Ida B.

Wells

International High School at Lafayette

Bridges Team / Class: J
American History
Unit 6 – American Herstory
Mr. Joel
Akmal Khadjimukhamedov / Mei Mei
 Life Dates

• She was born in Holly Springs. Mississippi in

July 16, 1862.

• She died of uremia in Chicago on March 25,

1931, at the age of sixty-eight.
 Life Facts
• She born in a family of slave;
• Her parents and 10 month old brother died from yellow
fever in 1878 when she was 16 years old;
• She had two sons and two daughters;
• She was a anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate/activist,
passionate crusader against racism, journalist, speaker, and co-founder of the
National Association of Colored Women and National Afro-American Council
(NAACP);
• After being thrown from train on May 4, 1884 she started publish articles about
inequalities for The Living Way weekly newspaper under the pen name “Iola”;
• In 1889 she elected secretary of National Press Association;
• 1913-1916 she served as officer of the Chicago Supreme court;
 Historical Context
 After enact of the “Jim Crow law” white peoples started lynching black people because
they were afraid to lose their power and economy.
 Jim Crow law is local law by which African-American peoples lived with a supposedly
“separate but equal” status. They were relegated to the status of second class citizens. 
 Lynching is illegal way of killing people by mob, mostly by hanging.
 She was inspired to search about lynching after three of her friends Moss, McDowell,
and Stewart were killed in jail by mob.
 In 1889, she became co-owner and editor of Free Speech and Headlight, an anti-
segregationist newspaper based at the Beale Street Baptist Church in Memphis that
published articles about racial injustice.
 The Free Speech was destroyed on May 27, 1892.
 In 1892 she published the book called “Southern Horrors” and in 1895 the book called
“A Red Record” on lynching.
 In 1900, Wells published “Mob Rule in New Orleans”, a pamphlet that discusses the
lawlessness that pervades that city.
 In 1901 she wrote book called “Lynching and the Excuse for it”.
 Quotation
 “Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour,
the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of
an insane mob.”
Lynch Law in America, January 1900

 “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 court, but takes us out and murder us in cold blood when
accused by white persons.”
The Free Speech, 1892

 “One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat
in a trap.”
Year 1913
 Effects
Efforts to abolish lynching and establish racial equality;

This graph gives the number of lynchings This diagram show the decrease of
and racially motivated murders between lynching in US between 1882 - 1968
1865 – 1965

Percentage of lynched persons

88% were black
10% were white
 Map

This map show where lynching took places between 1882

– 1927. Mostly in Southern states. (by Murray Straus)
 Unit Connection
 She inspired her daughter and others to continue her work.
 To decide problems about lynching Ida B. Wells addresses all
problems about lynching and inequality in society to African-
American peoples by newspapers and free speeches.
 The actions of Ida B. Wells bring big changes on society and on
life of African-Americans in 1800 and she saved hundreds of life
from being lynching.
 She was a fearless woman. She took actions against white
people. She did not afraid from being lynching or assassinated.
 Chicago named her one of 25 outstanding women in the city’s
history.
 Class Question
 What you would do if your friends were lynched or they were in danger of
lynching?
 Would the lynching decrease without Ida B. Wells' struggle? Why or Why not?