Ida B. Wells was born to slave parents in 1862; six months after her birth the slaves were freed. A few years later her father helped open Shaw University; which is where Ida received her education. After her parents and one sibling died from a fever epidemic Ida had no choice but to leave her education and care for her younger siblings. She lied about her age and became a teacher, later pursuing journalism. She worked at the Free Speech Press where she also became an editor. The Free Speech newspaper was an anti-segregation paper funded by african-americans. She passionately investigated and wrote about the injustices of american black citizens. It would seem as though Ida wrote this document and most of her other documents for all americans seeking to know the truth and desperate for change. She wanted to make all americans aware of what was really going on and be a reliable source for the historical records. She …show more content…
Wells means a great deal to me. Even in today’s society the crimes of American history are being withheld or softened. This leaves many americans in the dark or in denial about what really happened. The unfathomable truths about what black citizens really went through. About children just 15 years old were being brutally murdered without valid reason; while white americans stood by unbothered and unwilling to change. These pieces of history, this evidence of despicable injustices are vital to understanding the position of african-americans today. History is not meant to be forgotten; but rather learned from. Many african -americans are not alone today in feeling like america, in all her glory still clings to its prejudice roots. Subtly denying men and women of their civil and basic rights wherever she can. As hard as it is to read truths like Ida’s, it can show how far we have come as a nation and yet how far we still have to go before we can truly be a land that holds and honors freedom, liberty, justice and
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
Here, Wells recounts the way that racism seizes the American dream, seizes any conception of a meritocracy, and instead punishes any African American regardless of their success. Furthermore, Wells extends this threat on the American dream to a threat on the constitution (specifically the 14th amendment), stating, “It should be already established as a fact . . . that every human being must have a fair trial for his life and liberty” (202). Again, Wells demonstrates the way that lynch law and racism supersedes the supreme law of the United States, thus threatening the very foundation of American life and
Ida B. Wells lived during the late 19th and early 20th century, fighting for civil and women’s rights movements. She was a well-established journalist and most famous for her anti-lynching campaigns. Born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Ida lived with her parents until they and her youngest brother were killed by a severe yellow fever epidemic. Left with her five remaining siblings, she took the responsibility of being their primary caregiver. Deciding to move to Memphis with her aunt, Wells became a leading woman figure in the African-American community that she had been living in. “By her late twenties, Wells had become one of the preeminent female journalists of her day, and the editor and co-owner of the Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper Free Speech and Headlight” (page 4). Also launching a strong investigation into lynching and its conquests in the South, Wells found herself to become exiled from there forever.
In conclusion, Ida B. Wells had a brave attitude which made her have a very powerful impact on many people's lives. Her strong conviction lead her to work hard and achieve what she strived for. She will always be known as a major leader during the Civil Rights Movement. She lived a very successful life and it will continue to work in her
Her brothers found work as carpenter apprentices. For a time Ida continued her education at Fisk University in Nashville. A moment in My 1884 will change Ida’s life and goals forever. Having bought a first class ticket for a train ride to Nashville Tennessee she was denied the right to her seat and was forced to ride a car that was specifically for African Americans. Rightfully so she refused to give up her seat and ticket and fought the train crew and even bit one of the crew members, she later took the train company to court and won getting a 500$ settlement however the Supreme Court overruled the hearing and took her money away. After that Ida decided to start her own newspaper company named Memphis Free Speech and Highlight and begin to write her displeasure with the american government and america's prejudice practices.
Very few recognize that Ida B. Wells was a significant player in women's rights and a key leader during the Civil Rights Movement. Ida was born a slave during the Civil War in 1862 in Mississippi. She grew up subjected to racial prejudices all throughout her early life. When she was around 16 years old, both her parents and one of her siblings died during a Yellow Fever outbreak. After hearing of their parents fate, friends of the Wells family made plans to split up the children in order to take care of
Ida B Wells was one of the great African American women who helped advance the feminist and African-American agenda. Ida B Wells was born a slave in 1862. Despite this, she was still able to get an education at Shaw University at the age of 16. Unfortunately, her parents and a sibling died of the Yellow Fever Outbreak and she was forced to drop out of school. However, she was able to receive a job at a school and taught there until she moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Due to racism, Wells was forcibly removed from a train car when she refused to move to the car for African Americans. She bit one of the men on the hand. After this incident, Wells was inspired to write and became a journalist. She then became and Anti-lynching protestor and lead a march in Washington, D.C. During this time, she becomes a founding member of the NAACP. During her life, she spoke great speeches and wrote inspiring writings.
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
“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
4. Wells’ criticizes some African Americans for having false hope that education and financial stability would diminish the problems of lynching because African Americans were blind to see what was happing. The feds were blinding them by using their tax payer money to bribe them with schooling so they could avoid the fact that African Americans were being wrongfully tried. For instance when the three African American men were killed for killing a couple of police officers even though it was self defense. They had never been arrested, had a good education, owned a good business and were hard workers. That didn’t matter because in the end what only mattered was the color of their
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
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
The documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, allows one to experience African American history through key historical sites, and interviews with living eyewitnesses such as those who fought during the well-known civil-rights movement. The documentary sheds light on the experience of African Americans, both in the past and today. The information presented in class further aids in detailing how African American history shaped the African American community in regards to support systems, crises, but most importantly, how these individuals used resiliency to overcome their trials and tribulations towards a fights for rights, freedom, and respect. During the six episodes, one will see that the road and battle to freedom for blacks in America was not linear, but rather complex and difficult- it was much like the course of a river, full of loops and turns, sometimes slow, and sometimes reversing the current of advancement. Although enslavement led to the creation of the African American people, it manifested into the multiplicity of cultural institution, beliefs, and religion and social institutions that the African American people have established- along with their strength and resiliency. From slavery, lynching’s, and the many marches and protests led by phenomenal black leaders, to the gained freedoms and the first black president in the White House, the documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, details an engaging journey through African-American history from a perspective that thoroughly reflects the lives of African-Americans and the community in its
Ida B. Wells was a woman dedicated to a cause, a cause to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from being murdered by lynching. Lynching is defined as to take the law into its own hands and kill someone in punishment for a crime or a presumed crime. Ida B. Wells’ back round made her a logical spokesperson against lynching. She drew on many experiences throughout her life to aid in her crusade. Her position as a black woman, however, affected her credibility both in and out of America in a few different ways.
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