Ida B. Wells

About

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a pioneering American journalist, sociologist, and civil rights activist. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, she was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to exposing racial injustices, particularly lynching, through her investigative journalism. She wrote extensively for various newspapers, including the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, where she highlighted the brutal realities of lynching and debunked myths surrounding its causes. Wells-Barnett co-founded the NAACP and was a key figure in the women's suffrage movement. She traveled internationally, advocating for civil rights and speaking against racial violence. Her publications, such as Southern Horrors and A Red Record, provided detailed statistical analyses of lynching. Wells-Barnett married Ferdinand Barnett in 1895 and had four children while continuing her activism. She died on March 25, 1931, in Chicago, leaving a legacy of courage and advocacy that continues to inspire social justice movements today. In 2020, she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her courageous reporting on lynching.