COMMUNITY published criticisms of the abhorrent conditions of black, segregated schools. In 1892, Ida published her research on lynching in Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. In it, she concluded that Southerners cried rape as an excuse to hide their real reasons for lynching: black economic progress, which threatened white Southerners with competition, and white ideas of enforcing black second-class status in society. [3] In 1895, she wrote and published The Red Record, a pamphlet that described lynching in the United States post-1863. In it, she detailed struggles of her people in the South since the Civil War. She said that more than ten thousand Black people hand been killed in cold blood without the formality of judicial trial. [4] Her writings would catapult her career to national and international prominence. Because Wells was not able to gain needed support to curtail the unwanted treatment of Blacks in this country, she reached out to the Great Britain and traveled there several times to win their support and influence. She would continue to carry on this work when she moved to Chicago. In 1895, Wells married Ferdinand Lee Barnett, Jr., an attorney, who like Wells, was committed to the same work as she was. While Wells-Barnett continued her anti-lynching work, she also planted her foot in the larger issues of Civil Rights for African Americans. Now Wells-Barnett, Ida began working with the likes of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and others; however, they as did members of the colored women’s clubs and white suffragists, considered Wells-Barnett too radical. One well-known story of her “radicalism” occurred in 1913, the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. The white National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) held a parade in DC with participants from across the country. They were calling for universal suffrage. Of course, Ida b. WellsBarnett and a sizable Black delegation from Chicago attended. They were soon approached by white leaders of the Chicago delegation and told that they wanted to keep the parade entirely white; therefore, the Black suffragists were to go to the back of the parade line and march with the “colored delegation.” Rather than doing that, Wells simply waited with the spectators and as soon as the parade approached, much to the White leader’s chagrin, Wells jumped in the front line of the parade with other suffragists. Her extraordinary tenacity put her at odds with other black leaders as well as white women, such as Susan B. Anthony. Undaunted, she continued her work as a civil rights leader. In 1908 when a race riot broke out in Springfield, IL, civil rights leaders, both Black and White said, enough is enough, they put their hands, hearts and minds together and the NAACP was born, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a founding organizer of this premier civil rights organization in 1909. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Ferdinand had four children. Wells-Barnett lived a life worth living and died in 1931 in Chicago at the age of 68. [1] Giddings, P.J. (2008). Ida: a Sword Among Lions. Harper Collins. New York, NY [2] Ibid [3] Wells, I.B. (1892). Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases. The New York Age, New York, NY [4] Wells, I.B. (1895). The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States. Reprinted in 2005 by the Project Gutenberg e-book. The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them – Id B. Wells-Barnett Submitted by Anita Fleming-Rife, Ph.D Forest Avenue Library 1326 Forest Avenue dmpl.org | 515.283.4152 Are You a Graduating Senior With College Plans? Ask about the Fall 4 Learning Scholarship Ad sponsored by the Friends of the Forest Avenue Library.
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