Ida B Wells-Barnett – Flashcards

Ida B Wells-Barnett was an African American campaigner for the Women's rights movement, she also was a journalist and speaker during the Civil Rights movement. She is known as a great leader for her passionate defensiveness of democracy. http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

She was born on July 16th of 1892 in Holly Springs, Mississippi http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

She passed away at age 69 on March 25th of 1931 in Chicago, Illinois http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

Ida wasn't always a free woman, before the Civil War she was a slave, but she and her family were freed about 6 months after her birth as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Through her mothers well known cooking and her fathers carpenter skills, her parents were able to support her and her siblings. She obtained her first job at age 16, teaching. While teaching, she was able to expand her knowledge by receiving education at a near by college, Rust College. http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

Ida had a mom, a dad and 6 younger siblings. Her parents names were James and Lizzie Wells, she later moved in with her aunt in Memphis, Tennesse http://www.biography.com/people/ida-b-wells-9527635#early-life http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

In 1879 an epidemic of the Yellow Fever struck her state, killing her parents and her youngest sister. The death of her parents forced her to get a job at age 16 and later move in with her aunt to help raise her siblings. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/ http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

She was able to pass her teaching certification exam at age 16 then proceeded to get a job as a school teacher near her hometown. Then in 1881 started teaching in Northeast Mississippi at a dirt road intersection school. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

Ida used to take the train to work everyday every single day. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

In Chicago, she lived in an Romanesque Revival style stone house from the late 19th century.

While enjoyed living in the city, for while living there, she shopped, rode horses, went to baseball games, and even attended literary club meetings. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

Ida wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and she did so, so writing articles for The Evening Star about inequalities among races in the black only and white only schools, she was fired. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

As mentioned before, Ida was able to get a job as a teach after she passed her teaching certification exam http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

Well riding to work one day on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company in 1881, she sat in a first class white train car, for that's what she paid for, but eventually she was directed to sit in the smoking, segregated car. Ida refused and was removed forcibly from the train. Ida claimed that she bit the train conductor and dug her feet into the seat in front of her as the conductor tried to pull her out by her arm. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/ http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/il2.htm http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

Ida sued the train company because despite the racial discrimination laws prohibiting segregation and racism, Ida was still suffering through it. Although winning her case when bringing it to court in the circuit courts, Ida lost her case in the Supreme Court of Tennessee. On the first ruling, she refused to receive any settlement from the company, and won the case being awarded with $500 in damage costs. Although sshe won the first time, the train company appealed in 1887, winning, causing her to lose her original case, return the $500, and pay an extra $200 for damages. http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

After getting fired, Ida B Wells went to work full time at The Evening Star. She was reprinting multiple times across the country for her first article about the railroad case. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

After her railroad article, Ida was offered a job in 1889 by Reverend Taylor Nightingale and J.L. Fleming at The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight Newspaper. She asked for an editor position and was granted her request. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/il2.htm http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/ http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

Thanks to the Reverend and Fleming and prospered. She was then able to travel the country and gain multiple subscribers, which resulted in her earning the position of co-owner. After she started printing the newspaper on pink paper because it would then stand out from the others. http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

Lynching is when a group of people kill somebody for a suspected crime with no real trial. This happened to 3 of Ida's friends, Calvin McDowell, Thomas Moss, and Henry Stewart. Their white owned neighboring business was angered because of the success their grocery store was getting, so a mob murdered them. Through her writing skills, Ida wrote books, pamphlets, and held lectures informing people about disastrous crime of lynching and why whites thought it was "justifiable." She was able to write on a first hand point of view, for she would travel to the site of the killing and be able to further her research. Through these doings, she was able to raise awareness of lynching and challenge white superiority. https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/idawells.html http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/il2.htm

Ida helped form many clubs including those that talked about health, women's sufferage, health, sanitation, combating racism, and racial uplift. In 1896 they all formed the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/africanamericanreform.html

the clubs helped benefit societies, schools, and houses. They also helped to undertake strikes and create unions. http://www.ibwfoundation.org/About_Ida_B.html

the Negro Fellowship League helped provide people with shelter, jobs, and other things for people who moved into the cities looking for jobs. http://www.ibwfoundation.org/About_Ida_B.html

She marched in a parade as a protest against president Wilson's Inaguration where she refused to march with the blacks only, she demanded to walk with the whites also. She also participated in many riots. http://www.ibwfoundation.org/About_Ida_B.html http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/il2.htm

Ida wrote 2 autobiographies before her death, "The Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells and The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells: An Intimate Portrait of the Activist as a Young Woman" which her daughter later published and edited http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/

She became the first ever black woman in the United States to run for public office in 1930 http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

Through her braveness of speaking out, Ida had to suffer angered citizens destroying her office and her life being threatened if she didn't leave. Even though all of this stuff happened to her, she still didn't back out and continued to stand up for what she believed in. https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/idawells.html

Ida helped move the suffrage movement along and helped to progress black equality in the nation http://www.ibwfoundation.org/About_Ida_B.html

Ida was a great influence on people, because of her advice, people weren't afraid to stand up, they would leave town or create boycotts. http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

She helped to inspire people through her ambition and desire to change history http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/wells-barnett_ida/