Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.

In 1883, Ida B. Wells traveled by train from Memphis to Woodstock, Tennessee, where she was working as a teacher. When she refused, she was removed from the train and sued the railroad company in 1884. The court decided in her favor and ordered the railroad company to pay damages, which they did.

In 1884, Wells sued the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad for violating equal accommodation statutes and won. The judge ordered the railroad company to pay her $500 in damages. But the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict. Her $500 reward was cancelled and she was ordered to pay court fines.

In Chicago, Ida Wells first attacked the exclusion of black people from the Chicago World’s Fair, writing a pamphlet sponsored by Frederick Douglas and others. She continued her anti-lynching campaign and began to work tirelessly against segregation and for women’s suffrage.

Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931 in Chicago. She leaves behind a legacy of social and political activism. In 2020, Ida B. Wells was awarded a Pulitzer Prize “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.”

Ida B. Wells was a big part of history especially in the lynching department. I know she needs or deserves a national holiday because she was a determined, brave, and ambitious person. She was determined because she published her statistics about lynching for the African American newspaper to get her words out.

What was life like for Ida growing up in the South? She lived a pretty comfortable life thanks to her parents’ success. Born a slave, she faced constant discrimination that couldn’t be fought. She faced several major losses in the face of intense discrimination.

3. Why do you think Wells risked her own life to speak out against lynching? Cite evidence from your textbook to support your opinionI believe that Wells risked her own life because, she wanted their to be justice, not only for her race, but for those who are done unjust. She states in her essay that Ms.

African American anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells Barnett, also a member of Delta Sigma Theta, to march in the back of the procession with her sorority sisters. Instead, she joined the delegation of white women from her home state of Illinois refusing.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, another member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, marched. A journalist, outspoken suffragist and anti-lynching crusader, she founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, the first African American women’s suffrage organization.

On March 3, 1913, the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was in a Washington, D.C. drill rehearsal hall with sixty-four other Illinois suffragists. Ida planned to march with the women in what promised to be a parade of unprecedented scale and significance. …

She asserted that lynching was “that last relic of barbarism and slavery.” Ida B. Wells’ pamphlets, including this one, helped alert the public to the rampant lynching of African Americans in the South.

The only certain remedy is an appeal to law. Lawbreakers must be made to know that human life is sacred and that every citizen of this country is first a citizen of the United States and secondly a citizen of the state in which he belongs.

In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence. As a skilled writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South.

Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the South used to intimidate and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition—and a subsequent threat of loss of power—for whites.

Ida B.

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington, educator, reformer and the most influentional black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accomodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity.