Ida b wells quotes

Ida B. Wells was born into slavery on July 16, in Holly Springs, Mississippi as the oldest of eight children.  Her father, James, was a carpenter and her mother, Elizabeth, was a famous cook. Once slavery ended, Ida attended Shaw University (now Rust College) along with her mother who attended school long enough to learn how to read the Bible. 

She was surrounded by political activists and grew up during Reconstruction with a sense of hope about the possibilities of former slaves within the American society.

Ida b wells brief biography pdf Contents move to sidebar hide. Eventually, her investigative journalism was carried nationally in Black-owned newspapers. After brutal assaults on the African American community in Springfield, Illinois, in , Wells sought to take action: The following year, she attended a special conference for the organization that would later become known as the NAACP. Archived from the original on May 18,

Both parents died, along with an infant brother, during the yellow fever epidemic when Ida was 16 years old. At that young age, she assumed the responsibility of rearing her five surviving younger brothers and sisters.

She soon became a teacher in a rural Mississippi school order to earn money for the family. After two years, she moved to Memphis for a higher paying teaching job.

 Although she wrote for church newspapers about inequality in many areas of life, one day changed her life forever.

Ida b wells middle school dc Archived from the original PDF on March 21, But with competition from other groups, the election of a racist city administration, and Wells-Barnett's poor health, the league closed its doors in WBEZ Chicago local production. In Mason, Patrick Leon ed.

She was accustomed to riding the train in whatever seat she chose. In , the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwest Railroad forbade her from sitting in the ladies’ coach, even though she had a ticket. She was forcibly removed by three men because she refused to move to the colored car. She decided to sue the railroad and also wrote an article about the experience.

Ida b wells brief biography wikipedia She focused her work on Black women's suffrage in the city following the enactment of a new state law enabling partial women's suffrage. JSTOR j. After the murder of her friends, Wells wrote in Free Speech and Headlight, suggesting that blacks leave Memphis altogether: Wells talked about the public nature of the murders. WBEZ Chicago local production.

The success of her article about the case as well as the uproar caused by her criticism of the school systems, influenced her career change from teacher to journalist.
 

As injustices against the formerly enslaved spread throughout the South and a reign of terror began, Wells' sense of indignation and quest for justice was fueled.

Three of her male friends, who were upstanding, law-abiding, successful businessmen opened a grocery store (in direct competition with a white-owned store). They were lynched in on the pretext of a crime they did not commit.  Wells decided to use her pen to expose the motives behind the violence. Her major contention that lynchings were a systematic attempt to subordinate the black community was incendiary.

She wrote about the situation with a clarity and forcefulness that riveted the attention of both Black and White people.

Ida b wells accomplishments

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Lynching had become one of the main tactics in the strategy to terrorize Black people, and exposing its real purpose became the target of her crusade for justice. She also advocated for both an economic boycott and a mass migration of Black people from Memphis to the Oklahoma territory. 

This so enraged her enemies that while she was traveling in the Northeast, they destroyed her printing press, and put a price on her head, threatening her life if she returned to the South.

Despite the danger, she continued writing and speaking across the country and went to the United Kingdom to explain the brutality of lynching and the government's refusal to intervene. 

Wells was invited to Chicago by Frederick Douglass  in to work on the pamphlet that was distributed at the World’s Fair to explain the lack of African American representation.

In , she traveled throughout England speaking about the atrocities of lynching. In she settled in Chicago when she married Ferdinand L. Barnett, a widower and a fellow crusader who was a well-known attorney as well as the founder of The Conservator newspaper. Barnett had two children from his previous marriage, the couple had four children together in eight years. 

Even with this added responsibility, Wells continued in her relentless fight for social justice.

She was involved with many clubs and organizations, including the National Association of Colored Women in and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in She also was very active in the women’s suffrage movement, starting the all-black Alpha Suffrage Club in She created one of the first kindergartens for Black children in Chicago.

Ida b wells brief biography NPR affiliate. Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Hundreds of Whites were deputized almost immediately to put down what was perceived by the local Memphis newspapers Commercial and Appeal-Avalanche as an armed rebellion by Black men in Memphis. Underwood's husband, Rev.

For ten years, from – , she and her husband started and ran a rooming house and social center called the Negro Fellowship League. In her final year of life, Ida ran for Illinois state senate.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and her husband Ferdinand L. Barnett lived at S. King Drive until , which is now a national landmark.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett died on March 25, leaving a formidable legacy of undaunted courage and tenacity in the fight against racism and sexism in America. 

She and her husband are interred at Oak Wood Cemetery in Chicago. Her legacy continues to inspire in the form of scholarships, awards, buildings, streets names, historical markers, books, movies and more.

 

by Michelle Duster