SELECT YOUR LANGUAGE

Women's History Month

​

March is Women's History Month.  We highlight the life of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence. As a skilled writer, she used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans.  She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862.  Ida was born into slavery during the Civil War. Once the war ended her parents became politically active in the Reconstruction era politics. Her parents instilled in her the importance of education. In 1878, she was informed that a yellow fever epidemic hit her hometown. The disease killed her parents and her infant brother. Ida was left to raise her brothers and sister.  She took a job as a teacher and moved her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee. There she continued to work as an educator.

​

In 1884, Ida filed a lawsuit against a train car company in Memphis for unfair treatment. She was thrown off of a first-class train, despite having a ticket. Although she won the case on the local level, the ruling was eventually overturned in federal court. After the lynching of one of her friends, she turned her attention to racial violence. She became skeptical about the reasons black men were lynched and set out to investigate several cases. She published her findings in a pamphlet and wrote several columns in local newspapers. Her writings enraged locals, who burned her press and after a few months, the threats became so bad she was forced to move to Chicago, Illinois.

​

In 1895, Ida married an African American lawyer named, Ferdinand Barnett. Together, the couple had four children.  She remained active in the women’s rights movement. She was the founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club, which was created to address issues dealing with civil rights and women’s suffrage. Although, she was in Niagara Falls for the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), her name is not mentioned as an official founder. Late in her career, Ida B. Wells-Barnett focused on urban reform in Chicago. She died on March 25, 1931.

 

Happy Women's History Month!

​

By Dietra Myers

​