Ida B. Wells

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader of the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially that of women.

Throughout the 1890s, Wells documented the lynching of African-Americans in the United States in articles and pamphlets such as ''Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases'' and ''The Red Record'', which debunked the fallacy which was frequently voiced by whites at the time, that all Black lynching victims were guilty of crimes. Wells exposed the brutality of lynchings, and she also analyzed the sociology of them, arguing that whites used lynchings to terrorize African Americans in the South because they represented economic and political competition—and thus, they posed a threat of loss of power—for whites. She aimed to demonstrate the truth about this violence and advocate for measures to stop it.

Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She was freed as an infant in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation, when Union Army troops captured Holly Springs. At the age of 16, she lost both her parents and her infant brother in the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. She got a job teaching and kept the rest of the family together with the help of her grandmother. Later, moving with some of her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee. Soon, Wells co-owned and wrote for the ''Memphis Free Speech and Headlight'' newspaper, where her reporting covered incidents of racial segregation and inequality. Eventually, her investigative journalism was carried nationally in Black-owned newspapers. Subjected to continued threats and criminal violence, including when a white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses, Wells left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois. She married Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895 and had a family while continuing her work writing, speaking, and organizing for civil rights and the women's movement for the rest of her life.

Wells was outspoken about her beliefs as a Black female activist and she faced regular public disapproval as a result, sometimes, she faced public disapproval from other leaders of the civil rights and women's suffrage movements. She was active in the women's rights and women's suffrage movements, establishing several notable women's organizations. A skilled and persuasive speaker, Wells traveled on lecture tours both nationally and internationally. Wells died on March 25, 1931, in Chicago, and in 2020, she was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation "for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching." Provided by Wikipedia