Ida B Wells Research Paper

Wells was on of the founding members of the NAACP. In 1930, Wells was disgusted by the nominees for the state legislature, so she decided to run for Illinois State Legislature. This made her one of the first black women to run for public office in the U.S. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. She was a person who never stopped believing in what she thought or knew was important to her and other people of her race and gender. She had to have a large amount of courage to do all that she has accomplished in her time, and this is why she is an important figure to the Harlem Renaissance.

Wells-Barnett was an investigative journalist and was involved in researching, reporting, publishing pamphlets, and eventually campaigning against the historical tragedy known as lynching. She became aware of these atrocities occurring against African Americans at an alarming rate in the United States. Wells-Barnett had published a total of three pamphlets that had worked through the half-truths and outright lies to uncover the inhumane activity of lynching mob. In Mob Rule in New Orleans, Wells-Barnett stated, “Legal sanction was given to the mob or any man of the mob to kill Charles at sight by the Mayor of New Orleans, who publicly proclaimed a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, not for the arrest of Charles, not at all, but the reward was offered for Charles’ body, “dead or alive.” (Wells-Barnett 842) This statement reflects the mindset of the majority of white Americans during this turbulent time. Consequently, Ida B. Wells-Barnett became not just a reporter of the facts, but a crusader for the cause of justice for

She talked about how the act of lynching was a racist strategy to eliminate black men by means of racism. Ida B. Wells was also outspoken about the charges of rape against African-American men. Ida B. Wells believed that these charges were trying to hide the consensual relations between white women and African-American men. Whites were so shocked and infuriated by these allegations that they destroyed her newspaper office while Wells was away and dared her to return to Memphis. Not intimidated by any of the white men's threats, Wells kept a gun in her house and advised that guns should be kept in the homes of all African-Americans during that time, as a means for protection.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a newspaper editor and journalist who went on to lead the American anti-lynching crusade. Working closely with both African-American community leaders and American suffragists, Wells worked to raise gender issues within the "Race Question" and race issues within the "Woman Question." Wells was born the daughter of slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. During Reconstruction, she was educated at a Missouri Freedman's School, Rust University, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen. In 1884, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to teach while attending Fisk University during summer sessions. In Tennessee, especially, she was appalled at

In her speech, Ida B. Wells appeals to emotion and logic by using statistics and real-life stories of lynchings. She also counters the apologists’ defense of lynching by using strong language and statistics to disprove the validity of their claims. Finally, Wells offers a solution on how to end lynching and ensures that crimes will still be punished, even if lynching subsides. Despite the criticism of Wells and many other authors and activists, lynching persisted in the United States for a substantial period of time. Lynchings were so frequent in Southern states that Montgomery, Alabama, has plans to build a lynching memorial to recognize the mistreatment of black citizens and memorialize the victims. However, lynchings then were not the public disgrace they are now considered, and the unjust treatment of black citizens continued even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Activists like Wells have continued to identify racism when they see it in hopes to create a more equal society, but many would argue that an equal society still has not been

Wells, on the other hand, was a civil rights leader that focused all of her resources against lynching and illegal treatment of others. She believed that African Americans should be putting all of their efforts into protecting themselves from those that would try to take away their rights as citizens. In doing so they would prove their conviction for equality and receive equal treatment. Wells is most known for her passion when she refused to move from a first class train seat that she purchased. The conductor and baggage man dragged her out and had her arrested (The Gale Group, n.p.). After this event she began to actively write against companies that deny people of their rights. She later became a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, in order to increase awareness to their mistreatment. It worked in many cases in the following years such as when they protested against President Wilson over him introducing segregation in

According to the stereotypes exposed by Wells, white men understood the rape of a white woman by a black man to be an insult to their manhood [5] , whereas the rape of a black woman by a white man could not be a “punishable crime” because of her status as a “bad woman.” The racial ideology at the root of such thinking allowed white men to define lynching not as terrorism or race and gender control, but as the right action to avenge their manhood. [6] Through her reports, Wells challenged other women as well as men to join the anti-lynching campaign. The Association of Southern Women to Prevent Lynching was a subsequent group of white women that was established in the 1930s as a result of the events documented in A Red Record. Wells is also credited as one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization that began a widespread campaign against lynching and mob violence around 1910 and is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States. [7]

She became a leading community activist through a sequence of events. In 1884 Ida was riding a train in a first class car, when she was asked to move to the smoking car. When she refused, two conductors tried to physically move her. She instead got off the train and filed a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit was initially won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict. After the train incident, in 1889, Ida went to The Free Speech paper; this is where her most promising worked developed. In 1892, three of her friends were brutally killed during a lynching. This one particular event opened the eyes of Wells and prompted her to write some of her most controversial works yet. However this type of writing got the Free Speech office ransacked and destroyed. The other owner of the Free Speech barely escaped with his life, but he carried the message that if Ida were to show her face ever again in Tennessee she would be killed. Now with all this ammunition based on personal experience, even as an African American woman, she had gained credibility to be able to speak with

“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

Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. About six months after her birth, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Even though the document released slaves, the Wells family faced racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices. Her father, James Wells was active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. She received early schooling because her father’s position in government. Ida had to drop out of school at the age of 16, when a tragedy affected the family. Both of her parents and one of her siblings died in a yellow fever outbreak. Ida had to become responsible at a young age and cared for her other siblings. At the age of 16, she convinced a school administrator

Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells once said, ¨ One had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap,¨ and she lived her life from then on fighting for justice and equality. Ida was an African American woman who was born into slavery and grew a deep hatred towards the way ¨whites¨ were treating ¨blacks¨, she decided to take a stand. Ida B. Wells was best known for heightening public awareness and getting people to realize that what she had to say needed to be taken into consideration. She used her journalistic skills to encourage African Americans to take bold actions against the victimization and the abuse. Ida would not stop until she had gotten results and/or answers.

Henry Smith was one of the first African American to be lynched with fire. His death caused newspapers to publish his story all over the United states, but newspapers in the South almostly defended the citizens of Paris, Texas. Which goes to show how bias people were against the rights of African Americans because newspaper were conveying the message to the public that lynching was acceptable in any given scenario. Ida B. Wells went to the crime scene and investigated by interviewing witnesses and collected evidence, she found there to be no rape charges on Smith. She continued on by writing the horrors and injustice of lynching. All of that paid off because she became a part of the federal government and passed the anti-lynching legislation.

Unlike Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou devoted her life to inspiring African Americans to do whatever they wanted to do no matter what other people said. She also wanted to inspire people. Her poems Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise inspired not only the African American people, which is was intended to, but the whole world including men. Like Hughes, Maya Angelou did not think that one day she would be reading one of her poems at President Clinton 's inauguration. But she did think that she would inspire young African American writers that they too could become wonderful writers in a white society. Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of

Ida B. Wells is well known for her influence during the civil rights and women’s rights movements. She was born in 1862 in Holly Springs Mississippi. Her parents died of yellow fever when she was only sixteen years old. She was to be split up from her other six siblings, but she dropped out of school and managed to get a job as a teacher and was able to keep her family together. She soon realized the discrimination in pay that there was as she was taking home thirty dollars compared to someone else’s eighty dollars a month. Then in 1884, she was confronted by a railroad conductor, asking her to move to the overly crowded smoking car. She refused and was drug off the train. She hired an attorney and tried to sue the railroad. Her