#baddassjournalists

For there is power in words.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Born: July 16, 1862  Died: March 25, 1931

To say this lady is impressive is nothing short of an understatement.

From when it began to when it ended, Slavery was used in the American Colonies to build a nation into an economic powerhouse through the cultivation and sale of crops such as cotton and tobacco. A practise which began in the 17th century, individuals of African descent were taken and shipped to the shores of America to work as labour on plantations and whilst it is hard to put an exact figure on how many individuals were displaced during this era; the figure is thought to be around 7 million to 8 million. They were used as a source of cheap and plentiful labour in a booming economy.

A movement began to grow in the Northern States, the reliance on slaves here was not as heavy than the south so in the early 1820′s the Missouri Compromise was signed abolishing slavery in new western states which to the Southern states was seen as a direct challenge to the institution of slavery. The Dred Scott Decision said that none that were enslaved or had escaped to free states were citizens and that those who had escaped were still the property of those whom they had ran from. This decision breathed new life into a flagging abolitionist movement.  Slaves had also rebelled on numerous occasion but those who had benefitted from Slavery still remained firm on the issue.

Ida was born into slavery during the civil war between the North and the South in Holly Springs, Mississippi and when the war came to a conclusion; her parents became activists in reconstruction era politics. Her mother was a famous and her father was an excellent carpenter so through this they were able to support Ida and six other children after the war ended. Sadly, aged 14, Ida would lose her parents to an epidemic of yellow fever whilst she was visiting her grandmother. In a feat that would be indicative of what a powerhouse she was, she managed to gain a position as a teacher in order to keep together and support her family. After a while she would move her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee and continued to work as an educator. 

At a pivotal point in her life, Ida was forcibly removed from a train despite having a ticket. She proposed she remain in her seat after she was asked to move to allow a white individual to sit, the conductor tried to remove her forcibly from the seat and Ida reacted by biting the conductor who did not try and remove her but instead brought along other train staff to do so. Ida brought a law suit against the train company in the circuit courts which awarded her compensation; however this was later overturned by a higher court. This drove her to pick up the pen and begin to write under the moniker of ‘Lola’. The experiences of a young African-American woman as she rallied against white supremacy were quite popular reading.

In 1892, three of her friends, the owners of the Peoples Grocery Company were lynched. The fuelled an already incredibly outspoken Ida B Wells who wrote in The Free speech:

The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms. The white mob could help itself to ammunition without pay, but the order is rigidly enforced against the selling of guns to Negroes. There is therefore only one thing left to do; save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons.

Her words enraged the locals who burned her press en masse. Her campaign led the angry mob to raid her printing press and destroy her equipment in response to her anti-lynching message. A large number of black members of the community also headed her words and left the area with others in the community organised a large scale boycott of white owned businesses in the area. Hoping that the threat to the owners pocket would lessen the willingness to lynch. Regardless of the actions of her white neighbours, Ida did not stop writing and did not stop campaigning against the inequality and injustices the black community faced. She would eventually go onto write  for multiple publications and even went on to work as a travelling lecturer and campaigner, also travelling internationally to enlighten the world on the experiences that black people faced.

In 1895, she married a well known and famed African American lawyer and delivered four children. Ida balanced motherhood and continued her work. She worked as part of the NAACP and led a movement that insisted that white and black women march together in the face of suffrage and criticised the intersectionality of the women’s suffrage movement openly. In 1913, she marched with white women for women's suffrage; openly showing that discrimination had no place in the action to gain emancipation for women. Ida continued to be active in the action for women's rights, and militant in her fight for the equal rights and justice for African Americans which included calling on the president to end discriminatory hiring processes with the employment sector.

Ida passed away in 1931 after a battle with kidney disease in Chicago, Illinois. What was never lost after that March in 1931 was a towering figure and the legacy she left behind. Ida was never prepared to stand down from her beliefs even in the face of dangers she faced, even in the face of violence; Ida never once abandoned her beliefs or stopped her calls for justice. 

Info:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery

https://www.britannica.com/topic/slavery-sociology

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/slavery-abolished-in-america

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ida-B-Wells-Barnett

https://www.biography.com/people/ida-b-wells-9527635

http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/aaih/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

https://www.google.com/doodles/ida-b-wells-153rd-birthday