Ida B. Wells: Journalist And Activist
Ida B. Wells was an early proponent of civil rights and was a prominent journalist and activist in the 1890s. Born a slave in Mississippi in the era of the civil war and at the age of sixteen she became the head of her household when both of her parents passed away do to the yellow fever epidemic. To support her five other siblings Wells started to teach in rural Mississippi. Shortly after, Wells became an editor of a newspaper and used it as means of addressing injustices against African Americans in the southern United States. Wells was leading in the fight against lynching’s on African Americans in the south, which she regarded as a form of racial prejudice that no human being could justify and was a vital component to the NAACP (National
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Wells took on this role due to a personal experience of lynching in Memphis. Three black men were killed with their only crime being a competitor to a white-owned store, one of these men, Thomas Moss, being a good friend to Wells. Wells was out of town when this horrendous turn of events took place, when she had returned there were black people fleeing Memphis and her friend dead. Wells had believed she could live in the south and attempt to make it a better place, but when she saw the lynching of her friend, whom was a good man, she started to think nothing could be done in the south. She began to investigate over two hundred different cases of lynching’s in the south, of black men being accused of rape, which were ultimately false accusations of the black men. Wells after this lynching wrote an editorial addressing, that she denounces the wholesale lynching in Tennessee and she was considered one of Americas first investigative reporters but, it was believed the editorial had been taken too far. A white mob stormed the Free Speech and destroyed it, luckily Wells was not there during the raid, but the mob left a letter stating that whomever was writing or printing the editorials needs to leave town or be killed. After this, Wells found herself in New York City working for the New York Aged and led the first campaign against lynching. She identified lynching as a crime and was trying to push the social reformers and government to act. Anti-lynching would become a vital dedication to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
Wells took on this role due to a personal experience of lynching in Memphis. Three black men were killed with their only crime being a competitor to a white-owned store, one of these men, Thomas Moss, being a good friend to Wells. Wells was out of town when this horrendous turn of events took place, when she had returned there were black people fleeing Memphis and her friend dead. Wells had believed she could live in the south and attempt to make it a better place, but when she saw the lynching of her friend, whom was a good man, she started to think nothing could be done in the south. She began to investigate over two hundred different cases of lynching’s in the south, of black men being accused of rape, which were ultimately false accusations of the black men. Wells after this lynching wrote an editorial addressing, that she denounces the wholesale lynching in Tennessee and she was considered one of Americas first investigative reporters but, it was believed the editorial had been taken too far. A white mob stormed the Free Speech and destroyed it, luckily Wells was not there during the raid, but the mob left a letter stating that whomever was writing or printing the editorials needs to leave town or be killed. After this, Wells found herself in New York City working for the New York Aged and led the first campaign against lynching. She identified lynching as a crime and was trying to push the social reformers and government to act. Anti-lynching would become a vital dedication to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored