From The “Threadbare Lie” to Hate Crime Hoaxes

Another look at the Jussie Smollett conviction

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

In the 1890s white mobs lynched dozens of black men for raping white women. Investigative journalist Ida B. Wells discovered a lot of these rape accusations covered up consensual sex.

Wells published her findings in the newspaper she co-owned in Memphis, Tennessee, and concluded…