Ida B. Wells was an important African American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who researched and documented lynchings in the 1890’s in the American South. Powered by her research she became a writer, speaker, civil rights organizer and led an impressive anti-lynching crusade, which in the deep South put her in harm’s way. She was born into slavery in Mississippi during the Civil War, later moved to Memphis, Tennessee where she bought an interest in The Memphis Free Press, an African American newspaper, which became a platform for her writings.

She had to leave Memphis after she and her newspaper were targeted as a result  of her coverage of lynchings. She moved to Chicago where she continued to work for justice through many organizations over the next three decades.

She helped form the NAACP and was an important women’s rights and suffrage advocate.

Ida’s family instilled in her the importance of education and she attended college and became a teacher. Later she travelled to Europe and spoke to groups on the prevalence of lynchings in the South. There she confronted white suffrage groups and adamantly refused to sugarcoat the realities of lynching nor get diverted from her goals. For this attitude she was perhaps ostracized by women’s organizations who chose other goals in their struggle to get the vote. Her speeches overseas on the topic of lynchings in the South were well attended. 

One can learn more about Ida’s accomplishments in the NY Times belated obituary from March of 2018.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-ida-b-wells.html