Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells, (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931), later known as Ida Wells-Barnett, was an African-American civil rights advocate, and led a strong cause against lynching. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 1884, she refused to move out of a segregated railroad car in Memphis, Tennessee, and won a lawsuit against the railroad company for forcibly removing her from her seat, although the Supreme Court overturned the decision in 1887. In 1889, she became co-owner and editor of an anti-segregationist newspaper based on Beale Street in Memphis. In 1895, she published A Red Record, which documented her campaign against lynching. She was a founding member of the NAACP in 1909. In 1930, she ran for the Illinois state legislature, one of the first black women ever to run for public office. She died in Chicago, Illinois where a public housing complex was later named in her honor. There is also a high school in her name in San Francisco, CA.

External links

• Biography from Duke
• Books by Ida B. Wells at Project Gutenberg