Ida B. Wells was born a slave. She faced prejudice all her life. Less than five feet tall, her massive presence left a permanent mark on America, leaving behind a legacy of journalistic excellence and social change.
Here’s her story. #InternationalWomensDay
Here’s her story. #InternationalWomensDay
Ida’s parents died when she was 16. She dropped out of school, lied about her age, and became a teacher to support her siblings.
At the same time, the dream of Reconstruction was dying, and the violent authoritarianism of Jim Crow racism was rising.
At the same time, the dream of Reconstruction was dying, and the violent authoritarianism of Jim Crow racism was rising.
Ida B. Wells made it her mission to fight for justice, and particularly to expose lynchings of Black men as hate crimes.
It was not a punishment for crimes, she wrote, but “an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property.”
It was not a punishment for crimes, she wrote, but “an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property.”
She exposed that many lynching victims accused of rape had in fact had consensual relationships with white women.
“She was called a harlot and a courtesan for her frankness.”
“She was called a harlot and a courtesan for her frankness.”
Wells “pioneered reporting techniques that remain central tenets of modern journalism,” according to the @nytimes.
Called “The Princess of the Press,” her “fine-tooth reporting methods” and bold language made her a sensational truth-teller.
Called “The Princess of the Press,” her “fine-tooth reporting methods” and bold language made her a sensational truth-teller.
But that truth-telling wasn’t without consequences. “After her anti-lynching editorials were published in The Free Speech, she was run out of the South — her newspaper ransacked and her life threatened.”
She kept going.
She kept going.
Said Frederick Douglass, one of the finest writers and orators in American history, “There has been no word equal to it in convincing power...I have spoken, but my word is feeble in comparison.”
More than fifty years before Rosa Parks, Wells sat in a “Whites Only” train car.
After she was forced off, she organized an economic boycott that became a model for the Civil Rights Movement five decades later.
After she was forced off, she organized an economic boycott that became a model for the Civil Rights Movement five decades later.
Her legacy lives on today, anywhere someone speaks truth to power or fights for the rights of those who lack them. #InternationalWomensDay
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Last month, a century after Ida B. Wells exposed the horrors of lynching, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make lynching a federal crime for the first time. I was proud to cast that long-overdue vote.
