Ida B. Wells
(1862-1931)

Ida B. Wells, a writer and activist was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Orphaned at the age of fourteen during the yellow fever outbreak, she worked as a teacher to support her five brothers and sisters. Wells attended Rust College and Fisk University. As a teacher she began writing about the inferior conditions of Black schools around Memphis and lost her job as a result.

She then began a full-time job as a journalist exposing crime and injustice. Wells wrote actual accounts about the lynching of three Blacks for the crime of being "uppity" and "too successful" in business. She published these protests in her newspaper, Free Speech. The lynching of her friends led her to dedicate her life to fighting against such injustices. Once again, she was punished for her writings. As a result of the article, her printing equipment was destroyed and she was forced to flee Memphis. She moved to Chicago where she married Ferdinand Barnett, editor of the first Black newspaper in Chicago. Together, they continued the fight against such heinous crimes.

While in exile, Wells became even more fervent about her cause. Through her speaking appearances in the North and in New England, she pressured people of influence to pressure the American government to take action against the lynchings. She petitioned President McKinley to protect the Blacks in the South. She extended her campaign through her essays and columns in a wide range of newspapers and magazines. Her many writings included "On Lynching: Southern Horrors" (1892), "A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States" (1895) helped to bring to the forefront the real life horrors Blacks were enduring.

She organized many civic and self-help clubs in Chicago. She was one of six Blacks who signed the initial call for the national conference from which the NAACP emerged in 1909. She was chairperson of the "Chicago Equal Rights League." She was a correspondent for the Detroit Plain Dealer, the Christian Index, and The People's Choice, all active in the struggle for protection from White violence. Many times she walked the streets with two revolvers strapped to her sides for protection.

She was part-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and the Head Light newspapers. Wells dedicated her life fighting for the equality of Blacks and later for women's suffrage.