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Bronze Statue of Ida B. Wells in Chicago

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Ida B. Wells was an African American schoolteacher, radical journalist and human rights advocate. Born into slavery on July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, to Elizabeth and James Wells. Within six months, President Lincolns' influential Emancipation Proclamation gave all enslaved people freedom. From an early age, Ida was taught political activism and became literate. She attended Rust College and became a school teacher. While Ida was visiting family in Memphis she learned that the Yellow Fever Epidemic that was sweeping across the South, killed both of her parents and infant brother. She raced home to provide a stable home environment for the remaining siblings. The Wells' family moved to Memphis, and one day her daily train ride upended her comfortable life. The conductor insisted that Ida move to the smoking car, where all African Americans sit. Ida would not budge so the conductor forcibly removed her, and got bitten. She was so enraged that she sued the train company, and won. This would be a pivotal moment in Ida's life.

Ida began writing to quell the turbulent sea inside her. Her reputation grew from the segregation of schools and the school board being unfair with resources and money. She stopped teaching and became an editor of a most powerful African American newspaper of her time. Three of her male friends were lynched tragically, alleging the raping of 'White' women. Stories of the Klu Klux Klan travelling at night with torches were told under the cover of darkness. Ida wrote an article on how Black political power was challenged by the KKK, and lynchings resonated within the black communities. It was at this time that she took her journalistic endeavors and went on a road trip through the south, searching for any scrap of information on lynchings she could.

In 1893 Ida traveled to Chicago for the World's Fair with her friend Frederick Douglas where she exposed the research on the torturous lynchings in her first published pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases. After a trip to England to lecture on the leadership of the anti-lynching movement, she found a husband and settled in Chicago.

While her family was growing in size, she was away giving political lectures all through the south. Her dream came to fruition when her campaigning led her to open a Settlement House in Chicago for young black men called the Negro Fellowship League. Ida knew of Jane Addams, and the Hull House that she had established for immigrants. She found that she was not the only woman at the time whose voice needed to be heard, so she co-founded the Alpha Suffrage Club and walked in the 1913 National Suffrage Parade. Ida was a powerful player in the Republican Party and she 'brought worldwide attention to the evil of lynching and influenced the course of American reform.' (Catt Center)

Ida died in Chicago on March 25, 1931.

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Iowa State University: Archives of Women's Political Communication (n.d.) Ida B. Wells-Barnett Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/ida-b-wells/

National Park Service: Reconstruction Era (2024, April 17) National Historical Park: South Carolina. https://nps.gov/reer/learn/historyculture/historyculture.htm

The United States National Archives and Records Administration (2022, Jan 28) The Emancipation Proclamation https://Archives.gov

wttw.com (2021, July 17) Ida B. Wells: A Chicago Stories Special Documentary [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML8XiKVStWQ

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Ida B. Wells National Monument in Chicago 'The Light of Truth'

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Ida commuted daily by train, and a conductor noticed that she was sitting in the wrong section. He insisted that she should be in the smoking car, where all African Americans sit. The conductor forcibly removed her from the train, and she bit him. She was so enraged that she sued the Train Company and won. This was Ida's first taste of victory.

As a schoolteacher in 1881, Ida became very aware of the segregation in the poor, derelict resources of the African American schools. Under a pen name, she began writing as a journalist in black newspapers on how unfair and neglectful the school board was to segregated schools. Her reputation grew as a human rights activist and a leader. Soon she was the editor of the most powerful black newspapers, and she could write against the injustices she saw.

Ida began a crusade after her three friends were lynched in Memphis in 1892. The three men opened an African American grocery store across the road from a white-owned grocery store. The white-owned shop suffered and hurt the pride of its owners. It wasn't long before the men were lynched. From then on through the south all the way to England Ida would give lectures on anti-lynching, and the insufferable lies that bloomed out of the mouths of white people because of it.

Not only could women not vote at that time, but it was more difficult for African-American women. She founded the Alpha Suffrage Club for black women, who finally were able to vote in the Presidential election and small local municipal elections in Illinois. She went to Washington DC the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration to march in the National Suffrage Parade in 1913.

All of Ida's leadership and advocacy definitively influenced social work. African-American activism was juxtaposed with the core values of social work, like promoting social justice, addressing the oppressed and enhancing human rights.

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Ida B. Wells' legacy is memorialized in the bronze statue in Memphis, Tennessee, a monument erected and the current street sign bearing her name in downtown Chicago. She was and is influential to this day because of her political activism to allow African American women to vote alongside every other race, the early educator who noticed the wrongs in the schools that our country was blindly ignorant to, and developing a nation wide federal change to the Anti-Lynching laws. Ida was not afraid to innovate and change the way women are respected. She challenged the Black elite solely because lynching is a social control over African Americans during her short life. The Black Lives Matter that is alive today addresses the same issues that Ida fought for.

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Ida advocated for the teaching profession, and how funds were not enough for the rural, poverty stricken areas in the U.S. She advocated for her right to sit on the train where she wanted to. Before the time of Rosa Parks on the back of the bus, was Ida on the train believing in human rights activism. She advocated for African American young men in the Settlement House that she helped co-found. Young African American men at the time needed a job and a roof over their head to feel secure and calm. Her anti-lynching bill finally did get passed in 2019. Ida was a human rights pioneer and her work addressed equity and social justice in every avenue she excelled.

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Ida advocated for the teaching profession, and how funds were not enough for the rural, poverty stricken areas in the U.S. She advocated for her right to sit on the train where she wanted to. Before the time of Rosa Parks on the back of the bus, was Ida on the train believing in human rights activism. She advocated for African American young men in the Settlement House that she helped co-found. Young African American men at the time needed a job and a roof over their head to feel secure and calm. Her anti-lynching bill finally did get passed in 2019. Ida was a human rights pioneer and her work addressed equity and social justice in every avenue she excelled.

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Addressing Equity, Justice and Diversity

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Addressing Equity, Justice and Diversity

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Ida advocated for the teaching profession, and how funds were not enough for the rural, poverty stricken areas in the U.S. She advocated for her right to sit on the train where she wanted to. Before the time of Rosa Parks on the back of the bus, was Ida on the train standing up for African Americans human civil rights. She advocated for young black men in the Settlement House that she helped co-found. Those men at that time needed structure, a job and the advancement that Ida could push them towards. Her anti-lynching bill finally got passed by President Biden in 2019, and it was made into a federal law. Ida was a human rights pioneer and her work addressed equity and social justice in every avenue she excelled.