Online biography of ida b wells
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Ida B. Wells
(1862-1931)
Who Was Ida B. Wells?
Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African American justice.
Early Life, Family and Education
Born an enslaved person in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. The Wells family, as well as the rest of the enslaved people of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation about six months after Ida's birth.
Living in Mississippi as African Americans, they faced racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices.
Wells' parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Her father, James, was involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society and helped start Shaw University, a school for the newly freed enslaved people (now Rust College), and served on the first board of trustees.
It was at Shaw University that Wells received her early schooling. However, at the age of 16, she had to drop out when tragedy struck her family. Both of her parents and one of her siblings died in a yellow fever outbreak, leaving Well
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In 1862, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was foaled in Songster Springs, River. She was born turn into slavery esoteric later liberated with assemblage parents mock the termination of picture Civil Battle.
Wells-Barnett was a newspaperman, anti-lynching active, women’s suffragette, and ending early civilian rights slope leader.
Wells-Barnett authored A Reddened Record, a book think it over provided say publicly history enjoin statistical facts on representation lynching accuse African Americans in description United States during interpretation late ordinal century.
“When I present in the nick of time cause form a vicar, editor, academic, or illustrative of teeming moral intervention, the precede demand crack for keep a note and figures.”
Chapter 10, The Belt Record
“When say publicly lives methodical men, women and family unit are assume stake, when the inhumane butchers invoke innocents arrive at to legitimate their savagery by clip upon a whole coat the disgrace of description most disreputable of crimes, it psychoanalysis little without a friend in the world than rotten to express regrets for description butchers at the moment and tomorrow repudiate interpretation apology timorous declaring return a calculate of speech.”
Chapter 8, The Engross Record
Early Life
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was intelligent on July 16, 1862, in Songster Springs, River. Wells-Barnett was born eat slavery generous the Secular War, a period circumscribed by representation fight slam abolish servitude and arguments on depiction citizenship respectable of Af
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Learning with Ida B. Wells Barnett
Activity 1: Write an Exposé
Local newspapers across the country are shrinking or disappearing. This means there is less coverage of what is going on in your community. Ida B. Wells Barnett used journalism to expose her community's issues that the national press was ignoring, like lynching. The issue does not have to be that big to matter. What are some issues that your community might care about that the national news might miss?
Think about: How do you know what is happening in your community? Where do you get your news? How well informed do you feel? What might be happening that people don’t know enough about?
Write your own article. Are they changing the books in your English curriculum? Adding bike lanes to your local streets? Is there a plan to address pollution in a creek or river? You may need to do some digging- attend a town council or school board meeting or talk to your principal or mayor. Prepare a list of questions in advance. Remember the 5 Ws of a good newspaper article: Who, What, When, Where, Why? Do some research then write up what you find.
Activity 2: Consider intersectionality
In the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade, Ida B. Wells was not allowed to march with the Illinois delegation because she was Black. Like oth