How one journalist risked her life to hold murderers accountable - Christina Greer

翻译人员: Xu Xingruo 校对人员: Wanna Shi

In March of 1892,

1892年3月，

three Black grocery store owners in Memphis, Tennessee,

田纳西州孟菲斯的 三个黑人杂货店主

were murdered by a mob of white men.

被一帮白人谋杀。

Lynchings like these were happening all over the American South,

类似这样的私刑 在美国南部极为普遍，

often without any subsequent legal investigation

通常缺乏事后的法律调查

or consequences for the murderers.

或对谋杀犯的处置。

But this time,

但这一次，

a young journalist and friend of the victims

一位年轻的记者， 同时也是受害者的朋友

set out to expose the truth about these killings.

着手揭露这起谋杀背后的真相。

Her reports would shock the nation

她的报道将随后震惊全国

and launch her career as an investigative journalist,

并开启她作为调查记者、

civic leader, and civil rights advocate.

民间领袖和民权捍卫者的职业生涯。

Her name was Ida B. Wells.

她就是艾达·B·韦尔斯。

Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi

艾达·贝尔·韦尔斯于1862年7月16日

出生在密西西比州霍利斯普林斯的 一个黑奴家庭。

on July 16, 1862, several months before the Emancipation Proclamation

就在几个月后，《解放宣言》的颁布

使她和她的家人获得了自由身份。

released her and her family.

After losing both parents and a brother to yellow fever at the age of 16,

她16岁时， 黄热病夺去了她父母和弟弟的生命，

she supported her five remaining siblings

她便凭在田纳西州孟菲斯的教书工作

by working as a schoolteacher in Memphis, Tennessee.

供养其余五个兄弟姐妹。

During this time,

在这期间，

she began working as a journalist.

她也开始涉猎新闻工作。

Writing under the pen name “Iola,”

她以“艾欧拉”的笔名写作，

by the early 1890s she gained a reputation

19世纪90年代初期， 她已因反对种族不平等而著名

as a clear voice against racial injustice

并成为了报纸《孟菲斯自由言论与前照灯》的

and become co-owner and editor

of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper.

共同所有者和主编。

She had no shortage of material:

她从不缺少素材：

in the decades following the Civil War,

南北战争结束后数十年，

Southern whites attempted to reassert their power

南部的白人企图通过不法行为

by committing crimes against Black people

打压黑人，以重振自身力量，

including suppressing their votes,

例如限制黑人的选举，

vandalizing their businesses, and even murdering them.

破坏黑人的生意， 甚至谋杀他们。

After the murder of her friends,

在朋友被谋杀后，

Wells launched an investigation into lynching.

韦尔斯对私刑行为进行调查。

She analyzed specific cases through newspaper reports and police records,

她通过相关报道和警方的记录 分析特定案件，

and interviewed people who had lost friends and family to lynch mobs.

采访因白人暴徒的谋杀 而失去亲友的人们。

She risked her life to get this information.

她冒着生命危险收集资料。

As a Black person investigating racially motivated murders,

作为一个调查种族谋杀案件的黑人，

she enraged many of the same southern white men involved in lynchings.

她激怒了许多参与私刑活动的南方白人。

Her bravery paid off.

她的勇敢有了回报。

Most whites had claimed and subsequently reported

多数白人声称并报道说

that lynchings were responses to criminal acts by Black people.

私刑只是对黑人犯罪行为的回应。

But that was not usually the case.

但这并不完全属实。

Through her research,

通过调查，

Wells showed that these murders were actually a deliberate,

韦尔斯证明，这些谋杀 实际上是为控制和惩罚

brutal tactic to control or punish black people who competed with whites.

与白人竞争的黑人 而采取的蓄意而残忍的手段。

Her friends, for example,

例如，她的朋友们

had been lynched when their grocery store

开办的杂货店受大众欢迎，

became popular enough to divert business from a white competitor.

削减了白人同行的生意， 因而被杀害。

Wells published her findings in 1892.

韦尔斯于1892年出版了 她的调查结果。

In response, a white mob destroyed her newspaper presses.

出于报复，一帮白人暴民 放火烧毁了她的出版印刷厂。

She was out of town when they struck,

暴民袭击时，韦尔斯并不在城里，

but they threatened to kill her if she ever returned to Memphis.

但他们威胁她说，如果她敢再回到孟菲斯， 她的性命就不保了。

So she traveled to New York,

所以她来到纽约，

where that same year she re-published her research in a pamphlet titled

同年再次出版了标题为

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

《南方恐怖：各时期的私刑法》的小册子。

In 1895, after settling in Chicago,

1895年，在芝加哥定居后，

she built on Southern Horrors in a longer piece called The Red Record.

她将《南方恐怖》扩展后 写成《红色记录》。

Her careful documentation of the horrors of lynching

她对私刑恐怖之处的详细记录

and impassioned public speeches drew international attention.

和鼓舞人心的演讲获得了世界瞩目。

Wells used her newfound fame to amplify her message.

韦尔斯借助新近获得的名声 扩大宣传。

She traveled to Europe,

她来到欧洲，

where she rallied European outrage against racial violence in the American South

成功激起了欧洲人民 对美国南部种族暴力的愤恨，

in hopes that the US government and public would follow their example.

以期美国政府和人民 能以欧洲为榜样。

Back in the US,

回到美国，

she didn’t hesitate to confront powerful organizations,

她毫不犹豫地投身到反抗强势组织、

fighting the segregationist policies of the YMCA

YMCA颁布的隔离主义政策的斗争中去，

and leading a delegation to the White House

并率代表团来到白宫，

to protest discriminatory workplace practices.

对职场上的种族歧视提出抗议。

She did all this while disenfranchised herself.

她组织这一系列活动时， 自己并没有选举权。

Women didn’t win the right to vote until Wells was in her late 50s.

直到她近60岁时， 女性才获得了选举权。

And even then, the vote was primarily extended to white women only.

但即便那时， 新获得选举权的也只是白人女性。

Wells was a key player in the battle for voting inclusion,

韦尔斯为争取选举权投入了大量精力，

starting a Black women’s suffrage organization in Chicago.

在芝加哥创建了黑人女性选举权组织。

But in spite of her deep commitment to women’s rights,

尽管韦尔斯在为女性争取选举权的斗争中 做出了很大贡献，

she clashed with white leaders of the movement.

她还是与这项运动的白人领导者起了争执。

During a march for women’s suffrage in Washington D.C.,

在华盛顿举行的一场 争取女性选举权的游行中，

she ignored the organizers’ attempt to placate Southern bigotry

领导者为控制南方人的偏激情绪，

by placing Black women in the back,

将黑人女性安排在游行队伍最后。

and marched up front alongside the white women.

韦尔斯无视这一安排， 与白人女性肩并肩地游行。

She also chafed with other civil rights leaders,

她还引起了其他民权领袖的不满，

who saw her as a dangerous radical.

被认为是个危险的激进主义者。

She insisted on airing, in full detail, the atrocities taking place in the South,

她坚持揭露 发生在美国南部的暴行，

while others thought doing so would be counterproductive

其他人则觉得这样做 会适得其反，

to negotiations with white politicians.

不利于与白人政客协商。

Although she participated in the founding of the NAACP,

虽然她参与了 “美国有色人种协进会（NAACP）”的创建，

she was soon sidelined from the organization.

但不久之后还是被组织孤立了。

Wells’ unwillingness to compromise any aspect of her vision of justice

韦尔斯不屈从于任何 与她心目中的“正义”不符的观点，

shined a light on the weak points of the various rights movements,

这使许多维权组织的缺陷 显露了出来，

and ultimately made them stronger—

并促进它们一步步壮大，

but also made it difficult for her to find a place within them.

但这又使她难以在组织中找到立足之地。

She was ahead of her time,

她不知疲倦地为平等和正义而奋斗，

waging a tireless struggle for equality and justice

甚至在人们觉醒的数十年前 就开始了这项使命，

decades before many had even begun to imagine it possible.

不愧为那一时代的先驱。