Ida B Wells

To modern day eyes, lynching, or group murder, is obviously a crime. But in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the idea that lynch victims "deserved it" held sway amongst Americans, both black and white. The woman who challenged this myth and began the long campaign to end lynching was Ida B Wells.

Ida B Wells Timeline

Ida B Wells Early Years

Ida B Wells was born in 1862 in Mississippi. She was born enslaved, during the American Civil War (1860-1865). The Civil War abolished slavery, freeing Wells and her family.

Wells grew up in an era that promoted some of the most virulent racism, such as Jim Crow laws in the American South. Between 1882 - 1950 some 3,000 African Americans were lynched.

Fig. 1 - Ida B. Wells

Ida B Wells Education

When she was 14 years old, Wells attended her local school Rust College in Mississippi. She later moved to Tennessee to attend Fisk University, the same university WEB Du Bois attended.

In Memphis, Tennessee she found employment as a teacher. However, she was later fired after writing an article criticising the conditions of black schools in Memphis. Despite this punishment, Wells continued to speak out against the inequalities in schooling and resources.

Ida B Wells and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad

In 1885, when Wells was 23, she sat in the first-class carriage of a train ride. Despite having bought the first-class ticket, the conductor insisted she move to the over-crowded African American section. Wells refused to move and even bit the conductor's hand when he tried to grab her. She was eventually overpowered and removed from the train.

Fig. 2 - Map of Chesapeake and the Ohio Railway

Wells sued the railway company, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and was initially successful and received $500 in compensation. However, the Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned this verdict.

Wells became interested in journalism and wrote a series of newspaper articles which looked at African-American education. She used the alias Lola Well and was surprised at the positive reception she got. She moved out of teaching and became a part-owner of The Memphis Free Speech, an African American newspaper.

Ida B Wells and Civil Rights Movement

Ida B Wells is considered a pioneer of the civil rights movement. She was involved mostly in the anti-lynching, and women's suffrage activism.

Ida B Wells Anti-Lynching Activism

Ida B Wells played a pioneering role in the anti-lynching movement, using her investigative journalism to reveal the truth behind these crimes.

In her autobiography, Crusade for Justice (1928) Wells described how even she initially believed the myth of black men raping white women, which was a common justification for lynching at the time. She writes that she vaguely believed that,

So what changed for Wells to become a staunch anti-lynching activist? It was really the lynching of her close friend and African American community leader, Thomas Moss, that radicalised Wells against lynching.

Though Wells rightfully despised the men who had lynched her friend, she was even more outraged at local news coverage of the lynching. White-owned press justified the lynching as necessary and even went as far as to call Moss' horrific lynching an act of justice. Even worse, they painted out Moss to be a violent and criminal man. As Wells stated in her autobiography, the lynching of Thomas Moss:

Wells realised that lynching was not because of black men's sexual violence or criminality. The white rival grocer's attempts to destroy Thomas Moss' business was revealing. Wells now understood that lynching was a means of terrorising and economically oppressing successful African Americans.

Fig. 3 - The People's Grocery Memphis Image

Wells used her journalism to counter the racist white press and put forward the truth about lynching. In The Memphis Free Speech she boldly wrote:

The white Memphis community was outraged. Wells' office was burnt down and death threats forced her to leave Memphis for good. Importantly, it was the local paper the Commercial Appeal that reproduced her article and whipped up the mob frenzy against Wells. Wells was not just fighting against lynchers; she was fighting against the press, who she saw as equally complicit in racial violence.

Ida B Wells Mob Rule in New Orleans

Wells spent most of her life fighting against lynching and the fake news of the press. In 1895 she married and moved to Chicago. She continued to publish the truth about lynching through her investigative journalism.

In 1900 she published "Mob Rule in New Orleans," a pamphlet that explored the discrepancies in the press over the lynching of Robert Charles. Though the press described Charles as a violent criminal or "desperado," Wells interviewed those around Charles to see what actually happened. She found out how the incidents leading up to Robert Charles' lynching actually turned out. Charles was being harassed and beaten by white police officers when he defended himself with his gun.

Fig. 4 - A postcard showing a crowd after the lynching of Allen Brooks in 1910

In publishing this pamphlet, Wells helped to counter the racist myth of black violence and lawlessness. Her works were crucial in producing an alternative record to the white press. It is important to note that many of Wells works come in the form of pamphlets - she did not have the money or support to publish whole books.

Ida B Wells Women’s Suffrage Movement

The 1890s was a period of intense suffrage activity. Wells was an active part of the suffrage movement and was a personal friend of Susan B. Anthony, the famous American suffragist. In her autobiography, she wrote of Anthony:

But in other quarters Wells often faced racism from the suffragette movement. At the 1913 Chicago suffrage march, Wells was told to walk at the back of the protest so as to not offend the Southern white women present. In response, Wells pushed her way to the front of the march.

Fig. 5 - Ida Wells at the Suffrage March

Ida B Well Significance and Legacy