Ida B Wells Biography

She talked about how the act of lynching was a racist strategy to eliminate black men by means of racism. Ida B. Wells was also outspoken about the charges of rape against African-American men. Ida B. Wells believed that these charges were trying to hide the consensual relations between white women and African-American men. Whites were so shocked and infuriated by these allegations that they destroyed her newspaper office while Wells was away and dared her to return to Memphis. Not intimidated by any of the white men's threats, Wells kept a gun in her house and advised that guns should be kept in the homes of all African-Americans during that time, as a means for protection.

In “A Red Record” Ida speak of while in slavery, individuals were reflected as property and for that reason they were a kind of investment that ensured their lives while treated as unhuman. While after slavery ended these people were cruelly murdered. Wells lost a number of friends to lynching and so her urge became telling the country about all of these terrible happenings that she knew of. She published several articles discussing the killings of her friends. That was not the safest path to choose; soon after she began writing, she started to receive threats and, her newspaper office was destroyed by a mob. After she remained an active writer and also becoming a speaker for the rest of her life, helping to found the NAACP and publishing articles

freedom. She filed a lawsuit against the railway company for refusing to provide her with

Her brothers found work as carpenter apprentices. For a time Ida continued her education at Fisk University in Nashville. A moment in My 1884 will change Ida’s life and goals forever. Having bought a first class ticket for a train ride to Nashville Tennessee she was denied the right to her seat and was forced to ride a car that was specifically for African Americans. Rightfully so she refused to give up her seat and ticket and fought the train crew and even bit one of the crew members, she later took the train company to court and won getting a 500$ settlement however the Supreme Court overruled the hearing and took her money away. After that Ida decided to start her own newspaper company named Memphis Free Speech and Highlight and begin to write her displeasure with the american government and america's prejudice practices.

Ida Wells claimed that African Americans were still not treated equally because of their lack of voting rights and civil rights. Ida also claimed that the African Americans were holding the south together and that the south couldn’t survive without them. Ida was in favor of abolishing the Lynch law which was a major issue in many states. The Lynch law made it legal to punish “criminals” without a proper trial, and they were usually hanged. Ida said that every African American should own a Winchester Rifle to defend themselves from lynching. She claims that multiple Afro-Americans had escaped assault because they were

Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of

Whatever the woman said it was treated as evidence, despite the story of the Afro-American. Southern white claimed to be the “guardians of the honor of Southern white women” because they were in charge of taking the Afro-American to trial and lynching them when charged with “rape”. They did it in hoped of making it clear that whites were the dominant race and to draw fear towards the Afro-Americans so they wouldn’t get involved with their Southern white ladies. It had a very double standard feel because for Southern white men, they could have an affair with an Afro-American woman and everything would be okay. It wouldn't be viewed as rape. As well as a Southern white male could rape an African American female, and they wouldn’t get lynched. The white male would be set free with a slap on the wrist. This Antebellum era was very sexist and racist and Ida B. Wells knew that, and the Southern whites knew that she knew that so they were doing everything in their power to stop her from getting the word

Susie Baker was born under the slave law in Georgia, in 1848. She was raised by her grandmother in Savannah, Georgia. It was Susie’s grandmother that ensured she learned to read and write. Susie was sent discretely to study with a friend of the family, and tutors were sought out wherever they could be found. Discretion was necessary because some southern

“From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings happened in the United States. Of these individuals that were lynched, 3,446 were dark colored. The blacks lynched represented 72.7% of the general population lynched”(“Ida B. Wells Quotes”). Ida Bell Wells Barnett, commonly known as Ida B. Wells was a women who wanted the best for her colleagues. Like most people, she was faced with a big complication. Wells Barnett was a critical part of America's history. Her story is one that must be known and brought to life by African Americans of all ages, today and in the future. In the 1890s Wells led an “anti-lynching crusade in the United States and went deeper in life to become someone who looked and strived for African American justice. Wells was a former slave who became a journalist and wrote about the unpleasant, severe race issues going on in the world which later resulted in death. Ida Bell Wells Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement, significantly impacted the lives of African Americans today by

Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1903. She always had strong opinions, and “followed her own mind”. However, she was influenced by her grandmother growing up, and this contributed to her sense of social justice and racism. Her grandmother, who had once been a slave, told her granddaughter stories of her own years in slavery. Her grandmother had been whipped for refusing to marry

On February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, a woman by the name of Susan Brownell Anthony was born to parents Daniel and Lucy (Read) Anthony. She was the second born of a strongly rooted Quaker family of eight (Hist.Bio.-1). Because they lived in a Quaker neighborhood, Susan was not heavily exposed to slavery. The family made anti-slavery talks an almost daily conversation over the dinner table. She also saw men and women on the same level (Stoddard 36). “A hard working father, who was not only a cotton manufacturer, but a Quaker Abolitionist also, prevented his children from what he called childish things such as toys, games and music. He felt that they would distract his children from reaching their peak of

In the words of Miss Ida B. Wells: The student of American sociology will find the year of 1894 marked by a pronounced awakening of the public conscience to a system of anarchy and outlawry which had grown during a series of ten years to be so common, that scenes of unusual brutality failed to have any visible effect upon the humane sentiments of the people of our land. She is depicting a period of time in American history stained with the blood of hundreds of free African American men, women and children. These people were unjustly slaughtered through the practice of lynching within the South. Wells was an investigative journalist and was involved in exploring, reporting, publishing literature on, and eventually campaigning against the

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a newspaper editor and journalist who went on to lead the American anti-lynching crusade. Working closely with both African-American community leaders and American suffragists, Wells worked to raise gender issues within the "Race Question" and race issues within the "Woman Question." Wells was born the daughter of slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. During Reconstruction, she was educated at a Missouri Freedman's School, Rust University, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen. In 1884, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to teach while attending Fisk University during summer sessions. In Tennessee, especially, she was appalled at

Born in 1797, Isabella Baumfree was an African-American slave who was sold into a harsh life. Physically strong, she was worked just as much as men on the field and her masters did not hesitate to beat and rape her. By the time her teens had ended, she had already borne several children (Gates et al. 176). When she earned her freedom in 1826, she took on the new identity of Sojourner Truth, named so due to her seeking the truth from God and fighting for women’s rights. Her experiences were used at a women’s

She became a leading community activist through a sequence of events. In 1884 Ida was riding a train in a first class car, when she was asked to move to the smoking car. When she refused, two conductors tried to physically move her. She instead got off the train and filed a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit was initially won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict. After the train incident, in 1889, Ida went to The Free Speech paper; this is where her most promising worked developed. In 1892, three of her friends were brutally killed during a lynching. This one particular event opened the eyes of Wells and prompted her to write some of her most controversial works yet. However this type of writing got the Free Speech office ransacked and destroyed. The other owner of the Free Speech barely escaped with his life, but he carried the message that if Ida were to show her face ever again in Tennessee she would be killed. Now with all this ammunition based on personal experience, even as an African American woman, she had gained credibility to be able to speak with