Born a slave in 1862, she was freed by the emancipation proclamation during the Civil War. She launched a campaign to publicize the horrors of lynching, and began writing and lecturing about it across the country. She wrote two pamphlets, entitled A Red Record: Lynchings in the United States and Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, In those works, she catalogued hundreds of lynchings.
She was only 16, and attending Rust College, a historically Black college when her parents and younger brother died of yellow fever. She was forced to give up her dream of attending college in order to take care of her younger siblings. Family and friends had decided that her young sisters should be separated and put in foster care. She refused to accept that option. At 16 years old she became their caretaker. Fortunately, she was able to find work as a teacher to support herself and her five siblings.
While teaching elementary school, she became increasingly active as a journalist and writer. She was offered an editorial position for the Evening Star in Washington, D.C., and also began writing weekly articles for The Living Way newspaper under the pen name "Iola". Under her pen name, she wrote articles attacking racist Jim Crow policies. In 1889, she became editor and co-owner of The Free Speech and Headlight, a Black-owned newspaper. She used her newspaper to publicize the lynching of Black men until a white mob destroyed and burnt her office, printing press, and newspaper; and then threatened her life.
Although she was not able to return to the south, this incident did not stop her. On October 26, 1892, she continued to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its' Phases. After researching and examining many accounts of lynchings blamed on the alleged "rape of White women", she concluded that Southerners cried rape as an excuse to hide their real reasons for lynchings; Black economic progress. White Southerners were threatened by the competition from Blacks, and wanted to enforce ideas of Black second-class status in society. At the turn of the century, she watched Southern states, starting with Mississippi in 1890, pass laws and new constitutions to disenfranchise most Black people through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other devices. Just like today Black economic progress was a burning issue in the South, and in many states Whites worked to suppress Black progress. Wells responded by leading a crusade across the country and in Europe denouncing lynching. She was cofounder of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and the NAACP, her voice was heard throughout the country. She became the most prominent Black woman of her time.
Ida B Wells was also a feminist who refused to accept the traditional role prescribed to women. She was very fortunate to meet Ferdinand L. Barnett, a prominent attorney, civil rights activist, and journalist from Chicago who shared her views. He spoke widely against lynchings and for the civil rights of African Americans. She had what historians described as an unconventional marriage and arrangement. Her husband supported her work and assisted her. He provided her with a housekeeper so that she could devote herself to her work. He did a lot of the cooking and when she was away on speaking tours he had a nurse maid take care of the children. He also worked with her on many of her projects. Much of his work as an attorney was also involved with civil rights issues. Barnett founded The Chicago Conservator, the first Black newspaper in Chicago, in 1878. Wells began writing for the paper in 1893, later acquired a partial ownership interest, and after marrying Barnett, assumed the role of editor. After marriage she did not take his name but hyphenated their names together. All of this was unusual for its time. Even with support, she still struggled with the multiple roles that women leaders have had to play as wife, mother, and social and political activist. In her autobiography, she described the difficult challenge of splitting her time between family and work. She dealt with the same contemporary concerns and problems women face today.
Wells, a devout Christian believed her work had spiritual purpose. Much of her anti-lynching writings were published by church newsletters, she also gathered there to do social work. It was in Bethel AME Church that she started a kindergarten for Black children. She and her husband founded the Negro Fellowship League (NFL), the first Black settlement house in Chicago when the YMCA refused to allow Blacks into their organizations.
She was often described as stubborn, uncompromising, feisty and difficult. She did not mind butting heads with her fellow activist about issues that were important to her. Her most important work was her investigative reporting on lynching. She was threatened many times by supremacists and government officials but she refused to let that stop her. She was fueled by her sense of righteousness and never cowed to threats on her life.
In Memphis, when the conductor of the railroad train she was riding forced her from her first class seat, she fought back, bit him, and then sued the company.
In Chicago, Ida Wells first protested the exclusion of African American people from the Chicago World's Fair, writing a pamphlet sponsored by Frederick Douglas. She stated that the Fair refused to acknowledge Black people and the tremendous accomplishments they had made since emancipation. She further asked Black people to boycott the event. She stood outside the fair handing out pamphlets.
In Washington when White suffragettes refused to allow Blacks suffragettes to march with them in the Women's Suffrage Parade, Wells ignored instructions to march with the segregated parade units and crossed the lines to march with the other members of her Illinois chapter. She also founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, the first African American women's suffrage organization.
While her passion, colorful personality and accomplishments stood out even among her male contemporaries like Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, her story has often been left out of the history books. She was a women ahead of her times.
In 2020, Ida B.Wells was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation for "her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching."
Ida B. Wells' life was full of passion and inspiration, here are a few books to introduce her story to young people
Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told by Walter Dean Myers
Who Was Ida B. Wells? – by Sarah Fabiny
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells – by Michelle Duster
Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist by Philip Dray
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