Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

(1862-1931)

“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.” -Ida Bell Wells-Barnett

Born into slavery on July 16th, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississipi, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War. She died on March 25th, 1931 in Chicago, Illenois.

Photo: Courtesy of Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

She was an African-American journalist and activist who led an antilynching crusade in the USA in the 1890s.

Her editorial campaign against lynching

In 1885, she won the trial against the ferrovial company which had excluded her from a train because she refused to leave her place. Then, in the 1890's, Ida Bell Wells-Barnetts began to investigate on the lynching of Black pepole in the South of the United States. Ida published two books on lynching, one analytical and the other statistically based: Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its phase (1892) and The Red Record (1892-1894).

Wells, a women's rights activist

She was very active in the national Woman's club movement. In 1893, she organized The Women's Era Club, the first national newspaper published by and for African-American women in Chicago. In 1896, Wells took part in the meeting in Washington, D.C. and founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, 1930. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum