[Dallas, TX – July 16th ]
Ida B. Wells 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.
Wells was a journalist and newspaper editor at the turn of the 20th century who documented civil rights abuses and worked toward women’s suffrage. She was editor of two papers in Memphis by the time she was 25, and later moved to Chicago where she ran the Chicago Conservator.
The murder of her friends drove Wells to research and document lynchings and their causes. She began investigative journalism by looking at the charges given for the murders. She also officially started her anti-lynching campaign. She spoke on the issue at various black women’s clubs, and raised more than $500 to investigate lynchings and publish her results.
Wells’ life was full of such moments of courage and principle. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862, Wells was a vocal civil rights activist, suffragist and journalist who dedicated her life to fighting inequality.
