Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. BBC World Service. Thank you for downloading the Witness History

podcast with me Laura Jones. Earlier this year lynching was finally outlawed in the

United States. I've been finding out more about Ida B Wells, the woman who

first raised her voice against a crime that has blighted America.

In March 2022, 22, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law banning lynching more than 120 years after the first attempts to introduce legislation.

The President paid tribute to Ida B. Wells, the pioneering African American journalist who'd first campaigned

for a change in the law.

She exposed the barbaric nature of lynching as a tool to intimidate and subjugate black Americans.

Ida B. Well, once said, quote, the way to write wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon the wrongs.

Michelle Duster, the great granddaughter of the campaigner,

spoke at the ceremony in the White House.

I'd be Wells Barnett once said,

our country's national crime is lynching.

She was born enslaved in 1862 Holly Springs, Mississippi. She became

one of the first investigative and most prominent journalists and civil rights

activist of her time.

She carefully chronicled names, dates, locations, and excuses used to justify lynchings.

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