She Grows It™
SGI
agriculture14.jpg

The Continental

Our international blog and information sharing platform for people from all spaces and places to share stories of culture, innovation, development, and resilience.

SHE VOTES, U.S. #2020ELECTION - POST 3: IDA B. WELLS (1862-1931)

images.jpg

Ida B. Wells was born into slavery during the middle of the Civil War in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In six months she was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 [2][6]. Wells became an orphan at the age of 16, when her parents and brother died of the Yellow Fever epidemic of the 1870s [9]. Her remaining siblings were split up between their family friends, yet, she decided to support and take care of her five siblings herself. She later decided to move some of her brothers and sisters to Memphis, Tennessee, where she started working as a teacher [6][7].

In 1885, during one of Wells’ train trips from Holly Springs to Memphis, she was told that she could not sit in the women’s car, despite buying the same ticket as the rest of the women.  But Wells didn’t give up, and insisted on having the same rights as others. She was eventually pulled out of the train [9]. After the incident, she immediately opened a court case against the railroad firm. After several years of battle she lost to the State Supreme Court. Wells felt devastated. This event marked the beginning of her activism and her journalist career [3][10].

Ida B. Wells was writing her articles on segregation and disenfranchisement under the pen name “Iola,” which she used to be published in Black periodicals and newspapers [8]. By the early 1890s, she became one of the most prominent Black female journalists as well as the “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” newspaper editor and co-owner [1][14]. She used to say, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” [13]. Unfortunately, Wells wasn’t lacking material on social injustice in the post Civil War era: she wrote on how white people vandalized Black people’s businesses, suppressed their voting rights, and even murdered them [13][14].

The People’s Grocery Lynching of March 1892, which we discussed in the beginning of the original SGI Women’s Suffrage series, affected Ida B. Wells no less than Mary Church Terrell, given that Thomas Moss was their mutual friend. Despite risking her own life by enraging the men involved in the lynching, she launched her own investigation by analyzing the newspapers and police reports, and by interviewing the victims and witnesses [9][13]. Her research found that lynching was a tactic to control African Americans whose businesses seemed successful enough by their white competitors [4]. And when Ida B. Wells eventually published her findings, the white mob burned her newspaper presses [12]. Knowing that she wasn’t in Memphis during the assault, they left a note threatening that she would be murdered if she returns [9]. In turn, Wells decided to republish her research titled “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases” as her first anti-lynching campaign in New York. Later, in 1895, she decided to further build on her piece naming it “The Red Record” in Chicago [4].

Mary_Garrity_-_Ida_B._Wells-Barnett_-_Google_Art_Project_-_restoration_crop.jpg

Due to Wells’ publications and public speeches, she finally drew international attention. She used this to amplify her message [13]. But back in the US, she continued her fight against segregation and disenfranchisement. This time, at the age of 50, she joined the force fighting for women’s voting rights but restrained from being a part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), who saw Black women’s voting rights as a barrier toward white women’s suffrage. Consequently, Ida B. Wells founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, which was the most prominent African American women’s suffrage club in Chicago [5][8].

A highlight of her Black Women’s Suffrage movement happened during the Woman Suffrage Procession when she proudly marched up front with the Illinois banner to renounce NAWSA’s demand to place Black women at the back of the parade [5]. She also linked her arms with Virginia and Squire Brooks as a demonstration of her universal approach toward a mutual goal of all women’s rights,  regardless of race [11]. This caused some civil rights leaders to see her as too radical, and Wells was soon excluded from the NAACP, despite being one of its founders. She didn’t compromise her vision of justice, which made it difficult for her to find her place in other civil rights organizations [9].

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett died at the age of 68 from a kidney disease with a federal anti-lynching law yet to be passed and her autobiography left unfinished. Towards the end of her life, she was deeply concerned with new generations not knowing about lynching, who she was, and what her contributions were [9]. Therefore, She Grows It™ would like to commemorate Ida B. Wells as someone who is still remembered as a fighter not only for civil rights, but specifically Black Women’s Suffrage.

Authors: Dr. Ashley Milton, Alyssa Kalac, Marina Tsoumpa

References:

  1. Biography. (2017, April 27). Ida B. Wells. Retrieved from Biography website: https://www.biography.com/activist/ida-b-wells

  2. Black, P. C. (2001). Ida B. Wells: A Courageous Voice for Civil Rights | Mississippi History Now. Retrieved from Ms.gov website: http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/49/ida-b-wells-a-courageous-voice-for-civil-rights

  3. Fowler, R. (2015). Ida B. Wells at the Tennessee Supreme Court - TBA Law Blog. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from www.tba.org website: https://www.tba.org/index.cfm?pg=LawBlog&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=22871

  4. Francis, M. M. (2017, January 24). Ida B. Wells and the Economics of Racial Violence. Retrieved from Items website: https://items.ssrc.org/reading-racial-conflict/ida-b-wells-and-the-economics-of-racial-violence/

  5. Jones, P. P., Hendricks, W. A., & Taylor, C. R. (n.d.). Ida Wells-Barnett Confronts Race and Gender Discrimination. Retrieved from www.lib.niu.edu website: https://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht319630.html

  6. Norwood, A. R. (2017). Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Retrieved from National Women’s History Museum website: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

  7. NPR. (2008). Biography Examines Life of Ida B. Wells. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from NPR.org website: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89109212

  8. NPS. (2019). Ida B. Wells (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved from Nps.gov website: https://www.nps.gov/people/idabwells.htm

  9. Smith, D. (2018, April 27). Ida B Wells: the Unsung Heroine of the Civil Rights Movement. Retrieved from The Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/27/ida-b-wells-civil-rights-movement-reporter

  10. Steptoe, T. (2007, Autumn 16). Ida Wells Barnett (1862-1931). Retrieved from BlackPast website: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/barnett-ida-wells-1862-1931/

  11. Stillion, B. A. (2011). Militant citizenship : rhetorical strategies of the National Woman’s Party, 1913-1920 (p. 85). College Station: Texas A & M University Press.

  12. UC. (2009). Guide to the Ida B. Wells Papers 1884-1976. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from Uchicago.edu website: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.IBWELLS

  13. UM. (2019). Ida B. Wells Documentary. Retrieved from www.memphis.edu website: https://www.memphis.edu/benhooks/documentaries/idabwells.php

  14. Wormser, R. (2002). The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Jim Crow Stories . Ida B. Wells | PBS. Retrieved from Thirteen.org website: https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_wells.html

She Grows It CommunicationsFreedom, Lifelong Learning