Ida B. Wells

 

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931), known for most of her career as Ida B. Wells, was a Black journalist, activist, teacher, and early civil rights leader who fought to end racism, sexism, and violence. Using her skills as an investigative reporter, she exposed the often-brutal injustices suffered by Black Americans in the South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born into enslavement in Mississippi during the Civil War, Wells was freed in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. She was educated at Rust University’s high school for formerly enslaved persons, and later at Fisk University. After losing her parents to the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, she and her siblings moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she taught school to keep her family together.

In 1892, Wells became co-owner of the activist Memphis Free Speech newspaper. In March of the same year, she as was forced to leave town after her article harshly condemning the lynching of three Black men enraged many prominent Memphis whites. The burning of the offices of The Memphis Free Speech by an angry mob launched her career as an anti-lynching crusader and pioneering investigative journalist. While writing for some of the leading newspapers of her era, Wells traveled across the world protesting lynching and exposing racial injustice. In 1910, she helped co-found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In her later life, Wells worked for urban reform and racial equality in the growing city