Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862 the oldest of eight children of the slave couple Jim Wells and Lizzie Warrenton and raised in the postbellum South, Wells' parents believed in the education of their children. Ida was sent to school at a young age, often accompanied by her mother who was also learning to read. Orphaned in a yellow fever epidemic of 1878, Wells assumed the responsibility for five of her younger surviving siblings. She passed the teachers exam and began teaching in the local county school. A year later, her mother's sister invited her to live with her in Memphis, Tennessee. So she moved there with two of her younger sisters and became a teacher.

      An avid reader and debater, she became a regular attendee of the Friday afternoon lyceum of public school teachers. Coming to the attention of newspaper editors for several Black newspapers, Wells became editor of the Evening Star and the Living Way. As her popularity grew, she contributed articles to various local and national publications.

      In 1889, Wells bought one-third interest in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. Arguing that inadequate buildings and improperly trained teachers contributed to the mediocre education of Black children, Wells alienated conservative Black leaders and she lost her teaching position. Forced to rely on her own resources, she canvassed the South securing subscriptions to her newspaper.

      In March 1892, an event occurred which changed Wells life -- three of her colleagues Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Seward, successful managers of a grocery business in the Black section of town, were lynched. Until this time, like so many other Americans, Wells accepted the common place charge that black men were lynched because they had tried to rape white women. Wells knew the true story behind the lynching of Moss, McDowell, and Seward -- the owner of a competing white grocery store wanted to eliminate the competition. Questioning her long-held belief, Wells investigated the cause of lynchings throughout the South and concluded that "lynching was a racist devise for eliminating financially independent Black American." (p. 1243)

      In her editorial Wells urged Black citizens of Memphis to leave the town which would protect neither their lives nor their property, nor give them a fair trial in the courts when accused by a white person. She also wrote a :scathing editorial attacking white female purity and suggested that it was possible for white women to be attracted to Black men. "Enroute to a conference in Philadelphia when the editorial appeared, Wells escaped the ensuing firestorm of protest. The newspaper office was destroyed and threats were made against her life. She did not return to Memphis. Instead she moved to New York and continued her expose on lynching, culminating in the story "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Later, she toured England and Scotland, publicizing the plight of African Americans.

      Wells went on to become a leading national figure in the African-American civil rights and women's rights movements and in the fight for economic rights for all. Believing strongly in the power of the vote, Wells-Barnett asserted that access to the ballot was the key to reform and economic, social, and political equality. Active in the woman's suffrage movement, Wells repeatedly forced white women to face the racism in their suffrage organizations. Believing that white people could not be relied upon to give equal opportunities to Black people, Wells supported the movements of Blacks to organize themselves and to take the lead in fighting for their own equality. Active in the woman's club movement, Wells opened the Negro Fellowship League (1910) to provide lodging, recreational facilities, a reading room, and employment for Black migrant males, work that eventually was taken over by the better funded Young Men's Christian Association (1913) and the Urban League (1916). Active in the Civil Rights movement, Wells signed the call for the national conference which lead to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

      Throughout her long life, Wells campaigned in her speeches, reports, books, articles and through direct action to make America a better place for all Americans. As such, she is included in Sunny's picks for the Most Infuential Women of the Millennium.

Reference:

      Darlene Clark Hine, Elsa Barkley Brown, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, [Bloomington, Ind: Indiania University Press, 1993] vol 2, pp. 1242 - 1246

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