Democracy is at stake."

She posed a crucial question to Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum, “How do we as communicators make that (Democracy is at stake) make sense to regular folks that can’t understand what democracy has done for them in the first place?”

Fall of American Democracy: A Contemporary Analysis

Crenshaw made clear that we must tell the stories of our past to illustrate our potential fascist American future to Americans, “So the point that we try to make to people is, look, we’ve been in this country before, when it was not even a semblance of a democracy. It meant you didn’t get a chance to vote. It meant nobody cared about your issues. It meant laws were created that said you can’t be educated. Laws were passed that meant you couldn’t even testify against another person in a court of law if you were Black. We’ve had it before, we can have it again.”

Dr. Crenshaw proposed two vital questions to illuminate the ways we are headed backward toward race-based American fascism:

1. What is the impact of banning certain books?

Censorship via book removal is dangerous enough but that is not the end goal of fascists.  The objective is to erase the ideas contained within them from public consciousness so that even if you have the vote, your vote is not informed by a full understanding of the American condition.

2. What does the call to "take our country back" signify?

Second, during the election it was made clear that cities with large Black populations such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, should not influence the presidential outcome. This framing serves to exclude Black Americans and other minorities from the democratic process, disenfranchising them.

Crenshaw ended by noting, “This is what anti-democracy looks like. This is what American’s brand of fascism looks like. …The undermining of American democracy is going to come through racism. Is going to come through xenophobia. So we don’t have to look to Europe to see what our future is; we only have to look to our past to see what our future is.”

History is Rhyming: Ida B. Wells' Enduring Legacy

At the symposium, Dr. Jelani Cobb, Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, commemorated the legacy of Ida B. Wells with the unveiling of a bust crafted by talented artist and former news reporter Dana King.

This unveiling comes at a pivotal moment, echoing the remarkable journey of Ida B. Wells' life—a journey that offers profound lessons for our current era. Paula Giddings panelist and writer , in her seminal work Ida: A Sword Among Lions, traces Wells' trajectory from her birth into slavery, through emancipation, and into the 12-year period of Reconstruction, a time marked by a Black renaissance. Yet, this period of progress was met with severe backlash, manifesting in violent lynchings and the cementing of racial apartheid with the rise of Jim Crow laws. Wells' life, as Giddings illustrates, serves as a powerful testament to the tug-of-war nature of backlash, regression, stagnation, and moments of progress, underscoring the relevance of her struggle in today's fight for justice and equality.

The reason Ida started the Memphis Free Speech newspaper was to document the true story of lynchings. White media of the time were spreading lies and misinformation that was harmful to the Black community.

Nikole Hannah-Jones compared Ida’s fight with the media back then to our fight today, “Media is so afraid of being cast as too liberal that they overcorrect to the point of not being truthful.”

Today we see historic majority media outlets with similar harmful and biased rhetoric but these days, often related to economic apartheid. For instance, the tweet below shows the harmful impact of allowing attacks on DEI in the mainstream media, undermining the work of Black Americans. Narratives like these drive the continued wage, wealth, and poverty gaps.

Conclusion: Keeping Historic Perspectives Across Multiple Intersections

Understanding the multifaceted nature of America's story is crucial to maintaining our Democracy, especially in an era where mainstream media often falls short of covering the breadth and depth of our diverse experiences. As we've seen through the lens of Ida B. Wells' life and activism and reflected in the insightful observations by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a nuanced perspective on history is essential for grappling with today's societal issues.

To broaden your view beyond the oft-narrow narratives presented by mainstream outlets, here are curated resources and readings that offer richer, more diverse historical insights:

• Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa highlights more Latina’s cross the border than men, yet most stories are about men in the story, She Migrates
• ICT News reports The Ogala Sioux tribe adopts resolution calling for cease fire in Gaza
• NextShark is reporting on the legacy of Patsy T. Mink who was the first woman elected to congress, a Japanese American raised in Maui and passed the Title IX legislation

By engaging with these and other diverse sources, we can all contribute to a more informed, empathetic, and united society. Remember, as Ida B. Wells herself demonstrated, vigilance, truth-telling, and an unwavering commitment to justice are the cornerstones of meaningful progress.