I am Ida Bell Wells. I was born a slave (oldest child) in Holly Springs, Mississippi in July 16, 1862 just before Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. My fathers' name was James Wells and my mothers' name was Elizabeth Warrenton Wells. They both were enslaved slaves until the Proclamation was issued, they both were freed. My father was a carpentry and a "race man" who worked for advancement of blacks. He was also a member of the Loyal League. My father decided to drop out of his school (Shaw University in Holly Springs) to help support my mom and I. Father attended many public speeches and campaigned for local black candidates. What he didn't do was run for office himself. My mother was a cook for the Bolling household until she died from yellow fever.
I, Ida Bell Wells, is a African American journalist and activists who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. I went and found/became integral groups striving for African-American justice. When both my parents died, I convinced a nearby country school administrator that I was 18. They gave me a job as a teacher. I decided to move to Memphis, Tennessee with my sisters to go live with my aunt. I continued my education at Fisk University in Nashville and I was proud that my brother found jobs as carpenters.
On a train ride to Memphis to Nashville, having that I bought a first class ticket, was forcibly told to move off to the cars for African Americans by the train crew. As I was being removed, I bit one of the on the hand. I sued the railroad winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case, but later on the decision was overturned by Tennessee Supreme Court. This injustice led me to pick up a pen to write about issues of race and politics in the South. Using the moniker "Iola," a number of me articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. I eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech.
While working as a journalist and publisher, I also held a position as a teacher in a segregated public school in Memphis. I became a vocal critic of the condition of blacks only schools in the city. In 1891, I was fired from my job for these attacks. I championed another cause after the murder of a friend and his two business associates. In 1892, three African-American men—Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart—set up a grocery store in Memphis. Their new business drew customers away from a white-owned store in the neighborhood, and the white store owner and his supporters clashed with the three men on a few occasions. One night, Moss and the others guarded their store against attack and ended up shooting several of the white vandals. They were arrested and brought to jail, but they didn't have a chance to defend themselves against the charges—a lynch mob took them from their cells and murdered them.
These brutal killings incensed me, leading me to write articles decrying the lynching of my friend and the wrongful deaths of other African Americans. Putting my own life at risk, I spent two months traveling in the South, gathering information on other lynching incidents. One editorial seemed to push some of the city's whites over the edge. A mob stormed the office of my newspaper, destroying all of my equipment. Fortunately, I had been traveling to New York City at the time. I was warned that I would be killed if I ever returned to Memphis. Staying in the North, I wrote an in-depth report on lynching in America for the New York Age, an African-American newspaper run by former slave T. Thomas Fortune. I lectured abroad in 1893, looking to drum up support for my cause among reform-minded whites. Upset by the ban on African-American exhibitors at the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition, Wells penned and circulated a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Represented in the World's Colombian Exposition." This effort was funded and supported by famed abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglass, and lawyer and editor Ferdinand Barnett. Also in 1893, I published A Red Record, a personal examination of lynchings in America.
In 1898, I brought my anti-lynching campaign to the White House, leading a protest in Washington, D.C., and calling for President William McKinley to make reforms. I married Ferdinand Barnett that same year, and was thereafter known as Ida B. Wells-Barnett. While the couple eventually had four children together, I remained committed to my social and political activism. I established several civil rights organizations. In 1896, I formed the National Association of Colored Women. After brutal assaults on the African-American community in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, I sought to take action: The following year, I attended a special conference for the organization that would later become known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Though I was considered a founding member of the NAACP, I later cut ties with the organization; I explained my decision thereafter, stating that I felt the organization—in its infacy at the time I left—had lacked action-based initiatives.
Working on behalf of all women, I, as part of my work with the National Equal Rights League, called for President Woodrow Wilson to put an end to discriminatory hiring practices for government jobs. I also created the first African-American kindergarten in my community and fought for women's suffrage. In 1930, I made an unsuccessful bid for the state senate. Health problems plagued me the following year. I died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of 69, in Chicago, Illinois. I left behind an impressive legacy of social and political heroism. With my writings, speeches and protests, I fought against prejudice, no matter what potential dangers I faced. I once said, "I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap."
I, Ida Bell Wells, is a African American journalist and activists who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. I went and found/became integral groups striving for African-American justice. When both my parents died, I convinced a nearby country school administrator that I was 18. They gave me a job as a teacher. I decided to move to Memphis, Tennessee with my sisters to go live with my aunt. I continued my education at Fisk University in Nashville and I was proud that my brother found jobs as carpenters.
On a train ride to Memphis to Nashville, having that I bought a first class ticket, was forcibly told to move off to the cars for African Americans by the train crew. As I was being removed, I bit one of the on the hand. I sued the railroad winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case, but later on the decision was overturned by Tennessee Supreme Court. This injustice led me to pick up a pen to write about issues of race and politics in the South. Using the moniker "Iola," a number of me articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. I eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech.
While working as a journalist and publisher, I also held a position as a teacher in a segregated public school in Memphis. I became a vocal critic of the condition of blacks only schools in the city. In 1891, I was fired from my job for these attacks. I championed another cause after the murder of a friend and his two business associates. In 1892, three African-American men—Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart—set up a grocery store in Memphis. Their new business drew customers away from a white-owned store in the neighborhood, and the white store owner and his supporters clashed with the three men on a few occasions. One night, Moss and the others guarded their store against attack and ended up shooting several of the white vandals. They were arrested and brought to jail, but they didn't have a chance to defend themselves against the charges—a lynch mob took them from their cells and murdered them.
These brutal killings incensed me, leading me to write articles decrying the lynching of my friend and the wrongful deaths of other African Americans. Putting my own life at risk, I spent two months traveling in the South, gathering information on other lynching incidents. One editorial seemed to push some of the city's whites over the edge. A mob stormed the office of my newspaper, destroying all of my equipment. Fortunately, I had been traveling to New York City at the time. I was warned that I would be killed if I ever returned to Memphis. Staying in the North, I wrote an in-depth report on lynching in America for the New York Age, an African-American newspaper run by former slave T. Thomas Fortune. I lectured abroad in 1893, looking to drum up support for my cause among reform-minded whites. Upset by the ban on African-American exhibitors at the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition, Wells penned and circulated a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Represented in the World's Colombian Exposition." This effort was funded and supported by famed abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglass, and lawyer and editor Ferdinand Barnett. Also in 1893, I published A Red Record, a personal examination of lynchings in America.
In 1898, I brought my anti-lynching campaign to the White House, leading a protest in Washington, D.C., and calling for President William McKinley to make reforms. I married Ferdinand Barnett that same year, and was thereafter known as Ida B. Wells-Barnett. While the couple eventually had four children together, I remained committed to my social and political activism. I established several civil rights organizations. In 1896, I formed the National Association of Colored Women. After brutal assaults on the African-American community in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, I sought to take action: The following year, I attended a special conference for the organization that would later become known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Though I was considered a founding member of the NAACP, I later cut ties with the organization; I explained my decision thereafter, stating that I felt the organization—in its infacy at the time I left—had lacked action-based initiatives.
Working on behalf of all women, I, as part of my work with the National Equal Rights League, called for President Woodrow Wilson to put an end to discriminatory hiring practices for government jobs. I also created the first African-American kindergarten in my community and fought for women's suffrage. In 1930, I made an unsuccessful bid for the state senate. Health problems plagued me the following year. I died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of 69, in Chicago, Illinois. I left behind an impressive legacy of social and political heroism. With my writings, speeches and protests, I fought against prejudice, no matter what potential dangers I faced. I once said, "I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap."