Question

Discuss the activism of Ida B. Wells. What motivated her to act? What were some of her major goals and achievements? What challenges did she face, and how did she respond?

From African America Odyssey book

Answer 1

• Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.
• A lynching in Memphis incensed Ida B. Wells and led to her to begin an anti-lynching campaign in 1892.
• Three African-American men- Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart, set up a grocery store. Their new business drew customers away from a white-owned store in the neighborhood, and the white store owner and his supporters clashed with the three men on a few occasions.
• One night, Moss and the others guarded their store against attack and ended up shooting several of the white vandals. They were arrested and brought to jail, but they didn't have a chance to defend themselves against the charges. A lynch mob took them from their cells and murdered them.
• Wells wrote articles decrying the lynching of her friend and the wrongful deaths of other African Americans. Putting her own life at risk, she spent two months traveling in the South, gathering information on other lynching incidents.
• On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville, in May 1884, Wells reached a personal turning point. Having bought a first-class train ticket to Nashville, she was outraged when the train crew ordered her to move to the car for African Americans, and refused on principle. As she was forcibly removed from the train, she bit one of the men on the hand.
• This injustice led Ida B. Wells to pick up a pen to write about issues of race and politics in the South. Using the moniker "Iola," a number of her articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. Wells eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech.
• There were death threats, but Ida spoke against lynching in public forums and also tried to influence the reformed whites which eventually brought her anti-lynching crusade to White House. She was also personally responsible for establishing a number of associations which upheld the values of civil rights, and spoke against racial discrimination in government offices.
• Ida worked for women’s welfare and participated in National Equal Right League. The demand of the league was to end discrimination in government jobs. During these years, she also established the kindergarten for children, the first of its kind in the African-American community and also spoke in favour of women suffrage.