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- She was the first female co-owner and editor of a Black newspaper in the US. She began writing articles and editorials under the name “Iola.”
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Sep 29, 2024 · Ida B. Wells-Barnett (born July 16, 1862, Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S.—died March 25, 1931, Chicago, Illinois) was an American journalist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She later was active in promoting justice for African Americans.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Ida Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862.
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett first grew to prominence by leading a campaign against lynching, first by writing newspaper columns but later through deliveri...
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist by trade but also spent a lot of her time and energy organizing and participating in various civil rights cam...
- Among Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s achievements were the publication of a detailed book about lynching entitled A Red Record (1895), the cofounding of th...
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, 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). [1]
Pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett battled sexism, racism, and violence, particularly working to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South. Read her story on womenshistory.org.
Her parents, James and Elizabeth Wells, learned to read after slavery and made sure their children were educated. James had been trained as a carpenter and was able to support his family without becoming a sharecropper, the fate that kept so many Blacks in conditions similar to slavery.
- Education and Early Career
- Lynching in Memphis
- Journalist in Exile
- Move to Chicago
- Helps Found, Then Leaves, NAACP
- Women's Suffrage
- Wider Equality Efforts
- Death and Legacy
- Additional References
In 1880, after seeing her brothers placed as apprentices, Wells moved with her two younger sisters to live with a relative in Memphis. There, she obtained a teaching position at a school for Black people and began taking classes at Fisk Universityin Nashville during summers. Wells also began writing for the Negro Press Association. She became edito...
Lynching at that time was a common means by which White people threatened and murdered Black people. Nationally, lynching estimates vary—some scholars say that they have been underreported—but at least one study found that there were 4,467 lynchings between 1883 and 1941, including about 200 a year between the early 1880s and 1900. Of those, 3...
Wells continued writing newspaper articles at New York Age, where she exchanged the subscription list of Memphis Free Speechfor a part ownership in the paper. She also wrote pamphlets and spoke widely against lynching. In 1893, Wells went to Great Britain, returning again the next year. There, she spoke about lynching in America, found significant ...
On returning from her first British trip, Wells moved to Chicago. There, she worked with Frederick Douglass and a local lawyer and editor, Ferdinand Barnett, in writing an 81-page booklet about the exclusion of Black participants from most of the events around the Colombian Exposition. She met and married widower Ferdinand Barnett in 1895. (Thereaf...
In 1901, the Barnetts bought the first house east of State Street to be owned by a Black family. Despite harassment and threats, they continued to live in the neighborhood. Wells-Barnett was a founding member of the NAACP in 1909, but withdrew because of opposition to her membership and because she felt the other members were too cautious in their ...
In 1913, Wells-Barnett organized the Alpha Suffrage League, an organization of Black women supporting women's suffrage. She was active in protesting the strategy of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the largest pro-suffrage group, regarding the participation of Black people and how the group treated racial issues. The NAWSA generall...
Also in 1913, Wells-Barnett was part of a delegation to see President Wilson to urge non-discrimination in federal jobs. She was elected as chair of the Chicago Equal Rights League in 1915, and in 1918 organized legal aid for victims of the Chicago race riots of 1918. In 1915, she was part of the successful election campaign that led to Oscar Stant...
Wells-Barnett died in 1931 in Chicago, largely unappreciated and unknown, but the city later recognized her activism by naming a housing project in her honor. The Ida B. Wells Homes, in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, included rowhouses, mid-rise apartments, and some high-rise apartments. Because of the housing patterns o...
Goings, Kenneth W. “Memphis Free Speech.” Tennessee Encyclopedia, Tennessee Historical Society, 7 Oct. 2019.“Ida B. Wells-Barnett.” Ida B. Wells-Barnett | National Postal Museum.“Ida B. Wells (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.Wells, Ida B. and Duster, Alfreda M. Crusade for Justice: the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. University of Chicago Press, 1972.- Jone Johnson Lewis
Ida B. Wells, married name Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, (born July 16, 1862, Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S.—died March 25, 1931, Chicago, Illinois), African American journalist who led an antilynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She later was active in promoting justice for African Americans. Ida B. Wells.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was an investigative journalist, civil rights advocate, and feminist who led the nation’s first anti-lynching campaign from Memphis, Tennessee, in 1892.
