Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially that of women.
Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 26, 1862. At the age of 16, 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, Wells found better pay as a teacher.
Wells co-owned and wrote for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper, where her reporting covered incidents of racial segregation and inequality. Subjected to continued threats and criminal violence, including when a white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses, Wells left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois.
Even though she moved, it didn’t stop her from documenting the lynchings of African Americans exposing the brutality and analyzing the sociology. She was outspoken in the women’s rights and civil rights movement. In 2020, she was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation for her work reporting on violence against African Americans.
A story is reported that Wells went to lunch with Frederick Douglass, in a place she never thought would let her in. Yet, Douglass showed it was possible to eat in a White only restaurant.
In addition to working in educational facilities and women’s clubs, she also worked on the women’s suffrage movement. She often would challenge the Caucasian women for not speaking out against lynching when they were talking about women’s rights. She travelled to Europe speaking about lynching and women’s rights. She wrote an expose on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago because it did not reflect African American life. She wrote investigative reports for the Chicago Defender and helped fight for worker’s rights for African American workers.
She loved her children and her husband, Ferdinand Lee Barnett. She spent a lot of time trying to balance her work life of traveling and speaking with raising her children. She died March 25, 1931.
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