The Fight For Justice

Ida B. Wells: Her Contribution to the Fight for Justice

Over the last 300 years US newspapers have played an important role in the lives of its readers. During the 19^th century print media was the only form of mass communication available. Newspapers were a powerful and inexpensive tool to disseminate information to large populations.  Those who owned a newspaper had a platform to tell their story.  According to Carter G. Woodson’s History, The Black Press, And Public Relations … “Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm founded the first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in 1827 to have black people accurately represent their own concerns – speaking for themselves, telling their own stories, documenting their own lives that Woodson would advocate early in the next century (Freedom’s Journal, 1827).” 

 The Freedom’s Journal provided a voice for the black community. Cornish and Russwurm’s goal was to counter the racist narratives found in white newspapers. The Freedom’s Journal covered domestic and international events and included editorials about slavery and other important issues. The paper featured prominent figures from the black community, printed obituaries, marriages and birth announcements.  The paper ran from 1827 to 1829 and became the catalyst for the evolution of black journalism. It helped to spark a movement of social justice via black owned and operated newspapers like The Colored American, The North Star, Chicago Defender, The Pittsburgh Courier, The Baltimore Afro-American, The Richmond Daily Planet, The Richmond Afro-American and The Richmond Free Press. The black press in its infancy empowered black communities through providing information, pushing back against Jim Crow and demonstrating a commitment to social justice, these actions helped to create an advocating voice for the people. Ida B. Wells was the voice which became a champion for the black community by speaking truth to power. Wells expressed her concerns around social justice, lynching, and sexual violence against black woman.

 Ida B. Wells was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862.  After the Civil War Wells’ parents became active in politics. They believed that education would distinguish her and encourage her to learn as much as she could. Ida B. Wells attended the historically black Rust College (known at the time as Shaw University).  While at Rust, Wells got into a verbal disagreement with the college president and was expelled.  She eventually moved with her family to Memphis, Tennessee.  While living in Memphis Wells continued her education at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In the spring of 1884, Ida Wells followed her usual pattern of purchasing a seat in the ladies’ car on the train on a trip out of Memphis.  After the train pulled out, the conductor came to collect the tickets and informed her she would have to move to the car reserved for black people.  Seventy-one years before Rosa Parks, she refused to give up her seat.  According to Meeks and Stroupe…“Ida Wells lived in the tensions and demonic power of a racist system, but she was soaked in a spark of divinity that allowed her to see herself as God’s child. She refused to abide by the attempts to strip her dignity in the post-Reconstruction days that reestablished slavery under the name of “neo-slavery,” or “Jim Crow.” 

In 1892 Ida B. Wells, was an out spoken journalist who first analyzed the dynamics behind lynching.  Wells was forced to flee Memphis after writing about the lynching of her friend Thomas Moss, a postal worker and owner of the successful People’s Grocery.  Moss was lynched along with grocery employees Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart simply because his store was in economic competition against the local white-owned grocery. Wells asserted that economics was at the heart of lynching.  On February 1, 1893, Ida B. Wells, stood before an audience of reformers at the Metropolitan church of Washington, DC, to give a public lecture. Her lectured was entitled “Southern Mob Rule.”  She was invited to speak by Frederick Douglass. Mary Church Terrell, writer and founder of the Colored Women’s League, introduced Wells as a woman with “undaunted courage.”  She took the stage and delivered a courageous and impactful deconstruction of racialized mob violence in America.  Wells lectured the crowd stating that “lynching is nothing more than an excuse to get rid of Negroes acquiring wealth and property."  The morning following her speech, newspapers carried the details of a mob burning in Paris Texas. 

Ida B. Wells dedicated herself to intensive investigation of crimes against African Americans and wrote articles about race and politics.  Her articles were published primarily in black-owned newspapers and magazines. In 1889, Wells became the co-owner of an African American owned newspaper, The Free Speech and Headlight. Through it, she published her research on racially-motivated hate crimes.  Wells also continued teaching at a segregated school in Memphis.  She was an outspoken critic of school segregation.  According Lynching and Leisure Wells made inroads with her meticulous investigation of empirical evidence. Her documented findings would challenge the assumption of rape and violence against black women.  Wells insisted, as “the rape of helpless Negro girls and women which began in slavery days, still continued without push back from churches, the government, or the press.”

Lynching was illegal and usually committed without the victim receiving a trial. Often, lynching went unpunished.  Wells continued to write many articles about crimes and violence committed against African Americans, not just in Memphis but also across the South.

Ida B. Wells used facts, data, and statistics to support her claims. She scoured newspapers, examined crime records, and interviewed people. She traveled to places where lynching occurred, spoke to eyewitnesses, looked at photos, and visited the sites of gruesome tragedies. Wells spoke to children, spouses, relatives, and neighbors. She found that economics, competition, land, and spite were why many African Americans were murdered. However, false claims about crimes of robbery, assault, and the raping of white women often covered up these crimes. She published this information in a pamphlet called “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases”. Her writings angered many white people throughout the South. Wells became a target of their rage. While visiting Philadelphia on May 27, 1892, a white mob attacked and destroyed Wells’ newspaper office in Memphis. She was threatened with bodily harm if she returned to the city.

Ida B. Wells married Ferdinand Lee Barnett, a journalist and attorney from Chicago, in 1895. Like his wife, Barnett actively supported feminist, anti-lynching and civil rights causes. In what was a rare move for the time, Ida B. Wells hyphenated her last name after her marriage. She became known professionally and personally as Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Ida B. Wells-Barnett continued to work as a newspaper writer and activist for African American rights and social justice throughout her life. She compiled names, dates, and facts and figures related to lynching in the United States. Her findings are a detailed record of white mob violence against African Americans during these times. She hand-published the information in pamphlets, like The Red Record. Eventually, she added women's suffrage to her causes. She was a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women, whose motto was "Lifting as We Climb." By securing the vote for African American women, they helped solidify the vote for African American men. In 1909, Ida B. Wells-Barnett helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. However, her name was initially excluded from the list of founders. The initial leadership of the organization thought she was too radical. She wanted to push harder and go further in her quest for human and civil rights for African Americans. Over time, she was slowly moved out of leadership positions. Yet, she continued to support the African American community through her work until her death.

Works Cited

Forde, K. R., Bedingfield, S., & Lichtenstein, A. C. (2021). Journalism and Jim Crow : White supremacy and the Black struggle for a new America. University of Illinois Press.

Guy-Sheftall, B. (1995). Words of Fire. The New Press.

Horne, G. (2017). The rise and fall of the Associated Negro Press Claude Barnett’s pan-African news and the Jim Crow paradox. Urbana University Of Illinois Press.

Meeks, C., & Stroupe, N. (2019). Passionate for Justice. Church Publishing, Inc.

Morris, B. R. (2017). Carter G. Woodson. Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Terry Anne Scott. (2022). Lynching and Leisure. University of Arkansas Press.