Ida B. Wells Barnett

This was mostly due to socio-economic need. Their husbands were more accepting of this as it benefited the entire family. “Slavery having rendered black men and women equally powerless, had leveled the gender “playing field”within the black community.”(Franklin, 2010, p. 65) There was a sharp difference in marriage rates of black and white women activists in the early 20th century. The amount of black married women activists was double that of white women activists A reason for this disparity, being that white women were more likely to buy into the notion that a woman’s place was in the home and many believed this to be a more ideal situation. This “traditional marriage has been described as an exchange of a male’s economic resources for a female’s social and domestic services”(Franklin, 2010, p.

Ida Wells-Barnett was born on July 16. 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, just months before her plantation slave parents were declared free when the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1st, 1863. Although all slaves in the South were freed, all blacks were met with prejudice in every way possible. Because of the deeply rooted racism and dehumanization of blacks in the “new South”, and the lynching’s of some of her closest friends, Wells-Barnett was compelled to write and publish Southern Horrors in 1892. This was written to educate and enlighten the public of the countless lynching’s taking place and other acts of injustice occurring throughout the south against blacks. Wells-Barnett sought to reveal the true, root cause of

Ida B. Wells, an African-American woman, and feminist, shaped the image of empowerment and citizenship during post-reconstruction times. The essays, books, and newspaper articles she wrote, instigated the dialogue of race struggles between whites and blacks, while her personal narratives, including two diaries, a travel journal, and an autobiography, recorded the personal struggle of a woman to define womanhood during post-emancipation America. The novel, _THEY SAY: IDA B. WELLS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RACE_ , provides an insight into how Ida B. Wells's life paralleled that of

To be a woman meant that one had no say in regards to political affairs or in government making decisions. If being a woman had limitations, imagine what a black woman experienced, as they were considered less than human and mistreated more than any other female from any different background. In “A Plea for the Oppressed”, Lucy Stanton, one such black woman, tried to avail her people’s plight upon an audience of white women, to support the antislavery and reform cause.

The most common ways women of different ethnicities were held back were by being barred from certain jobs. Black, and Latina women were not allowed to work in the southern textile industry, or hold a secretarial job like many white women did. Instead they were forced to become maids, and laundresses. (Schaller 594) Another example of the lack of improvement for women in minorities is the percentage of young Italian girls who were withdrawn from school, in order for them to help support their family. Roughly 90% left school at the age of 14 to find work. (Schaller 629) Even though white women were steadily making progress towards equality with their own organizations, african american women did not see such immediate progress. So they decided to create their own similar groups such as the National Association of Colored Women. This group took its stance on it’s own separate set of issues such as lynching, and defending the respect of black women. (Schaller 686) Ida B. Wells, a founding member of the NAACP took the lead on the lynchings, her crusade lead her to flee the south before she eventually settled down in Chicago. She continued to receive death threats had she returned to Memphis but, she continued her campaign and ended up taking it abroad.  There she would form London’s Anti-Lynching Committee, this would causes waves all the way to Memphis, where

Glenda Gilmore, in her essay “Forging Interracial Links in the Jim Crow South,” attempts to tackle the charged concepts of feminism and race relations during the infamous Jim Crow era. Her analysis focuses on both the life and character of a black woman named Charlotte Hawkins Brown, a highly influential member of the community of Greensboro, North Carolina. Brown defied the odds given her gender and race and rose to a prominent place in society through carefully calculated interracial relations. Gilmore argues that in rising above what was expected of her as a black woman, Brown was forced to diminish her own struggles as a black woman, and act to placate

As a well-known civil rights activist of her time, Ida B. Wells began her journey to her ultimate ideologies when she was a young girl. Growing up as a slave in Mississippi, her access to education was limited to learning at the Freedman’s Bureau schools. Throughout her life she followed the well paved pathway of her father, the town “race” man, to lawful justice for all citizens, not just African American or white. The contending journalist didn’t lose sight of her family, African American community or her commitment to serving God, but allowed her strong belief in human rights and equality to help her grow stronger as a member of her society.

Similarly, Patricia Hill’s work “Black Feminist Thought” explains the need for black feminism. For Hill U.S. black feminism is needed in order for black women to survive, cope with, and resist their differential treatment in society. Black feminist thought creates a collective identity among this marginalized group of African-American women. Hill provides several features that make U.S. Black feminist thought different than any other set of feminism. The first feature Hill speaks about is ‘blackness’ it is this concept that makes U.S. black feminist a different group that suffers a “double oppression”. Thus, U.S. Black women collectively participate in a dialectical relationship which links African American women’s oppression and activism. Hill speaks on the U.S. black feminist thought and the dilemma they face in American society. During the women’s right movement there was a tremendous difference between black and white women’s experiences, “while women of color were urged, at every turn, to become permanently infertile, white women enjoying prosperous economic conditions were urged, by the same forces, to reproduce themselves”. It is this difference in attitudes that demonstrate why there is a need to focuses on the linkage of experiences and ideas experienced by the black women in America. Consequently, Davis analyzes the hypocritical differences of the government of the

From the 1880’s to the 1920’s, the Progressive Era was a period in American history where women’s suffrage gained the most momentum. Due to justified Progressive Era reforms and the creation of various organizations during this time, women were able to successfully protect people who were, for example, immigrants, poor, and African Americans belittled by the norms of society. With the full participation of American women, they exercised their full rights as citizens to create public institutions and shape public policy. Redefining the social structure, these middle-class women received support from other women which essentially led to changes of the rights of and treatment of American women in society. Thwarted by a male-dominated society, pleas for better treatment and equal rights made by women in the forms of protests, conventions, parades, and speeches, were often seen as foolish and meaningless. However, women’s unrelenting efforts combined with the atmosphere of reform resulted in positive outcomes such as the right to vote, the creation of new educational opportunities, and the introduction of better working conditions for women, which drastically impacted the way women apply themselves in society today.

Ida Wells Barnett was born in Holly Springs, Missouri, on July 16, 1862, exactly 2 months and 6 days later prior to when United States President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate-held territory. Ida attended Shaw University, also known as Rust College, a school that was established for freed men after the Civil War. Like her father, Ida attended Shaw University, but was expelled for rebellious behavior after a confrontation with the college president. While visiting family in the Mississippi Valley in 1878, at the age of 16, she became primary caregiver to her six brothers and sisters, when both of her parents and brother succumbed to yellow fever, leaving her and her five other siblings orphaned.

“From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings happened in the United States. Of these individuals that were lynched, 3,446 were dark colored. The blacks lynched represented 72.7% of the general population lynched”(“Ida B. Wells Quotes”). Ida Bell Wells Barnett, commonly known as Ida B. Wells was a women who wanted the best for her colleagues. Like most people, she was faced with a big complication. Wells Barnett was a critical part of America's history. Her story is one that must be known and brought to life by African Americans of all ages, today and in the future. In the 1890s Wells led an “anti-lynching crusade in the United States and went deeper in life to become someone who looked and strived for African American justice. Wells was a former slave who became a journalist and wrote about the unpleasant, severe race issues going on in the world which later resulted in death. Ida Bell Wells Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement, significantly impacted the lives of African Americans today by

In her book Southern Horrors Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching, Crystal Feimster aims to show the importance of southern women in the fight for women’s right during and after the civil war. This book tells the story of Ida B. Wells and Rebecca Latimer Felton as well as the hundreds of other southern women who campaigned against rape and lynching and championed for women’s rights. Feimster narrative focuses on both Wells and Felton because they were pioneers of their time in southern women’s empowerment after the war.

Women’s issues during slavery and even into the Reconstruction Era were not held as top priorities within the social structure of life during those times. The main political and social issues were within the male spectrum, and therefore left women’s rights and values in second place, behind men. Within the nineteenth century, there were four specific characteristics that society deemed should be associated with a woman; piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. However, this was not the case when it came to black women. They were not able to exemplify the expected worldview of womanhood due to their circumstances.

Chapter 4 of A Shining thread of hope explores the the 19th century as it relates to African-American women. It is broken down into subsections: Origins of the movement, Sojourner's sisters, outside the movement, the underground railroad, another world, another culture,and before the dawn. Each time period followed a certain formula. First, a generalization about the time, followed by a

Feminism addressed most issues that related to women, but it didn't really address the issues and needs of Black women. Many black women saw that their needs were being overlooked, but only some took a stand on the issues.