In the 19th century, also black writers joined the increasing criticism against slavery. Most prominent was former slave Frederick Douglas and his writings, describing the terrible abuses of the slaver masters. After the abolition of slavery in the USA in 1985, racist discrimination of African Americans did not stop. After Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, lynchings and many forms of discrimination were prevalent, especially in the South. Important black writers were W.E.B. Dubois, and his contributions to the NAACP, also during international travels. Black sociologist Ida Wells was influential in her critical accounts of lynchings, as was feminist Anna Julia Hayward Cooper.