From investigative civil rights journalist to political activist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s life is a story of penury to triumph.
Wells-Barnett was born on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She is recognized as one of the first African-American journalists and an anti-lynching activist—she used journalism to expose lynchings in the United States.
Throughout her life, she had many different roles; she was a mother, a teacher, a women’s suffrage leader and an early civil rights movement leader.
Wells-Barnett started from humble beginnings, as she was born into slavery. In 1865, she was emancipated alongside her parents. At an early age, Wells-Barnett’s parents instilled in their daughter the importance of education. At only 16 years old in 1878, Wells-Barnett’s parents died, leaving her to be the primary caregiver of her six siblings. To support her family, she became a school teacher at a local high school. This marked the beginning of her advocacy career.
Black Activism
In the heights of the Reconstruction Era, Wells-Barnett experienced racism from segregation laws. The Reconstruction era occurred after the American Civil War, lasting from 1865 to 1877. The period marked the beginning of segregation laws, also known as Jim Crow laws. Black Americans and white Americans were segregated in schools, workplaces, on trains, buses and movie theatres. During this time, Black men in the South were lynched, deemed violent and forbidden from voting.
In 1884, Wells-Barnett took a train to Shelby County and Ohio railroad. She purchased a ticket for the ladies’ car, but the conductor instructed her to move to the smoking car, which she refused to do. This interaction resulted in an altercation in which the conductor dragged Wells-Barnett from her seat, and she subsequently bit the conductor in retaliation. Ultimately, she was removed from the train. She sued the Ohio railroad company and won $500, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision, forcing her to give up the money and pay $200 in damages to the railroad company.
Beginning of her Journalism Career
Wells-Barnett began her journalism career in Memphis, becoming the editor for a local newspaper, the Evening Star and a writer for the Living Way under the alias “Lola.” Her stories focused on racism, lynching of Black men and the overall dire experiences of Black-Americans during the Jim Crow era.
In 1889, she joined the Free Speech and Headlight newspaper as a partner and editor. Two years later, Wells-Barnett was fired from her teaching job for exposing the poor conditions of the Memphis school system. After this incident, she dedicated her career full-time to journalism.
The catalyst of her journalism career was when one of her close friends, Thomas Moss, was lynched. Moss, Calvin McDowell and Henry Steward were the owners of the People’s Grocery store in Memphis. They were lynched by an angry mob of white supremacists who believed they were their competition for an opposing grocery store. Wells-Barnett was the primary investigator for the story and discussed her findings in the Free Speech paper, highlighting the racism and racial injustice in Memphis.
Subsequently, lynching became the primary center of her research. She travelled across the U.S., mostly in the South, investigating and writing stories about the lynchings of innocent Black men.
In 1892, Wells-Barnett published the pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases, highlighting how lynch mobs were formed and how the white authorities continued to ignore the cries from the Black community. Wells-Barnett was a pioneer in the Black community to report on their struggles; she spoke in courtrooms and visited places where Black people had been lynched, shot, burned alive or even drowned. Her investigative skills were boundless; she analyzed photographs of the deceased, wrote for other local newspapers, and took statements from eyewitnesses. She was a true investigative journalist, never afraid to seek hard-hitting truths and to highlight racism in the American South.
Black Feminism
Wells-Barnett spent some time lecturing in London, England, about the lynchings in the U.S. and found ways to denounce the lies and misconceptions that the U.S. had spread across the world. Upon her return, she was welcomed by Ida. B Wells club, a women’s club named in her honour.
She was an active champion for human rights for black women, even advocating alongside Susan B. Anthony. She also criticized Anthony for failing to prioritize the rights of Black women within her suffrage movement.
Wells-Barnett formed organizations such as the Coloured Women’s League, the National Association of Colored Women and the Alpha Suffrage Club. Her advocacy extended to championing voting rights for Black women and an increase in their political representation.
Wells-Barnett has inspired countless African American women in their fight for equality for Black women and safe spaces where their voices are heard. Her fight for justice was a monumental catalyst for the U.S. to elect the first female vice president, Kamala Harris and see the representation of Black women in journalism and media. Wells-Barnett was not only an educator and advocate but also a person with lived experiences, which she portrayed in her work.
A Red Record
One of her most notable journalistic works is A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, 1892-1894. In this book, she detailed the history and statistics of lynching in the U.S.
She conducted years of research and provided comprehensive details on the racial problems in the U.S. The racism she researched was one that she herself could relate to, as she faced racism from white people in Memphis, causing her to move to Chicago, where she settled down until her death.
In 1909, she spoke at the National Negro Conference in New York, where she presented her 20-year research findings titled, “Lynching Our National Crime.”
At this conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People‘s (NAACP) “Founding Forty” were formed, but she was not credited with forming the organization due to her radical views. Wells-Barnett continued to pioneer for the Black community despite pushback, demonstrating her strength and resilience in the Black cause.
Wells-Barnett died on March 25, 1931. Although she never saw her accomplishments come to fruition, her sacrifices and determination to improve the lives of the Black community did not go unnoticed, and for this, I salute her.