Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
. She was one of the founders of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP). Wells dedicated her lifetime to combating prejudice and violence, the fight for African-American equality, especially that of women, and became arguably the most famous Black woman in the United States of her time.
Born into
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
in
Holly Springs, Mississippi
Holly Springs is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the southern border of Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was d ...
, Wells was freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
. At the age of 14, she lost both her parents and her infant brother in the
1878 yellow fever epidemic. She went to work and kept the rest of the family together with the help of her grandmother. Later, moving with some of her siblings to
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, Wells found better pay as a teacher. Soon, Wells co-owned and wrote for the ''
Memphis Free Speech and Headlight'' newspaper. Her reporting covered incidents of racial segregation and inequality.
In the 1890s, Wells documented
lynching in the United States in articles and through her pamphlets called ''Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases'', and ''The Red Record'', investigating frequent claims of whites that lynchings were reserved for Black criminals only. Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the
South used to intimidate and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition—and a subsequent threat of loss of power—for whites. Well's pamphlet set out to tell the truth behind the rising violence in the South against African Americans. At this time, the White press continued to paint the African Americans involved in the incident as villains and Whites as innocent victims. Ida B. Wells was a respected voice in the African American community in the South that people listened to. Thus, Well’s pamphlet was needed to show people the truth about this violence and advocate for justice for African Americans in the South. A white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses as her investigative reporting was carried nationally in
Black-owned newspapers. Subjected to continued threats, Wells left Memphis for Chicago. She married
Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895 and had a family while continuing her work writing, speaking, and organizing for civil rights and the women's movement for the rest of her life.
Wells was outspoken regarding her beliefs as a Black female activist and faced regular public disapproval, sometimes including from other leaders within the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
and the
women's suffrage movement
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...
. She was active in
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. A skilled and persuasive
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
, Wells traveled nationally and internationally on lecture tours. Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, in Chicago, and in 2020 was posthumously honored with a
Pulitzer Prize special citation "for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching."
Early life
![Ida B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Ida_B._Wells-Barnette_Brith_Home_%28Holly_Springs%2C_MS%29.jpg)
Ida Bell Wells was born on the Bolling Farm near
Holly Springs, Mississippi
Holly Springs is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the southern border of Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was d ...
, July 16, 1862. She was the eldest child of James Madison Wells (1840–1878) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Warrenton). James Wells' father was a White man who impregnated an enslaved Black woman named Peggy. Before dying, James' father brought him, aged 18, to Holly Springs to become a carpenter's apprentice. Upon learning carpentry skills, he was able to work for hire in Holly Springs, with his wages going to his slaveholder. Lizzie's experience as an enslaved person was quite different. One of 10 children born on a plantation in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, Lizzie was sold away from her family and siblings and tried without success to locate her family following the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. Before the
Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Wells' parents were enslaved to
Spires Boling
Spires Boling (1812–1880), whose name is often misspelled as Spires Bolling, was a slaveowner, master builder, architect, and distillery founder in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He is known for holding the journalist Ida B. Wells and her family i ...
, an architect, and the family lived in the structure now called
Bolling–Gatewood House
The Bolling–Gatewood House is a historic cottage in Holly Springs, Mississippi, USA. It is home to the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum, named for former slave, journalist, and suffragist Ida B. Wells.
Location
The house is located at 220 Randolph ...
, which has become the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum.
After emancipation, Wells' father, James Wells, became a trustee of Shaw College (now
Rust College
Rust College is a private historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded in 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is one of ten historically black colleges ...
). He refused to vote for Democratic candidates (see
Southern Democrats
Southern Democrats, historically sometimes known colloquially as Dixiecrats, are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States. Southern Democrats were generally much more conservative than Northern Democrats wi ...
) during the period of
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
, became a member of the
Loyal League
The Union Leagues were quasi-secretive men’s clubs established separately, starting in 1862, and continuing throughout the Civil War (1861–1865). The oldest Union League of America council member, an organization originally called "The Leag ...
, and was known as a "race man" for his involvement in politics and his commitment to the
Republican Party. He founded a successful carpentry business in Holly Springs in 1867, and his wife Lizzie became known as a "famous cook".
Ida B. Wells was one of the eight children, and she enrolled in the
historically Black liberal arts college Rust College
Rust College is a private historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded in 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is one of ten historically black colleges ...
in Holly Springs (formerly Shaw College). In September 1878, tragedy struck the Wells family when both of Ida's parents died during a
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...
epidemic that also claimed a sibling. Wells had been visiting her grandmother's farm near Holly Springs at the time and was spared.
Following the funerals of her parents and brother, friends and relatives decided that the five remaining Wells children should be separated and sent to foster homes. Wells resisted this proposition. To keep her younger siblings together as a family, she found work as a teacher in a rural Black elementary school outside Holly Springs. Her paternal grandmother, Peggy Wells ''(née'' Peggy Cheers; 1814–1887), along with other friends and relatives, stayed with her siblings and cared for them during the week while Wells was teaching.
About two years after Wells' grandmother Peggy had a stroke and her sister Eugenia died, Wells and her two youngest sisters moved to Memphis to live with an aunt, Fanny Butler ''('' Fanny Wells; 1837–1908), in 1883. Memphis is about from Holly Springs.
Early career and anti-segregation activism
Soon after moving to
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, Wells was hired in Woodstock by the
Shelby County school system. During her summer vacations, she attended summer sessions at
Fisk University, a
historically Black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. M ...
in
Nashville, Tennessee. She also attended
Lemoyne-Owen College, a historically Black college in Memphis. She held strong political opinions and provoked many people with her views on women's rights. At the age of 24, she wrote: "I will not begin at this late day by doing what my soul abhors; sugaring men, weak deceitful creatures, with flattery to retain them as escorts or to gratify a revenge."
On May 4, 1884, a
train conductor
A conductor (North American English) or guard (Commonwealth English) is a train crew member responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve actual operation of the train/locomotive. The ''conductor'' title is most common in Nor ...
with the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad ordered Wells to give up her seat in the first-class ladies car and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded with other passengers. The previous year, the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
had ruled against the federal
Civil Rights Act of 1875 (which had banned racial discrimination in public accommodations). This verdict supported railroad companies that chose to racially segregate their passengers. When Wells refused to give up her seat, the conductor and two men dragged her out of the car. Wells gained publicity in Memphis when she wrote a newspaper article for ''The Living Way'', a Black church weekly, about her treatment on the train. In Memphis, she hired an African-American attorney to sue the railroad. When her lawyer was paid off by the railroad, she hired a White attorney.
She won her case on December 24, 1884, when the local circuit court granted her a $500 award. The railroad company appealed to the
Tennessee Supreme Court
The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee. Roger A. Page is the Chief Justice.
Unlike other states, in which the state attorney general is directly elected or appointed by the governor or state leg ...
, which reversed the lower court's ruling in 1887. It concluded: "We think it is evident that the purpose of the defendant in error was to harass with a view to this suit, and that her persistence was not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat for the short ride." Wells was ordered to pay court costs. Her reaction to the higher court's decision revealed her strong convictions on civil rights and religious faith, as she responded: "I felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things from my suit for my people. ... O God, is there no ... justice in this land for us?"
While continuing to teach elementary school, Wells became increasingly active as a journalist and writer. She accepted an editorial position for a small Memphis journal, the ''Evening Star,'' and she began writing weekly articles for ''The Living Way'' newspaper under the
pen name "Iola". Articles she wrote under her pen name attacked racist
Jim Crow policies. In 1889, she became editor and co-owner with J. L. Fleming of ''
The Free Speech and Headlight'', a Black-owned newspaper established by the Reverend Taylor Nightingale (1844–1922) and based at the
Beale Street Baptist Church in Memphis.
In 1891, Wells was dismissed from her teaching post by the
Memphis Board of Education
Memphis City Schools (MCS) was the school district operating public schools in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It was headquartered in the Frances E. Coe Administration Building. On March 8, 2011, residents voted to disband the cit ...
due to her articles criticizing conditions in the Black schools of the region. She was devastated but undaunted, and concentrated her energy on writing articles for ''The Living Way'' and the ''Free Speech and Headlight''.
Anti-lynching campaign and investigative journalism
The lynching at The Curve in Memphis
![Peoples-grocery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Peoples-grocery.jpg)
In 1889, Thomas Henry Moss, Sr. (1853–1892), an African American, opened
People's Grocery, which he co-owned. The store was located in a South Memphis neighborhood nicknamed "The Curve". Wells was close to Moss and his family, having stood as godmother to his first child, Maurine E. Moss (1891–1971). Moss's store did well and competed with a White-owned grocery store across the street, Barrett's Grocery, owned by William Russell Barrett (1854–1920).
On March 2, 1892, a young Black male youth named Armour Harris was playing a game of marbles with a young White male youth named Cornelius Hurst in front of the People's Grocery. The two male youths got into an argument during the game, then began to fight. As the Black youth, Harris, seemed to be winning the fight, the father of Cornelius Hurst intervened and began to "thrash" Harris. The People's Grocery employees William Stewart and Calvin R. McDowell (1870–1892) saw the fight and rushed outside to defend the young Harris from the adult Hurst as people in the neighborhood gathered into what quickly became a "racially charged mob".
The White grocer Barrett returned the following day, March 3, 1892, to the People's Grocery with a Shelby County Sheriff's Deputy, looking for William Stewart. Calvin McDowell, who greeted Barrett, indicated that Stewart was not present, but Barrett was dissatisfied with the response and was frustrated that the People's Grocery was competing with his store. Angry about the previous day's ''
mêlée
A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...
,'' Barrett responded that "Blacks were thieves" and hit McDowell with a pistol. McDowell wrestled the gun away and fired at Barrett—missing narrowly. McDowell was later arrested but subsequently released.
On March 5, 1892, a group of six White men including a sheriff's deputy took electric streetcars to the People's Grocery. The group of White men were met by a barrage of bullets from the People's Grocery, and Shelby County Sheriff Deputy Charley Cole was wounded, as well as civilian Bob Harold. Hundreds of Whites were deputized almost immediately to put down what was perceived by the local Memphis newspapers ''
Commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
'' and ''
Appeal-Avalanche'' as an armed rebellion by Black men in Memphis.
Thomas Moss, a postman in addition to being the owner of the People's Grocery, was named as a conspirator along with McDowell and Stewart. The three men were arrested and jailed pending trial.
Around 2:30 a.m. on the morning of March 9, 1892, 75 men wearing black masks took Moss, McDowell, and Stewart from their jail cells at the Shelby County Jail to a Chesapeake and Ohio rail yard one mile north of the city and shot them dead. The ''Memphis Appeal-Avalanche'' reports:
Just before he was killed, Moss said to the mob: "Tell my people to go west, there is no justice here."
After the lynching of her friends, Wells wrote in ''Free Speech and Headlight'' urging Blacks to leave Memphis altogether:
There is, therefore, only one thing left to do; save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
in the courts, but takes us out and murders us in cold blood when accused by White persons.
The event led Wells to begin investigating lynchings using investigative journalist techniques. She began to interview people associated with lynchings, including a lynching in
Tunica, Mississippi
Tunica is a town in and the county seat of Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, near the Mississippi River. Until the early 1990s when casino gambling was introduced in the area, Tunica had been one of the most impoverished places in the Un ...
, in 1892 where she concluded that the father of a young White woman had implored a lynch mob to kill a Black man with whom his daughter was having a sexual relationship, under a
pretense "to save the reputation of his daughter".
''Free Speech'' newspaper destroyed by mob
Wells' anti-lynching commentaries in the ''Free Speech'' had been building, particularly with respect to lynchings and imprisonment of Black men suspected of raping White women. A story broke on January 16, 1892, in the ''
Cleveland Gazette
''The Cleveland Gazette'' was a weekly newspaper published in Cleveland, Ohio, from August 25, 1883, to May 20, 1945. It was an African-American newspaper owned and edited by Harry Clay Smith, initially with a group of partners. Circulation was ...
'', describing a wrongful conviction for a sexual affair between a married White woman, Julia Underwood (''née'' Julie Caroline Wells), and a single Black man, William Offet (1854–1914) of
Elyria, Ohio
Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River (Ohio), Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles sou ...
. Offet was convicted of rape and served four years of a 15-year sentence, despite his sworn denial of rape (the word of a Black man against that of a White woman). Her husband, Rev. Isaac T. Underwood – after she confessed to him two years later – diligently worked to get Offet out of the penitentiary. After hiring an influential Pittsburgh attorney, Thomas Harlan Baird Patterson (1844–1907), Rev. Underwood prevailed, Offet was released and subsequently pardoned by the Ohio Governor.
On May 21, 1892, Wells published an editorial in the ''Free Speech'' refuting what she called "that old
threadbare lie that Negro men rape White women. If Southern men are not careful, a conclusion might be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women."
Four days later, on May 25, ''
The Daily Commercial'' published a threat: "The fact that a Black scoundrel
da B. Wellsis allowed to live and utter such loathsome and repulsive
calumnies is a volume of evidence as to the wonderful patience of Southern Whites. But we've had enough of it." ''The Evening Scimitar'' (
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
) copied the story that same day, but, more specifically raised the threat: "Patience under such circumstances is not a virtue. If the Negroes themselves do not apply the remedy without delay it will be the duty of those whom he has attacked to tie the wretch who utters these calumnies to a stake at the intersection of Main and Madison Sts., brand him in the forehead with a hot iron and perform upon him a surgical operation with a pair of tailor's shears."
A White mob ransacked the ''Free Speech'' office, destroying the building and its contents. James L. Fleming, co-owner with Wells and business manager, was forced to flee Memphis; and, reportedly, the trains were being watched for Wells' return. Creditors took possession of the office and sold the assets of the ''Free Speech.'' Wells had been out of town, vacationing in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
; she never returned to Memphis. A "committee" of White businessmen, reportedly from the
Cotton Exchange, located Rev. Nightingale and, although he had sold his interest to Wells and Fleming in 1891, assaulted him and forced him at gunpoint to sign a letter retracting the May 21 editorial.
Wells subsequently accepted a job with ''
The New York Age
''The New York Age'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1887. It was widely considered one of the most prominent African-American newspapers of its time. '' and continued her anti-lynching campaign from New York. For the next three years, she resided in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
, initially as a guest at the home of
Timothy Thomas Fortune
Timothy Thomas Fortune (October 3, 1856June 2, 1928) was an orator, civil rights leader, journalist, writer, editor and publisher. He was the highly influential editor of the nation's leading black newspaper ''The New York Age'' and was the leadin ...
(1856–1928) and wife, Carrie Fortune (''née'' Caroline Charlotte Smiley; 1860–1940).
According to Kenneth W. Goings, PhD, no copy of the ''Memphis Free Speech'' survives. The only knowledge of the newspaper ever existing comes from reprinted articles in other archived newspapers.
''Southern Horrors'' (1892)
![Cover Southern horrors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Cover_Southern_horrors.png)
On October 26, 1892, Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a
pamphlet titled ''Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases''. Having examined many accounts of lynchings due to the alleged "rape of White women", she concluded that Southerners cried rape as an excuse to hide their real reasons for lynchings: Black economic progress, which threatened White Southerners with competition, and White ideas of enforcing Black second-class status in the society. Black economic progress was a contemporary issue in the South, and in many states Whites worked to suppress Black progress. In this period at the turn of the century, Southern states, starting with Mississippi in 1890, passed laws and/or new constitutions to
disenfranchise most Black people and many poor White people through use of
poll taxes,
literacy tests and other devices.
Wells, in ''Southern Horrors,'' adopted the phrase "poor, blind Afro-American Sampsons" to denote Black men as victims of "White
Delilah
Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label= Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved ...
s". The Biblical "
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
", in the vernacular of the day, came from
Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
's 1865 poem, "
The Warning", containing the line: "There is a poor, blind Samson in the land" To explain the
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
"Sampson",
John Elliott Cairnes
John Elliott Cairnes (26 December 1823 – 8 July 1875) was an Irish-born political economist. He has been described as the "last of the classical economists".
Biography
John Cairnes was born at Castlebellingham, County Louth. He was the son ...
, an Irish
political economist
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour m ...
, in his 1865 article about
Black suffrage, wrote that Longfellow was prophesizing; ''
to wit:'' in "the long-impending struggle for Americans following the Civil War,
e, Longfellowcould see in the Negro only an instrument of vengeance, and a cause of ruin".
''The Red Record'' (1895)
After conducting further research, Wells published ''The Red Record,'' in 1895, a 100-page pamphlet with more detail, describing lynching in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. It also covered Black people's struggles in the South since the Civil War. ''The Red Record'' explored the alarmingly high rates of lynching in the United States (which was at a peak from 1880 to 1930). Wells said that during Reconstruction, most Americans outside the South did not realize the growing rate of violence against Black people in the South. She believed that during slavery, White people had not committed as many attacks because of the economic labour value of slaves. Wells noted that, since slavery time, "ten thousand Negroes have been killed in cold blood,
hrough lynchingwithout the formality of judicial trial and legal execution".
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
had written an article noting three eras of "Southern barbarism" and the excuses that Whites claimed in each period.
Wells explored these in her ''The Red Record''.
* During the time of slavery, she observed that Whites worked to "repress and stamp out alleged 'race riots or suspected slave rebellions, usually killing Black people in far higher proportions than any White casualties. Once the Civil War ended, White people feared Black people, who were in the majority in many areas. White people acted to control them and suppress them by violence.
* During the
Reconstruction Era White people lynched Black people as part of mob efforts to suppress Black political activity and re-establish
White supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
after the war. They feared "Negro Domination" through voting and taking office. Wells urged Black people in high-risk areas to move away to protect their families.
* She observed that Whites frequently claimed that Black men had "to be killed to avenge their assaults upon women". She said that White people assumed that any relationship between a White woman and a Black man was a result of rape. But, given power relationships, it was much more common for White men to take sexual advantage of poor Black women. She stated: "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old threadbare lie that Black men rape White women." Wells connected lynching to sexual violence, showing how the myth of the Black man's lust for White women led to the murder of African-American men.
Wells gave 14 pages of statistics related to lynching cases committed from 1892 to 1895; she also included pages of graphic accounts detailing specific lynchings. She wrote that her data was taken from articles by White correspondents, White press bureaus, and White newspapers. Her delivery of these statistics did not simply reduce the lynchings to numbers, Wells strategically paired the data with descriptive accounts in a way that helped her audience conceptualize the scale of the injustice. This powerful quantification captivated Black and White audiences about the horrors of lynching, through both her circulated works and public oration.
''Southern Horrors'' and ''The Red Record''s documentation of lynchings captured the attention of Northerners who knew little about lynching or accepted the common explanation that Black men deserved this fate.
According to the
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and oth ...
, 4,084 African Americans were lynched in the
South, alone, between 1877 and 1950, of which, 25 percent were accused of sexual assault and nearly 30 percent, murder. Generally southern states and White juries refused to indict any perpetrators for lynching, although they were frequently known and sometimes shown in the photographs being made more frequently of such events.
Despite Wells's attempt to gain support among White Americans against lynching, she believed that her campaign could not overturn the economic interests Whites had in using lynching as an instrument to maintain Southern order and discourage Black economic ventures. Ultimately, Wells concluded that appealing to reason and compassion would not succeed in gaining criminalization of lynching by Southern Whites. In response to the extreme violence perpetrated upon Black Americans by some White people, Wells concluded that perhaps armed resistance was the only defense against lynching, and recommended that Black people use arms to defend against lynching. Wells was an outspoken advocate of firearms ownership for Black Americans,
and said that "A
Winchester rifle
Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Mo ...
should have a place of honor in every black home
Speaking tours in Britain
Wells travelled twice to Britain in her campaign against lynching, the first time in 1893 and the second in 1894 in effort to gain the support of such a powerful White nation such as Britain to shame and sanction the racist practices of America. She and her supporters in America saw these tours as an opportunity for her to reach larger, White audiences with her anti-lynching campaign, something she had been unable to accomplish in America. In these travels, Wells notes that her own transatlantic voyages in themselves held a powerful cultural context given the histories of the
Middle Passage, and black female identity within the dynamics of segregation. She found sympathetic audiences in Britain, already shocked by reports of lynching in America.
Wells had been invited for her first British speaking tour by
Catherine Impey and
Isabella Fyvie Mayo. Impey, a Quaker abolitionist who published the journal ''Anti-Caste'', had attended several of Wells' lectures while traveling in America. Mayo was a writer and poet who wrote under the name of Edward Garrett. Both women had read of the particularly gruesome lynching of
Henry Smith in Texas and wanted to organize a speaking tour to call attention to American lynchings.
Impey and Mayo asked Frederick Douglass to make the trip, but he declined, citing his age and health. He then suggested Wells, who enthusiastically accepted the invitation. In 1894, before leaving the US for her second visit to Great Britain, Wells called on
William Penn Nixon
William Penn Nixon, Sr., (1832 – February 20, 1912) was an American publisher and politician from Indiana. Following an extensive private education, Nixon graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and became involved in Ohio politics. He se ...
, the editor of the ''
Daily Inter Ocean'', a Republican newspaper in Chicago. It was the only major White paper that persistently denounced lynching. After she told Nixon about her planned tour, he asked her to write for the newspaper while in England. She was the first African-American woman to be a paid correspondent for a mainstream White newspaper.
Wells toured England, Scotland and Wales for two months, addressing audiences of thousands, and rallying a moral crusade among the British. She relied heavily on her pamphlet ''Southern Horrors'' in her first tour, and showed shocking photographs of actual lynchings in America. On May 17, 1894, she spoke in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
at the Young Men's Christian Assembly and at
Central Hall, staying in
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...
at 66 Gough Road. On 25 June 1894 at
Bradford she gave a "sensational address, though in a quiet and restrained manner"..
On the last night of her second tour, the London Anti-Lynching Committee was established – reportedly the first anti-lynching organization in the world. Its founding members included many notables such as the
Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll ( gd, Diùc Earraghàidheil) is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerfu ...
, Sir
John Gorst, the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Lady Henry Somerset
Isabella Caroline Somerset, Lady Henry Somerset (née Somers-Cocks; 3 August 1851 – 12 March 1921), styled Lady Isabella Somers-Cocks from 5 October 1852 to 6 February 1872, was a British philanthropist, temperance leader and campaigner for w ...
and some twenty
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, with activist
Florence Balgarnie
Florence Balgarnie (19 August 1856 – 25 March 1928) was a British suffragette, speaker, pacifist, feminist, and temperance activist. Characterised as a "staunch Liberal", and influenced by Lydia Becker, Balgarnie began her support of women's ...
as the honorary secretary.
As a result of her two lecture tours in Britain, Wells received significant coverage in the British and American press. Many of the articles published by the latter at the time of her return to the United States were hostile personal critiques, rather than reports of her anti-lynching positions and beliefs. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', for example, called her "a slanderous and nasty-minded Mulatress". Despite these attacks from the American press, Wells had nevertheless gained extensive recognition and credibility, and an international audience of supporters for her cause. Wells' tours in Britain even influenced public opinion to the extent that British textile manufacturers fought back with economic strategies, imposing a temporary boycott on Southern cotton that pressured southern businessmen to condemn the practice of lynching publically.
Marriage and family
![Ida B Wells with her children, 1909 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Ida_B_Wells_with_her_children%2C_1909_%28cropped%29.jpg)
On June 27, 1895, in Chicago at Bethel AME Church, Wells married attorney
Ferdinand L. Barnett, a widower with two sons, Ferdinand Barnett and Albert Graham Barnett (1886–1962). Ferdinand Lee Barnett, who lived in Chicago, was a prominent attorney, civil rights activist, and journalist. Like Wells, he spoke widely against lynchings and for the civil rights of African Americans. Wells and Barnett had met in 1893, working together on a pamphlet protesting the lack of Black representation at the
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago in 1893. Barnett founded ''
The Chicago Conservator
''The Chicago Conservator'' was an American newspaper. Founded by attorney Ferdinand Barnett in 1878, it was the first African-American newspaper in Chicago.
History
Barnett founded the newspaper in 1878 and served as co-editor with R. P. Bird. ...
'', the first Black newspaper in Chicago, in 1878. Wells began writing for the paper in 1893, later acquired a partial ownership interest, and after marrying Barnett, assumed the role of editor.
Wells' marriage to Barnett was a legal union as well as a partnership of ideas and actions. Both were journalists, and both were established activists with a shared commitment to civil rights. In an interview, Wells' daughter
Alfreda said that the two had "like interests" and that their journalist careers were "intertwined". This sort of close working relationship between a wife and husband was unusual at the time, as women often played more traditional domestic roles in a marriage.
In addition to Barnett's two children from his previous marriage, the couple had four more: Charles Aked Barnett (1896–1957), Herman Kohlsaat Barnett (1897–1975), Ida Bell Wells Barnett, Jr. (1901–1988), and
Alfreda Marguerita Barnett ''(married surname'' Duster; 1904–1983). Charles Aked Barnett's middle name was the surname of Charles Frederic Aked (1864–1941), an influential British-born-turned-American progressive Protestant clergyman who, in 1894, while pastor of the Pembrooke Baptist Church in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, England, befriended Wells, endorsed her anti-lynching campaign, and hosted her during her second speaking tour in England in 1894.
Wells began writing her autobiography, ''Crusade for Justice'' (1928), but never finished the book; it would be posthumously published, edited by her daughter
Alfreda Barnett Duster, in 1970, as ''Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells''.In a chapter of ''Crusade For Justice'', titled "A Divided Duty", she described the difficult challenge of splitting her time between family and work. She continued to work after the birth of her first child, traveling and bringing the infant Charles with her. Although she tried to balance her roles as a mother and as a national activist, it was alleged that she was not always successful.
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
said she seemed "distracted".
The establishment by Wells of Chicago's first kindergarten prioritizing Black children, located in the lecture room of the Bethel AME Church, demonstrates how her public activism and her personal life were connected; as her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster notes: "When her older children started getting of school age, then she recognized that black children did not have the same kind of educational opportunities as some other students .... And so, her attitude was, 'Well since it doesn't exist, we'll create it ourselves.
African-American leadership
The 19th century's acknowledged leader for African-American civil rights
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
praised Wells' work, giving her introductions and sometimes financial support for her investigations. When he died in 1895, Wells was perhaps at the height of her notoriety, but many men and women were ambivalent or against a woman taking the lead in Black civil rights at a time when women were not seen as, and often not allowed to be, leaders by the wider society. For the new leading voices,
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
, his rival,
W. E. B. Du Bois, and more traditionally minded women activists, Wells often came to be seen as too radical.
Wells encountered and sometimes collaborated with the others, but they also had many disagreements, while also competing for attention for their ideas and programs. For example, there are differing in accounts for why Wells' name was excluded from the original list of founders of the
NAACP. In his autobiography ''
Dusk of Dawn
''Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept'' is a 1940 autobiographical text by W. E. B. Du Bois that examines his life and family history in the context of contemporaneous developments in race relations.
Preceded decade ...
'', Du Bois implied that Wells chose not to be included. However, in her autobiography, Wells stated that Du Bois deliberately excluded her from the list.
Organizing in Chicago
Having settled in Chicago, Wells continued her anti-lynching work while becoming more focused on the civil rights of African Americans. She worked with national civil rights leaders to protest a major exhibition, she was active in the national women's club movement, and she ultimately ran for the Illinois State Senate. She also was passionate about women's rights and suffrage. She was a spokeswoman and an advocate for women being successful in the workplace, having equal opportunities, and creating a name for themselves.
![20070601 Wells House (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/20070601_Wells_House_%282%29.JPG)
Wells was an active member of the
National Equal Rights League
The National Equal Rights League (NERL) is the oldest nationwide human rights organization in the United States. It was founded in Syracuse, New York in 1864 dedicated to the liberation of black people in the United States. Its origins can be tr ...
(NERL), founded in 1864, and was their representative calling on President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
to end discrimination in government jobs. In 1914, she served as president of NERL's Chicago bureau.
World's Columbian Exposition
In 1893, the
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
was held in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. Together with Frederick Douglass and other Black leaders, Wells organized a Black boycott of the fair, for the fair's lack of representation of African-American achievement in the exhibits. Wells, Douglass,
Irvine Garland Penn
Irvine Garland Penn (October 7, 1867 – July 22, 1930) was an educator, journalist, and lay leader in the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States. He was the author of ''The Afro-American Press and Its Editors'', published in 1891, and a ...
, and Wells' future husband, Ferdinand L. Barnett, wrote sections of the pamphlet ''The Reason Why: The Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition'', which detailed the progress of Blacks since their arrival in America and also exposed the basis of Southern lynchings. Wells later reported to
Albion W. Tourgée that copies of the pamphlet had been distributed to more than 20,000 people at the fair. That year she started work with ''The Chicago Conservator'', the oldest African-American newspaper in the city.
Women's clubs
Living in Chicago in the late 19th century, Wells was very active in the national
Woman's club movement
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
. In 1893, she organized ''
The Women's Era Club'', a first-of-its-kind civic club for African-American women in Chicago. Wells recruited veteran Chicago activist
Mary Richardson Jones to serve as the first chair of the new club in 1894; Jones recruited for the organization and lent it her considerable prestige.
It would later be renamed the Ida B. Wells Club in her honor. In 1896, Wells took part in the meeting in Washington, D.C., that founded the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs
The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) is an American organization that was formed in July 1896 at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., United States, by a merger of ...
. After her death, the Ida B. Wells Club went on to do many things. The club advocated to have a housing project in Chicago named after the founder, Ida B. Wells, and succeeded, making history in 1939 as the first housing project named after a woman of color. Wells also helped organize the
National Afro-American Council
The National Afro-American Council was the first nationwide civil rights organization in the United States, created in 1898 in Rochester, New York. Before its dissolution a decade later, the Council provided both the first national arena for disc ...
, serving as the organization's first secretary.
Wells received much support from other social activists and her fellow club women. Frederick Douglass praised her work: "You have done your people and mine a service. ...What a revelation of existing conditions your writing has been for me."
Despite Douglass's praise, Wells was becoming a controversial figure among local and national women's clubs. This was evident when in 1899 the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs intended to meet in Chicago. Writing to the president of the association,
Mary Terrell
Mary Church Terrell (born Mary Eliza Church; September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954) was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree, and became known as a national activist for civil rights and suffrage. She taught in the Lat ...
, Chicago organizers of the event stated that they would not cooperate in the meeting if it included Wells. When Wells learned that Terrell had agreed to exclude Wells, she called it "a staggering blow".
School segregation
In 1900, Wells was outraged when the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' published a series of articles suggesting adoption of a system of
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in public schools. Given her experience as a school teacher in segregated systems in the South, she wrote to the publisher on the failures of segregated school systems and the successes of integrated public schools. She then went to his office and lobbied him. Unsatisfied, she enlisted the social reformer
Jane Addams
Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...
in her cause. Wells and the pressure group she put together with Addams are credited with stopping the adoption of an officially segregated school system.
Suffrage
Willard controversy
![Face detail, from- Ida B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Face_detail%2C_from-_Ida_B._Wells_circa_1895_by_Cihak_and_Zima_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Wells' role in the U.S. suffrage movement was inextricably linked to her lifelong crusade against racism, violence and discrimination towards African Americans. Her view of women's
enfranchisement
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
was pragmatic and political. Like all suffragists she believed in women's right to vote, but she also saw enfranchisement as a way for Black women to become politically involved in their communities and to use their votes to elect African Americans, regardless of gender, to influential political office.
As a prominent Black suffragist, Wells held strong positions against racism, violence and lynching that brought her into conflict with leaders of largely White suffrage organizations. Perhaps the most notable example of this conflict was her very public disagreement with
Frances Willard
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 an ...
, the first President of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
(WCTU).
The WCTU was a predominantly White women's organization, with branches in every state and a growing membership, including in the Southern United States, where
segregation laws
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internati ...
and lynching occurred. With roots in the call for temperance and sobriety, the organization later became a powerful advocate of suffrage in the U.S.
In 1893 Wells and Willard travelled separately to Britain on lecture tours. Willard was promoting temperance as well as suffrage for women, and Wells was calling attention to lynching in the U.S. The basis of their dispute was Wells' public statements that Willard was silent on the issue of lynching. Wells referred to an interview Willard had conducted during her tour of the American South, in which Willard had blamed African Americans' behavior for the defeat of temperance legislation. "The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt", Willard had said, and "the
grog shop is its center of power. The safety of women, of childhood, of the home is menaced in a thousand localities, so that men dare not go beyond the sight of their own
roof tree."
Although Willard and her prominent supporter
Lady Somerset were critical of Wells' comments, Wells was able to turn that into her favor, portraying their criticisms as attempts by powerful White leaders to "crush an insignificant colored woman".
Wells also dedicated a chapter in ''The Red Record'' to juxtapose the different positions that she and Willard held. The chapter titled "Miss Willard's Attitude" condemned Willard for using rhetoric that promoted violence and other crimes against African Americans in America.
Negro Fellowship League
Wells, her husband, and some members of their Bible study group, in 1908 founded the
Negro Fellowship League (NFL), the first Black
settlement house
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
in Chicago. The organization, in rented space, served as a reading room, library, activity center, and shelter for young Black men in the local community at a time when the local
Young Men's Christian Association
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
(YMCA) did not allow Black men to become members. The NFL also assisted with job leads and entrepreneurial opportunities for new arrivals in Chicago from Southern States, notably those of the
Great Migration. During her involvement, the NFL advocated for women's suffrage and supported the Republican Party in Illinois.
Alpha Suffrage Club
In the years following her dispute with Willard, Wells continued her anti-lynching campaign and organizing in Chicago. She focused her work on Black women's suffrage in the city following the enactment of a new state law enabling partial women's suffrage. The Illinois Presidential and Municipal Suffrage Bill of 1913 (see
Women's suffrage in Illinois
Women's suffrage in Illinois began in the mid 1850s. The first women's suffrage group was formed in Earlville, Illinois by the cousin of Susan B. Anthony, Susan Hoxie Richardson. After the Civil War, former abolitionist, Mary Livermore, organized ...
) gave women in the state the right to vote for presidential electors, mayor, aldermen and most other local offices; but not for governor, state representatives or members of Congress.
Illinois was the first state east of the Mississippi to give women these voting rights.
The prospect of passing the act, even one of partial enfranchisement, was the impetus for Wells and her White colleague
Belle Squire
Belle Squire, properly Viola Belle Squire, (1870-1939) was a suffragist from Illinois who was involved in the Chicago suffrage movement and co-founded the Alpha Suffrage Club with Ida B. Wells. She was especially known for her opposition to paying ...
to organize the
Alpha Suffrage Club
The Alpha Suffrage Club was the first and most important black female suffrage club in Chicago and one of the most important in Illinois. It was founded on January 30, 1913 by Ida B. Wells with the help of her white colleagues Belle Squire and Vir ...
in Chicago on January 30, 1913. One of the most important Black suffrage organizations in Chicago, the Alpha Suffrage Club was founded as a way to further voting rights for all women, to teach Black women how to engage in civic matters, and to work to elect African Americans to city offices. Two years after its founding, the club played a significant role in electing
Oscar De Priest
Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was an American politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party, he was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th centu ...
as the first African-American
alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...
in Chicago.
As Wells and Squire were organizing the Alpha Club, the
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...
(NAWSA) was organizing a suffrage parade in Washington D.C. Marching the day before the inauguration of
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
as president in 1913, suffragists from across the country gathered to demand universal suffrage. Wells, together with a delegation of members from Chicago, attended. On the day of the march, the head of the Illinois delegation told the Wells delegates that the NAWSA wanted "to keep the delegation entirely White", and all African-American suffragists, including Wells, were to walk at the end of the parade in a "colored delegation".
Instead of going to the back with other African Americans, however, Wells waited with spectators as the parade was underway, and stepped into the White Illinois delegation as they passed by. She visibly linked arms with her White suffragist colleagues, Squire and
Virginia Brooks
Virginia Brooks (January 11, 1886 – June 15, 1929) was an American suffragist and political reformer who worked in the Chicago region and throughout Indiana in the early 1900s. She was born to parents who moved from Ohio to Chicago. Brooks penne ...
, for the rest of the parade, demonstrating, according to ''
The Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
'', the universality of the women's civil rights movement.
From "race agitator" to political candidate
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the U.S. government placed Wells under surveillance, labeling her a dangerous "race agitator". She defied this threat by continuing civil rights work during this period with such figures as
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...
,
Monroe Trotter, and
Madam C. J. Walker. In 1917, Wells wrote a series of investigative reports for the ''
Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
'' on the
East St. Louis Race Riots. After almost thirty years away, Wells made her first trip back to the South in 1921 to investigate and publish a report on the
Elaine massacre
The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30–October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. Estimates of deaths made in ...
in
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
(published 1922).
In the 1920s, she participated in the struggle for African-American workers' rights, urging Black women's organizations to support the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
, as it tried to gain legitimacy. However, she lost the presidency of the
National Association of Colored Women
The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) is an American organization that was formed in July 1896 at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., United States, by a merger of ...
in 1924 to the more diplomatic
Mary Bethune. To challenge what she viewed as problems for African Americans in Chicago, Wells started a political organization named Third Ward Women's Political Club in 1927. In 1928, she tried to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention but lost to Oscar De Priest. Her feelings toward the Republican Party became more mixed due to what she viewed as the
Hoover administration
Herbert Hoover's tenure as the 31st president of the United States began on his inauguration on March 4, 1929, and ended on March 4, 1933. Hoover, a Republican, took office after a landslide victory in the 1928 presidential election over Democr ...
's poor stance on civil rights and attempts to promote a "
Lily-White" policy in Southern Republican organizations. In 1930, Wells unsuccessfully sought elective office, running as an Independent for a seat in the
Illinois Senate, against the Republican Party candidate,
Adelbert Roberts.
Influence on Black feminist activism
Wells explained that the defense of White women's honor allowed Southern White men to get away with murder by projecting their own history of sexual violence onto Black men. Her call for all races and genders to be accountable for their actions showed African-American women that they can speak out and fight for their rights. According to some, by portraying the horrors of lynching, she worked to show that racial and gender discrimination are linked, furthering the Black feminist cause.
Legacy and honors
Since Wells' death, with the rise of mid-20th-century civil rights activism, and the 1971 posthumous publication of her autobiography, interest in her life and legacy has grown. Awards have been established in her name by the
National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is an organization of African-American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C., by 44 journalists, the NABJ's stated purpose is to provide quality p ...
, the
Medill School of Journalism
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the Unite ...
at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, the
Coordinating Council for Women in History
The Coordinating Council for Women in History is a national professional organization for women historians in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession to promote recruitment and s ...
, the
Type Investigations (formerly the Investigative Fund), the
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...
, and the
New York County Lawyers' Association
The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City.
The New York County Lawyers Association was founded in 1908 because the existing bar association excluded some lawyers from membership due to their r ...
(awarded annually since 2003), among many others. The Ida B. Wells Memorial Foundation and the Ida B. Wells Museum have also been established to protect, preserve and promote Wells' legacy. In her hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi, there is an Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum named in her honor that acts as a cultural center of African-American history.
In 1941, the
Public Works Administration (PWA) built a
Chicago Housing Authority
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is a municipal corporation that oversees public housing within the city of Chicago. The agency's Board of Commissioners is appointed by the city's mayor, and has a budget independent from that of the city of ...
public
housing project in the
Bronzeville neighborhood on the
South Side of Chicago
The South Side is an area of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It lies south of the city's Loop area in the downtown. Geographically, it is the largest of the three sides of the city that radiate from downtown, with the other two being the north and w ...
; it was named the
Ida B. Wells Homes in her honor. The buildings were demolished in August 2011 due to changing demographics and ideas about such housing.
In 1988, she was inducted into the
National Women's Hall of Fame. In August that year, she was also inducted into the
Chicago Women's Hall of Fame The Chicago Women's Hall of Fame was created in 1988 by the Chicago Commission on Women to recognize the endeavors of women to improve their socio-economic and political quality of life in the City of Chicago, United States
The United State ...
.
Molefi Kete Asante
Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professo ...
included Wells on his list of ''
100 Greatest African Americans
''100 Greatest African Americans'' is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans (in alphabetical order; that is, they are not ranked), as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A ...
'' in 2002. In 2011, Wells was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame for her writings.
On February 1, 1990, at the start of
Black History Month
Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...
in the U.S., the
U.S. Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...
dedicated a 25¢
stamp commemorating Wells in a ceremony at the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The stamp, designed by
Thomas Blackshear II, features a portrait of Wells illustrated from a composite of photographs of her taken during the mid-1890s. Wells is the 25th African-American entry – and fourth African-American woman – on a U.S. postage stamp. She is the 13th in the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.
In 2006, the
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
commissioned a portrait of Wells. In 2007, the Ida B. Wells Association was founded by
University of Memphis
}
The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.
The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering, the Center for Ea ...
philosophy graduate students to promote discussion of philosophical issues arising from the African-American experience and to provide a context in which to mentor undergraduates. The Philosophy Department at the University of Memphis has sponsored the Ida B. Wells conference every year since 2007.
On February 12, 2012,
Mary E. Flowers
Mary E. Flowers (born July 31, 1951) is a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives and serves as the House Deputy Majority Leader. She represented the 31st district from January 9, 1985 to January 13, 1993, represented the 21s ...
, a member of the
Illinois House of Representatives, introduced House Resolution 770 during the 97th General Assembly, honoring Ida B. Wells by declaring March 25, 2012 – the anniversary of her death – as Ida B. Wells Day in the State of Illinois.
![Ida B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Ida_B._Wells-Barnett_marker_H.S.jpg)
In August 2014, Wells was the subject of an episode of the
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
programme ''
Great Lives
''Great Lives'' is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol. It has been presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and currently (since April 2006) Matthew Parris. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the pe ...
'', in which her work was championed by Baroness
Oona King
Oona Tamsyn King, Baroness King of Bow (born 22 October 1967) is a business executive and former British Labour Party politician. She was a Labour Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005.
Early life
Oona King was ...
. Wells was honored with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
on July 16, 2015, which would have been her 153rd birthday.
In 2016, the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting was launched in Memphis, Tennessee, with the purpose of promoting investigative journalism. Following in the footsteps of Wells, this society encourages minority journalists to expose injustices perpetuated by the government and defend people who are susceptible to being taken advantage of. This organization was created with much support from the
Open Society Foundations,
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, and
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York is a public graduate journalism school located in New York City. One of the 24 institutions comprising the City University of New York, or CUNY, the school opened ...
.
In 2018, the
National Memorial for Peace and Justice
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial, is a national memorial to commemorate the black victims of lynching in the United States. It is intended to focus on and acknowledge past racial ter ...
opened, including a reflection space dedicated to Wells, a selection of quotes by her, and a stone inscribed with her name.
![Ida B Wells blue plaque unveiling - 2019-02-12 - Andy Mabbett - 31](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Ida_B_Wells_blue_plaque_unveiling_-_2019-02-12_-_Andy_Mabbett_-_31.jpg)
On March 8, 2018, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' published a belated obituary for her, in a series marking
International Women's Day and entitled "Overlooked", which set out to acknowledge that, since 1851, the newspaper's obituary pages had been dominated by White men, while notable women – including Wells – had been ignored.
In July 2018, Chicago's City Council officially renamed Congress Parkway as
Ida B. Wells Drive; it is the first
downtown Chicago
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distri ...
street named after a woman of color.
On February 12, 2019, a
blue plaque, provided by the
Nubian Jak Community Trust
Nubian Jak Community Trust (NJCT) is a commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme founded by Jak Beula that highlights the historic contributions of Black and minority ethnic people in Britain. The first NJCT heritage plaque, honouring Bob Marley, ...
, was unveiled by the
mayor of Birmingham,
Yvonne Mosquito
Yvonne Mosquito (born 19 December 1964) is a British politician who served as the 109th Lord Mayor of Birmingham between 2018 and 2019 for the Labour Party. She has served as a member of Birmingham City Council from 1996, currently for the ward ...
, at the Edgbaston Community Centre,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, England, commemorating Wells' stay in a house on the exact site of 66 Gough Road where she stayed in 1893 during her speaking tour of the British Isles.
On July 13, 2019, a marker for her was unveiled in Mississippi, on the northeast corner of Holly Springs' Courthouse Square. The marker was dedicated by the Wells-Barnett Museum and the
Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation
The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) is an American non-profit 501(c)(3) volunteer historical society. The society locates sites of American and Jewish historical interest and importance. It works with local community org ...
.
In 2019, a new middle school in Washington, D.C., was named in her honor. On November 7, 2019, a
Mississippi Writers Trail The Mississippi Writers Trail is a series of historical markers which celebrate the literary, social, historical, and cultural contributions of Mississippi's most acclaimed and influential writers. An advisory committee of state cultural agencies ov ...
historical marker was installed at Rust College in Holly Springs, commemorating the legacy of Ida B. Wells.
On May 4, 2020, she was posthumously awarded a
Pulitzer Prize special citation, "for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching." The Pulitzer Prize board announced that it would donate at least $50,000 in support of Wells' mission to recipients who would be announced at a later date.
In 2021, a public high school in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
, that had been named for
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
was renamed
Ida B. Wells High School.
Monuments
![Ida B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Ida_B._Wells_Memphis_Statue.jpg)
In 2021 Chicago erected a monument to Wells in the
Bronzeville neighborhood, near where she lived and close to the site of the former
Ida B. Wells Homes housing project. Officially called
The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument (based on her quote, "the way to right wrongs is to cast the light of truth upon them"), it was created by sculptor
Richard Hunt.
Also in 2021, Memphis dedicated a new Ida B. Wells plaza with a life-sized statue of Wells. The monument is adjacent to the historic
Beale Street Baptist Church, where Wells produced the ''Free Speech'' newspaper.
Representation in media
In
1949 the
anthology radio
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
''
Destination Freedom
''Destination Freedom'' was a weekly radio program produced by WMAQ in Chicago from 1948 to 1950 that presented biographical histories of prominent African-Americans such as George Washington Carver, Satchel Paige, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tu ...
'' recapped parts of her life in the episode "Woman with a Mission".
The
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
documentary series ''
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'' aired on December 19, 1989 – season 2, episode 11 (one-hour) – "Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice", written and directed by
William Greaves
William Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker and a pioneer of film-making. He produced more than two hundred documentary films, and wrote and directed more than half of these. Greaves garnered many ...
. The documentary featured excerpts of Wells' memoirs read by
Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...
.
viewable''via''
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
)
In 1995, the play ''In Pursuit of Justice: A One-Woman Play About Ida B. Wells'', written by Wendy D. Jones (born 1953) and starring Janice Jenkins, was produced. It draws on historical incidents and speeches from Wells' autobiography, and features fictional letters to a friend. It won four awards from the
AUDELCO
AUDELCO, the Audience Development Committee, Inc., was established in 1973 by Vivian Robinson to honor excellence in African American theatre in New York City.
AUDELCO presents the Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO Recognition Awards (also known as Viv awa ...
(Audience Development Committee Inc.), an organization that honors Black theater.
In 1999, a staged
reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
of the play ''Iola's Letter'', written by Michon Boston ''(née'' Michon Alana Boston; born 1962), was performed at
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...
in Washington, D.C., under the direction of Vera J. Katz,
including then-student
Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Aaron Boseman (; November 29, 1976August 28, 2020) was an American actor. During his two-decade career, Boseman received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, ...
among the cast. The play is inspired by the real-life events that compelled a 29-year-old Ida B. Wells to launch an anti-lynching crusade from Memphis in 1892 using her newspaper, ''Free Speech''.
Wells' life is the subject of ''Constant Star'' (2002), a widely performed musical drama by
Tazewell Thompson
Tazewell Thompson (born May 27, 1948), is an African-American theatre director, the former artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse (2006–07) in Westport, Connecticut and the Syracuse Stage (1992–95) in New York state. Prior to tha ...
, who was inspired to write it by the 1989 documentary ''Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice''. Thompson's play explores Wells as "a seminal figure in Post-
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
America".
Wells was played by Adilah Barnes in the 2004 film ''
Iron Jawed Angels
''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 American historical drama film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Hus ...
''. The film dramatizes a moment during the
Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913
The Woman Suffrage Procession on 3 March 1913 was the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C. It was also the first large, organized march on Washington for political purposes. The procession was organized by the suffragists Alice Paul and ...
when Wells ignored instructions to march with the segregated parade units and crossed the lines to march with the other members of her Illinois chapter.
Selected publications
*
*
*
*
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells 1970 — vi
The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences
See also
*
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
*
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
*
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, u ...
*
List of civil rights leaders
Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights. They work to protect individuals and groups from political repressio ...
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*
List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Afghanistan
* Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate
* Hasina Jalal – women's empowerm ...
*
Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women and men from certain classes or races w ...
*
Black feminism
Black feminism is a philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy."
Race, gen ...
Bibliography
Annotations
Notes
References to linked inline notes
Books, journals, magazines, academic papers, online blogs
*
Print:
- Book (1st ed.) (July 31, 1999);
- Book (10th ed.) (February 1, 2000): ;
- Book (11th ed.) (2011):
Exhibitions, film, digital:
- Roth Horowitz Gallery, 160A East 70th Street,
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
(January 14, 2000 – February 12, 2000); Andrew Roth and Glenn Horowitz, gallery co-owners, ''Witness: Photographs of Lynchings from the Collection of James Allen and John Littlefield,'' organized by Andrew Roth
- New York Historical Society (March 14, 2000 – October 1, 2000); , ''Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America,'' curated by James Allen and Julia Hotton
-
Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and arc ...
(September 22, 2001 – February 21, 2002), ''The Without Sanctuary Project,'' curated by James Allen; co-directed by Jessica Arcand and Margery King
-
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres (0.14 km2) and includes several sites in Atlanta, Georgia related to the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Within the park is his boyhood h ...
(May 1, 2002 – December 31, 2002), ''Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America;'' , curated by Joseph F. Jordan, PhD ''(né'' Joseph Ferdinand Jordan, Jr.; born 1951); Douglas H. Quin, PhD (born 1956) exhibition designer; National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
MLK site team: Frank Catroppa, Saudia Muwwakkil, and Melissa English-Rias
- The 2002 short film, ''Without Sanctuary,'' directed by Matt Dibble ''(né'' Matthew Phillips Dibble; born 1959) and produced by Joseph F. Jordan, PhD ''(né'' Joseph Ferdinand Jordan, Jr.; born 1951), accompanied the 2002–2003 exhibition by the same name, ''Without Sanctuary,'' at the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres (0.14 km2) and includes several sites in Atlanta, Georgia related to the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Within the park is his boyhood h ...
(co-sponsored by Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
)
- Digital format (2008): (Overview, Movie, Photos, Forum)
- ; part of collection at the
Robert W. Woodruff Library
Emory Libraries is the collective group of academic libraries at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The libraries include the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Goizueta Business Library, Hugh F. MacMil ...
at Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
*
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Quoting →
*
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*
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*
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* (paper). (
ejournal
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...
). .
*
*
*
*
- "Michon Boston" (1962–), pp. 366–367
- ''Iola's Letter'' (1994), pp. 368–408
*
*
*
*
*
* ).
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (this book, Vol. 15 of a 16-vol. set, is an adaptation of Thompson's 1979 PhD dissertation at
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
; ).
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* .
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
, Manuscript/Mixed Material – . Also transcribed by
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
→ (released February 8, 2005).
*
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News media
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*
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* .
- Reprinted by the ''
New York Call
The ''New York Call'' was a socialism, socialist daily newspaper published in New York City from 1908 through 1923. The ''Call'' was the second of three English-language dailies affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, following the ''Chica ...
'' (July 23, 1911). "The Negro's Quest for Work". . .
- Transcribed and published by ''The Black Worker'' (1900 to 1919). Vol. 5. Foner, Philip Sheldon (1910–1994); Lewis, Ronald L. (eds.). Part I: "Economic Condition of the Black Worker at the Turn of the Twentieth-Century".
Temple University Press
Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...
. pp. 38–39 – via . .
*
Government and genealogical archives
*
*
*
General references (not linked to notes)
*
*
* (portraits from the book have been digitized and are archived at the
New York Public Library,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division; – click on "Digital Gallery").
* (the author published a PhD dissertation under the same title in 2000 at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
; )
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* Ida B. Wells (1862–1931)
Biography
History Is a Weapon Website
* Davidson, James West. They say': Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race''.
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2009. . .
*
Dray, Philip, ''Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist'', Peachtree, 2008.
*
- "Ida B. Wells, 1862–1931"
The Writing of Ida B. Wells
-
A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892–1893–1894
'
- "About Ida B. Wells and Her Writings"
Schechter, Patricia Ann, PhD. Portland State University
Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decad ...
.
- "Biography of Ida B Wells"
- "The Anti-Lynching Pamphlets of Ida B. Wells, 1892–1920"
/ol>
- "Video" – In the videos, Schechter talks about Wells' experiences and legacy
via Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008 (14 files archived in RealMedia format). Retrieved March 28, 2008.
*
*
*
::: This work was originally posted on a blog that was part of UNC's Long Civil Rights Movement Project – The LCRM Project (). It was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
and UNC for five years, from 2008 to 2012, and its published works were a collaboration of (i) the UNC Special Collections Library, (ii) the University of North Carolina Press
The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the Southern United States. It is a member of the As ...
, and (iii) the Southern Oral History Program
The Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), located in the Love House and Hutchins Forum in the historic district of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a research institution dedicated to collecting and preserving oral histories from across the south ...
in UNC's Center for the Study of the American South
The Center for the Study of the American South (CSAS) is an academic organization dedicated to the study of "southern history, literature, and culture as well as ongoing social, political, and economic issues" at the University of North Carolina ...
. A fourth partner during the project's first three years was the Center for Civil Rights of UNC's School of Law.
*
*
* Republication of "Lynching: Our National Crime", Wells' speech delivered during the 1909 National Negro Conference
The National Negro Committee (formed: New York City, May 31 and June 1, 1909 - ceased: New York City, May 12, 1910) was created in response to the Springfield race riot of 1908 against the black community in Springfield, Illinois. Prominent bla ...
, published in the book,
Proceedings of the National Negro Conference, 1909.
' pp. 174–179. New York: May 31 and June 1 – book is accessible via Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
).
*
External links
*
*
* Norwood, Arlisha
"Ida B. Wells"
National Women's History Museum
The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) is a museum and an American history organization that "researches, collects and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic and political life of our nation in a context of world ...
. 2017.
Ida B. Wells Papers, 1884–1976
Joseph Regenstein Library
The Joseph Regenstein Library, commonly known as "The Reg" is the main library of the University of Chicago, named after industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. It is one of the largest repositories of books in the world and is noted f ...
, University of Chicago Library
University of Chicago Library is the library system of the University of Chicago, located on the university's campus in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the tenth largest academic library in North America, with over 11.9 million volumes as ...
, Special Collections Research Center;
"Wells, Ida B." (family photo)
University of Chicago Library
University of Chicago Library is the library system of the University of Chicago, located on the university's campus in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the tenth largest academic library in North America, with over 11.9 million volumes as ...
, Special Collections Research Center, Photo Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Ida B.
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1931 deaths
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