American History

IDA B. WELLS

A black and white photo of Ida B. Wells, taken when she was a young woman. She is wearing a dress and her curly hair is tied back in a loose updo. She is looking up and to the right with a serious expression.

Ida B. Wells was a Black journalist, public speaker, and activist. Born slightly before the Emancipation Proclamation, Wells dedicated her life to fighting racism and sexism in the United States. She was especially vocal about the lynchings which killed many Black men throughout the country.

Wells started her career as a teacher at the tender age of 16, after a yellow fever outbreak left her family orphaned. She soon moved to Memphis, took college classes, and began writing for local papers under the pen name, "Iola". Even as a young woman, Wells frequently stood up for herself against bigots.

At 22, she sued The Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad Company when they tried to force her to move to make way for white passengers. She won her case in the lower courts, but the state Supreme Court overturned the ruling and made her pay court costs. Her newspaper articles criticizing segregated schooling eventually led to her being fired as a teacher, but by that point, she was already well into her career as a journalist.

In 1892, her friend Thomas Moss, a successful Black business owner, was lynched by a mob of angry white Memphis residents. Wells used her position as a journalist to urge Black residents to leave, resulting in an exodus of 6,000. In response, the offices of the newspaper she co-owned, Free Speech And Headlight, were destroyed. Wells published a study on lynchings entitled Southern Horrors, and moved to Chicago, where she continued writing.

Wells toured extensively in both the U.S. and Europe, campaigning against lynching and segregation. She was also active in the women's suffrage movement, and critical of white feminist leaders who participated in anti-black racism. For example, during an overseas tour, she feuded with Frances Willard, a white American feminist who blamed Black men for the failure of the temperance movement.

In 1913, she attended the Woman Suffrage Parade, a large protest in Washington, D.C. Black women were told to march in the back, but Wells refused, and marched right alongside other members of the Illinois contingent. She had founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago earlier that year.

During her later years, Wells stopped touring in order to raise her children. However, she remained active in local politics, and there is a campaign to have a monument built in her honor in Chicago.

TIMELINE

  1. 1862
  2. 1878
  3. 1883
  4. 1884
  5. 1887
  6. 1889
  7. 1891
  8. 1892
  9. 1893
  10. 1895
  11. 1913
  12. 1931
  1. Born July 16 th, in Holly Springs, Mississippi
  2. Takes a job as a teacher to support her siblings after they are orphaned
  3. Moves to Memphis; studies at Fisk University
  4. Sues a segregated railroad for forcing her to move her seat & wins
  5. Ruling reversed by state Supreme Court: "O God, is there no justice in this land for us?"
  6. Becomes co-owner of anti-segregation paper, Free Speech and Headlight
  7. Fired as a teacher for writing articles critical of the segregated educational system
  8. Friend Thomas Moss is lynched; the offices of Free Speech and Headlight are destroyed; publishes Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
  9. Moves from Memphis upon threats to her life; begins writing for The Chicago Conservator
  10. Marries Ferdinand L. Barnett; publishes anti-lynching history, The Red Record
  11. Founds the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago; participates in the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913
  12. Passes away on March 25 th, in Chicago, Illinois