“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” In the book The Red Record, Ida documents the alarmingly high rates of lynching in the United States (which was at a peak from 1880 to 1930). She argued that during Reconstruction, most Americans outside the South did not realize the growing rate of violence against black people in the South. Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a prominent American educator, journalist and an early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and dedicated most of her life to combating violence and prejudice.