Muckrakers The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who attacked established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They typically had large audiences in some popular magazines. In the US, the modern term is investigative journalism—it h…Muckraker
Why did Ida B Wells become an activist?
Despite being married, Wells was one of the first American women to keep her maiden name. In 1896, Wells formed several civil rights organizations, including the National Association of Colored Women. After brutal attacks on the African American community in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, Wells took action.
Why was Ida B Wells so important?
Wells
- Early Life. Ida B. Wells was enslaved from her birth on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. ...
- The Anti-Lynching Campaign. The horrendous practice of lynching had become widespread in the South in the decades following the Civil War.
- Personal Life. In 1895 Wells married Ferdinand Barnett, an editor and lawyer in Chicago. ...
Was Ida B Wells ever arrested?
In March of 1892, Ida B. Wells, a journalist and former Memphis school teacher, started a crusade against lynching after three friends of hers were brutally murdered by a Memphis mob. Tom Moss and two of his friends, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart, were arrested for defending themselves against an attack on Moss' store. Moss was a highly ...
What did Ida B Wells do to became an activist?
Wells became deeply interested in the lynching problem after three Black businessmen she knew were killed by a white mob outside Memphis, Tennessee, in 1892. For the next four decades she would devote her life, often at great personal risk, to campaigning against lynching. At one point a newspaper she owned was burned by a white mob.
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What did Ida B Wells do?
African-American journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She also fought for woman suffrage.
What did Ida B Wells do and what was the impact of her work?
Wells established the first black kindergarten, organized black women, and helped elect the city's first black alderman, just a few of her many achievements. The work she did paved the way for generations of black politicians, activists, and community leaders.
Who did Ida B Wells expose?
Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the South used to intimidate and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition—and a subsequent threat of loss of power—for whites.
What did Ida B Wells do for journalism?
Wells. Ida B. Wells was a courageous and outspoken woman who conducted an incredible crusade against black oppression on the pages of newspapers and the lecture platform from the post-Reconstruction period until her death in 1931.
What does Ida B. Wells say actually caused lynching?
She exploded the myth that lynchings were carried out in retribution for black men' raping white women, because the overwhelming majority of sexual relationships were consensual or merely a product of fear in white imaginations. She asserted that lynching was “that last relic of barbarism and slavery.” Ida B.
What did Ida B. Wells contribute to women's rights?
She fought tirelessly for the right of all women to vote, despite facing racism within the suffrage movement. On August 18, 1920, Congress ratified the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote.
Who led an anti lynching campaign?
Ida B. Wells-BarnettIda B. Wells-Barnett, the fiery journalist, lecturer and civil rights militant, is best known for her tireless crusade against lynching and her fearless efforts to expose violence against blacks.
When did the anti-lynching movement start?
In 1918, Congressman Leonidas Dyer of Missouri first introduced his Anti-Lynching Bill — known as the Dyer Bill — into Congress. NAACP supported passage of the bill from 1919 onward, though it was defeated by a Senate filibuster. NAACP continued to push for federal anti-lynching legislation into the 1930s.
What did Ida B. Wells write in the newspaper?
Wells continued her reporting, writing for The New York Age, the Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, The Conservator, and many other newspapers. She published the pamphlet Southern Horrors later in 1892, working off of what she had written for the Age and providing additional details.
Who was Ida B Wells Barnett and how did she contribute to the civil rights movement?
Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence. As a skilled writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South.
What are the five facts about Ida B. Wells?
5 Things To Know About Journalist and Anti-Lynching Activist Ida... WellsIda B. Well was born into slavery. ... She was orphaned at 16. ... Wells became an activist in Memphis. ... The lynching of a friend inspired her most celebrated activism. ... Wells also fought for women's suffrage.
Who was Ida Wells?
For the American lawyer, see Ida V. Wells. Independent. Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
What happened to Ida Wells?
In September 1878, tragedy struck the Wells family when both of Ida’s parents died during a yellow fever epidemic that also claimed a sibling.
What did the Wells family do in Chicago?
The NFL also assisted with job leads and entrepreneurial opportunities for new arrivals in Chicago from Southern States , notably those of the Great Migration. During her involvement, the NFL advocated for women's suffrage and supported the Republican Party in Illinois.
What was the role of Wells in the suffrage movement?
Wells' role in the U.S. suffrage movement was inextricably linked to her lifelong crusade against racism, violence and discrimination towards African Americans. Her view of women's enfranchisement was pragmatic and political. Like all suffragists she believed in women's right to vote, but she also saw enfranchisement as a way for Black women to become politically involved in their communities and to use their votes to elect African Americans, regardless of gender, to influential political office.
What was the first civic club for African American women?
In 1893, she organized The Women's Era Club, a first-of-its-kind civic club for African-American women in Chicago. It would later be renamed the Ida B. Wells Club in her honor. In 1896, Wells took part in the meeting in Washington, D.C., that founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.
How much money did the Pulitzer Prize give to Ida Wells?
The Pulitzer Prize board announced that it would donate at least $50,000 in support of Wells' mission to recipients who would be announced at a later date. In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Tennessee, protesters occupied the area outside the Tennessee State Capitol, re-dubbing it "Ida B. Wells Plaza".
Where was Ida Wells born?
Ida Bell Wells was born on the Bolling Farm near Holly Springs, Mississippi , July 16, 1862. She was the eldest child of James Madison Wells (1840–1878) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Warrenton). James Wells' father was a White man who impregnated an enslaved Black woman named Peggy. Before dying, James' father brought him, aged 18, to Holly Springs to become a carpenter's apprentice, where he developed a skill and worked as a "hired out slave living in town". Lizzie's experience as an enslaved person was quite different. One of 10 children born on a plantation in Virginia, Lizzie was sold away from her family and siblings and tried without success to locate her family following the Civil War. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, Wells' parents were enslaved to Spires Boling, an architect, and the family lived in the structure now called Bolling–Gatewood House, which has become the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum.
Who Was Ida B. Wells?
Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, abolitionist and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African American justice.
Where was Ida Wells born?
Ida B. Wells was one of the first American women to continue to keep her last name after her marriage. Education. Fisk University, Rust University. Place of Birth. Holly Springs, Mississippi. Place of Death. Chicago, Illinois. Full Name. Ida Bell Wells.
How long did it take for the Wells family to be freed?
The Wells family, as well as the rest of the enslaved people of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation about six months after Ida's birth.
What was the name of the organization that Wells attended?
After brutal assaults on the African American community in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, Wells sought to take action: The following year, she attended a special conference for the organization that would later become known as the NAACP. Wells later cut ties with the organization, explaining that she felt the organization, in its infancy at the time she left, lacked action-based initiatives.
How did Wells die?
Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of 68, in Chicago, Illinois.
What happened to the woman who bit the man on the train?
As Wells was forcibly removed from the train, she bit one of the men on the hand. She sued the railroad, winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case. The decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. This injustice led Wells to pick up a pen and write.
What party was Wells' father in?
Wells' parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Her father, James, was involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society and helped start Shaw University, a school for the newly freed enslaved people (now Rust College), and served on the first board of trustees.
Who was the most influential muckraker of the Gilded Age?
Tarbell was one of the most influential muckrakers of the Gilded Age, even though she did not care for the association with the term as she did not consider herself a writer. Her interviews with Standard Oil officials Henry Rogers, arranged by his friend Mark Twain, and Rockefeller’s partner Henry Flagler gave her a great deal of information on Standard Oil’s business practices. It seems the two felt Tarbell was writing a flattering article about the company.
What was Ida Tarbell's book about?
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company that had destroyed her father’s oil business, as well as many other small oil related companies in Pennsylvania’s oil region in the 1870s. Tarbell’s work entitled “The History of The Standard Oil Company ” was originally published as a series in McClure’s Magazine and later in book form in 1904. It would become a notable example of investigative journalism, know during the Gilded Age as muckraking, that would lead to the Progressive Era in America, and would exposed the shady business practices, most notably the monopoly, of many of the county’s captains of industry.
Who was the oil company that was involved in the Cleveland Massacre?
In 1871, the Cleveland Massacre saw many oil producers in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, including Frank Tarbell, face the choice of sell their companies to the young John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil or try to compete and face financial ruin. Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s ...
Who wrote the book that exposed Rockefeller's practices?
Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s practices, but they not totally bring down Standard Oil. In 1911, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company broken up into so-called baby Standards.
Who was the head of Standard Oil?
John D. Rockefeller, the head of The Standard Oil Company based in Cleveland, Ohio, had already begun to build a monopoly over the oil industry buy buying out smaller competitors and forcing many out of business as Standard Oil grew. In 1871, the Cleveland Massacre saw many oil producers in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, including Frank Tarbell, face the choice of sell their companies to the young John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil or try to compete and face financial ruin. Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s practices, but they not totally bring down Standard Oil. In 1911, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company broken up into so-called baby Standards. Today, the remnants of the once mighty Standard Oil are still visible in the form of Chevron and ExxonMobile.
Who was Ida Tarbell's father?
The family grew prosperous, and Ida was able to attend Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1880. John D. Rockefeller.
Did Tarbell support the suffrage movement?
Tarbell did not support the suffrage movement, a growing movement attempting to get the right to vote for women, feeling the movement contradicted her own convictions and refused repeated pleas to endorse the movement.
Who Was Ida B. Wells?
Early Life, Family and Education
- Born an enslaved person in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. The Wells family, as well as the rest of the enslaved people of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamationabout six months after Ida's birth. Living in Mississippi as African Americans, they f…
Civil Rights Journalist and Activist
- Wells wrote about issues of race and politics in the South. A number of her articles were published in Black newspapers and periodicals under the moniker "Iola." Wells eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech. On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville, in May 1884, Wells reached a personal turning poin…
Anti-Lynching Activist
- A lynching in Memphis incensed Wells and led her to begin an anti-lynching campaign in 1892. Three African American men — Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart — set up a grocery store. Their new business drew customers away from a white-owned store in the neighborhood, and the white store owner and his supporters clashed with the three men on a few occasions. O…
'A Red Record'
- In 1893, Wells published A Red Record, a personal examination of lynchings in America. That year, Wells lectured abroad to drum up support for her cause among reform-minded white people. Upset by the ban on African American exhibitors at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, she penned and circulated a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored Ameri…
Husband and Children
- Wells married Ferdinand Barnett in 1895 and was thereafter known as Ida B. Wells-Barnett. The couple had four children together.
NAACP Co-Founder
- Wells established several civil rights organizations. In 1896, she formed the National Association of Colored Women. Wells is also considered a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). NAACP co-founders included W.E.B. Du Bois, Archibald Grimke, Mary Church Terrell, Mary White Ovington and Henry Moskowitz, among othe…
Death
- Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of 68, in Chicago, Illinois. Wells left behind an impressive legacy of social and political heroism. With her writings, speeches and protests, Wells fought against prejudice, no matter what potential dangers she faced. She once said, "I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap."