“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
|
|
|
 Ida B. Wells
(1862-1931) — Journalist, Suffragist, Sociologist, Civil Rights Activist
By The Staff
Defiant in her resistance to racism, Ida B. Wells wrote about the violence and cruelty that was common at the turn of the 20th century. Lynchings, mob violence, segregation, and the denial of the right of women to vote and hold elected office were some of the issues she covered in her newspaper columns.
Wells was born on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, six months before the Emancipation Proclamation. She was the eldest of seven children born to James and Lizzie Wells. Her father was a trustee at Rust College who made education a priority for his children.
However, Wells had to drop out of school in 1878 at age 16 after both her parents and one of her siblings died of yellow fever. Wells was forced into the role of parent for her remaining siblings. To earn an income, she landed a job as a teacher after convincing school administrators she was 18 years old.
Unable to overpower her
In 1883, she moved her family to Memphis, Tennessee to live with an aunt. At age 22, while traveling on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the conductor demanded she relinquish her seat to a white man, ordering her to the segregated railcar. Wells refused. When the conductor tried to dislodge her forcibly, Ida bit the conductor’s hand. Unable to overpower her, the conductor employed two other men who were finally able to wrestle her out of her seat.
Wells sought an attorney, sued the railroad and won. However, the lower Circuit Court ruling was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Wells started to write about race and politics for black newspapers and magazines. She also published two publications in Memphis. In the meantime, she taught in Memphis public schools and was fired for criticizing conditions at the schools.
She became an anti-lynching crusader after the murder of Thomas H. Moss, owner of The People’s Grocery Store outside of Memphis, Tennessee. Moss and his two employees were lynched by a mob organized by a rival white grocery store owner in 1892. She went through the South researching lynchings and later wrote a report about her findings for the New York Age, a black newspaper. She took her campaign to the White House, seeking reforms from President McKinley.
Wells was a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She later withdrew from the NAACP.
She also fought racial discrimination in hiring in the federal government. Her other achievements include founding the first black kindergarten in her community and fighting for women’s suffrage.
Wells died of kidney disease at age 69 on March 25, 1931, in Chicago.
|
