Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, born a slave in Mississippi, spent her life crusading against lynching in America. A social reformer and advocate for civil rights, woman’s suffrage, and economic justice, she drew national and international attention to racially motivated brutality. She became a teacher at age 14 and was dismissed in 1891 for protesting segregation. In her 20s, she began writing for the weekly Memphis Free Speech on social issues, and her column soon appeared in Negro newspapers across the country. In 1893, she came to Chicago to report on the lack of African-American representation at the World’s Columbian Exposition, then moved there and in 1895 married Ferdinand Lee Barnett, founder of Chicago’s first black newspaper, the Conservator. That same year, she published A Red Record, the first statistical report on lynching, and lectured on the topic throughout the United States and the world. She helped found several national organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, the Negro Fellowship League in 1910, and the nation’s first black women’s suffrage organization. In Chicago, she also helped open the first kindergarten in the city’s black community. Wells and her family lived at 3624 Grand Boulevard, now King Drive, from 1919 to 1930.

Chicago, Illinois · United States