Ida B. Wells-Barnett

“Virtue knows no colour line”.

Ida Bell Wells (1862 – 1931) was a feminist, civil rights activist, and journalist.

This is going to be my longest post so far, because there is SO much I didn’t know about this amazing woman and I want to share as much of her story as possible. Sorry not sorry. I’ve titled the sections so you can skip if you’re not interested hahhaa.

EARLY LIFE

Ida was born a slave in Mississippi, until she was granted her freedom by the Emanipation Proclamation. She attended a traditionally black college, however after losing her parents and her brother, she began work at the age of 16 to keep her remaining family together. She then moved to Tennessee where she began working as a teacher. She continued her education alongside her work. She held strong political opinions and was outspoken on women’s rights,

In 1884, she resisted racial segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat on a train (almost a century before Rosa Parks on the bus!) . She was forcably removed and gained publicity by writing an article condemning her treatment. She subsequently hired a black lawyer to sue the rail company. Her black lawyer was paid off by the company, but she eventually won the case with the help of a white attorney – however the supreme court reversed her victory. For Ida, this was not about her individual compensation, but about the rights of her race in America: "I felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things from my suit for my people. ... O God, is there no ... justice in this land for us?"^[15]

While continuing to teach, Ida became an increasingly active journalist. She was offered an editorial position at the Evening Star in Washington D.C. and wrote many articles condemning racist policies. In 1889, she became editor and co-owner  of The Free Speech and Headlight, a black-owned newspaper.

In 1891, Wells lost her job at the school owing to her articles criticizing conditions in black schools.  This was a major blow, but Ida was indeterred and put even more energy into her writing. At this point, she was an accomplished and respected woman, and one of the few women of colour belonging to the middle class.  

 

“The appeal to the white man's pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.”

 

ANTI-LYNCHING

In 1889, a scuffle between two children – one black and one white – became a ‘racially charged mob’ ending in the arrest of three black men - all close personal friends of Ida’s.  During the early hours of the morning, 75 men took Moss and his two co-accused fom their cells and shot them dead. The ‘murder in cold blood’ led Wells to write an article urging blacks to leave Memphis altogether. This event was the catalyst for Wells’ investigative journalism, with which she began to interview people associated with lynchings. Her first case was of a lynching in 1892, where a black man was lynched for having an affair with a white woman. Ida wrote on what she called:  "that old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women.’ For this, her newspaper office was burned to the ground and she was driven from Memphis forever.

In 1892, Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet called Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.  She concluded that Southerners used rape as an excuse to lynch black men when they were really motivated by economic competition from the black community which was seen as a threat to white supremacy. Three years later, she followed up with the Red Record, a hundred page publication describing lynching in the US since the end of the civil war and publicised the alarmingly high rates of lynching in the United States (which was at a peak from 1880 to 1930). She argued that blacks had actually been better protected under slavery because then at least white’s valued the labour value of slaves. Wells noted that, since slavery was abolished, "ten thousand Negroes have been killed in cold blood, [through lynching] without the formality of judicial trial and legal execution." She noted that whites frequently claimed that black men had "to be killed to avenge their assaults upon women" as it was automatically assume that any interracial sex must be non-consensual – despite the fact that it was much more common for white men to take advantage of young black girls. She backed up her arguments with statistics – 14 pages worth - related to lynching cases committed from 1892 to 1895, and graphic descriptions of particular examples.  Her publication brought the issue of lynching to the attention of the Northern states, who were genuinely ignorant about the widespread practice and lack of repercussions for lynching in the South. However, she believed that white Americans would never put black lives over white profits and thus that emotion and reason would not convince white Americans to outlaw lynching.

Consequently, she concluded that only armed resistance could work to defend blacks from lynching. However, she began to put pressure on other powerful white nations such as Britain to shame America into action.

Wells took two trips to Britain in the 1890s in an attempt to raise international awareness of lynching amongst white audiences. She was met with sympathy and shock by Brits who were appalled at the stories of Lynching.  Wells had been invited to Britain by two abolitionist women writers who had heard Wells’ lectures in the US and who had taken Frederick Douglass’ recommendation of inviting Wells to speak in England.

Before leaving for her second visit to Britain, Wells was asked to document her travels for the Daily Inter-Ocean – the only white newspaper to frequently denounce lynching.  Thus, Ida became the first African-American woman to be a paid correspondent for a mainstream white newspaper.  

Wells addressed audiences of thousands on her two month tour of England, Scotland and Wales for two months, stirring up a moral crusade among the British.  She received significant media coverage in Britain and America, although the white American newspapers mainly resorted to personal slander of her character.  Regardless, she gained widespread recognition and credibility, and won many white supporters internationally.

“Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.”

CIVIL RIGHTS

In 1895, Wells married attorney Ferdinand L. Barnett. He too was a civil rights activist and ournalist who was equally outspoken in his condemnation of lynchings. They met in 1893, working on a pamphlet protesting the lack of Black representation at the World's Columbian Exposition. Barnett founded The Chicago Conservator, the first Black newspaper in Chicago, in 1878. Wells began writing for the paper in 1893, later acquired a partial ownership interest, and became editor after their marriage. Their marriage was unusual in that they were joined legally and professionally, as well as romantically. They had shared journalistic and activist careers which were ‘intertwined’ according to their daughter. This was unusual in an era where usually the man would work while the woman stayed at home attending to domestic matters. In addition to Barnett's two children from his previous marriage, the couple had four more – which resulted in a constant struggle to balance her career with motherhood.

Wells was admired and sometimes financially supported by the 19th century leader for African-American civil rights, Frederick Douglass. Following his death, Ida was excluded from leadership of the movement owing to the belief that it was improper for women to assume such roles. She was also viewed by some as too radical in her opinions.

Nevertheless, she worked alongside national civil rights leaders to protest a major exhibition, she was active in the national women's club movement, and she ultimately ran for the Illinois State Senate. She also was passionate about women’s rights and suffrage. She was a spokeswomen and an advocate for women being successful in the workplace, having equal opportunities, and creating a name for themselves.

Wells was very active in the national Woman's club movement. In 1893, she organized The Women's Era Club, a first-of-its-kind civic club for African-American women in Chicago (later renamed the Ida B. Wells Club).  In 1896, she was part of the meeting which founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.  

In 1900, Wells refuted an article which advocated for the adoption of a racially segregated public school system. Her poor experiences working as a teacher in this system caused her to be outraged at the suggestion. She wrote to the publisher explaining the failures of segregated school systems and the successes of integrated public schools. She also lobbied him in person. She  teamed up with social reformer Jane Addams and the pressure group they created is now credited with preventing the adoption of an officially segregated school system.

During WW1, Wells was placed under U.S. government surveillance, labelled as a dangerous "race agitator."  She defiantly continued her activism, and in 1917 wrote a series of investigative reports on the East St. Louis Race Riots.

In 1921, Wells returned to the South after 30 years to publish a report on the Elan Race Riot. Throughout the 1920s, she participated in the struggle for black worker’s rights. In 1924, she lost the presidency of the National Association of Colored Women to a more diplomatic rival. Wells started a political organization named Third Ward Women's Political Club in 1927. In 1928, she tried to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention and in 1930, Wells unsuccessfully sought elective office, running as an independent for a seat in the Illinois Senate.  

 

"I will not begin at this late day by doing what my soul abhors; sugaring men, weak deceitful creatures, with flattery to retain them as escorts or to gratify a revenge."

FEMINISM

Wells' role in the U.S. suffrage movement was inextricably linked to her lifelong crusade against racism, violence and discrimination towards African Americans. She saw female enfranchisement as a way for black women to become politically involved and to elect black men and women into power.

As a prominent black suffragist, Wells’ strong condemnation of racism and racial violence brought her into conflict with leaders of largely white suffrage organizations. The best known example of this is her very public conflict with Frances Willard, first president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union ( a promidenently white organisation). Willard racistly accused blacks for the failure of the temperance movement: ‘The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt…and the grog shop is its center of power’ Wells also condemned Willard for her silence on lynchings, and dedicated an entire chapter of the Red Record to shaming Willard’s positions, which she argued promoted racial violence. Wells continued her Anti- Lynching campaign and focussed her efforts on black women's suffrage in Illinois following the enactment of a new state law enabling partial women's suffrage.

In 1913, she and a white colleague organized the Alpha Suffrage Club. This became one of the most important black suffrage organizations in Chicago, with the objective of achieving further  voting rights for all women, to teach black women how to engage in civic matters and to work to elect African Americans to city offices.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organised a parade in Washington DC before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. The head of the Illinois delegation instructed Wells that  NAWSA wanted "to keep the delegation entirely white." And that black suffragists, including Wells, must stay in a separate delegation at the back. Wells refused, and stepped into the white Illinois delegation as they passed by. She made a great show of linking arms with her white suffragist colleagues – a visual symbol of the universality of the women’s civil rights movements.  

Ida tried to illuminate how the “defense of white women's honor” allowed Southern white men to get away with murder by projecting their own history of sexual violence onto black men. Her call for all races and genders to be accountable for their actions showed black women that they had a right to demand their rights. By highlighting the horrors of lynching, she worked to show that racial and gender discrimination are linked, furthering the black feminist cause.

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

LEGACY

Wells died of kidney failure in Chicago on March 25, 1931, aged 68.

She was the queen of intersectionality – a supposedly modern concept which I just today shared some stories about. The image of her walking arm in arm with her white suffragette sisters is a powerful and important one. She knew that black women suffered the double blow of sexism and racism, and that to keep them disenfranchised was deterimental to the empowerment of the black community as a whole. She was unafraid to call out the double standards of white feminism (something which remains an issue today) and of white male sexual aggression. The stereotype of a sexually aggressive black male and a chivalrous white knight is one which endures today and continues to uphold white supremacy – as seen with George Floyd and the justification of his murder owing to his previous charges against women – despite the fact that a known rapist and paedophile is president of the USA. Ida also knew the power of the press, which I personally hold accountable for much of the racism, islamophobia, and intolerance which sweeps the world today – especially in the UK. Ida put herself in harms way to highlight her plight as a black woman and in doing so successfully shattered both gender and racial stereotypes. Even in her marriage, Ida set a standard for how women should be treated and made sure that every action, word, and relationship counted. I don’t think I’m exagerating to say she may be the last honourable journalist to have walked the earth. Ida made history and left an undeniable record of the history of racial violence and sexual hypocrisy in American society and she is an absolute hero in everything she did and stood for. Modern liberation movements have a lot to learn from her.