Ida B. Wells-Barnett ( 1862 – 1931) was an African American woman who was an investigative journalist and a leader of the civil rights movement in America. She displayed the unjust treatment of the blacks and especially the lynching of black people at that racially divided time. She was one of the founders of the NAACP.
<u>The unique challenges she faced in fighting for the rights of African American women:
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- Her newspaper and press were destroyed by a white mob
- She was continually threatened to be killed so she had to move from Memphis to Chicago
- She had to face public disapproval for her fight in the women’s suffrage movement
Ida B. Wells was a pioneer in denouncing lynching crimes against blacks in the South of U.S. They were victims of these violent deaths under accusations of crimes ; Wells investigated the issue and discovered that most of the said crimes were false stories and that the lynchings had to do with prejudice and the white's fear of competition ( as some business with black owners was starting to succeed.).
The situation was even worse to black women, as they were lynched too by unfounded reasons, and had less rights than black men; There wasn't protection for them under the law.
Wells has advocated exposing the lynching on her Newspaper and in tours where she would give speeches. <u>There was an effort on silencing her: she received death threats, lost her job as a teacher and her newspaper office was destroyed by a white mob. </u>Despite all the attacks against her she continued to write on the issue, being invited on Europe to speak as well. She was engaged on the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Club and the Alpha Suffrage Club, both created to improve the chances of black woman on achieving rights.
Ida B. Wells is considered a main character of the Civil Rights Movement by the international reach of her accounting of the horrors of racist violence.
