Ida B. Wells
| Ida B. Wells | |
|---|---|
Wells, c. 1893
|
|
| Born |
Ida Bell Wells July 16, 1862 Holly Springs, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | March 25, 1931 (aged 68) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education |
Freedman's School |
| Occupation | Civil rights and women's rights activist, teacher, local paper editor |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Ferdinand L. Barnett |
| Parent(s) | James Wells and Elizabeth "Izzy Bell" Warrenton |
Freedman's School
Rust College
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931), more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist,Georgist, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells lost her parents and a sibling in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic at a young age. She went to work and, with her grandmother, kept the rest of the family intact. She moved with some of her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee, finding pay better for teachers.
Later as an activist, Wells documented lynching in the United States in the 1890s, showing that it was often used in the South as a way to control or punish Black people who competed with whites, rather than being based on criminal acts by black people, as was usually claimed by whites. She was active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician and traveled internationally on lecture tours.
Ida Bell Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1862, several months before United States President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate-held territory. Her parents James Wells and Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Warrenton) Wells, were both enslaved by Spires Bolling, an architect. She was one of eight children. The family resided at Bolling's house, now named the Bolling-Gatewood House, where Lizzie Wells was a cook.
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