- Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
- July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931
- born Holy Springs, Mississippi
Slave parents, lost parents and 3 siblings to yellow fever at 14*, Rust
University and Fisk University, became teacher, refused to give up her seat
for the colored section and sued railroad in 1880s, wrote articles, pen
name "Iola", led national campaign against lynching, her Memphis newspaper,
office was mobbed and destroyed 1892, lectured and organized clubs, protested
exclusion of Blacks from World's Columbian Exposition 1894, married lawyer,
4 children, founded Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago with Black suffragists,
marched in Washington, D.C. 1913 and Chicago 1916 suffrage parades,
Chicago probation officer 1913-1916, ally of W.E.B. DuBois, felt NAACP
was not outspoken enough.
Biographical information excerpted from Women Win the Vote
distributed by The National Women's History Project, 7738 Bell Road,
Windsor, California, 95492-8518. Graphic and text posted by permission NWHP, 1994.
(Note: The NWHP has moved and this address is no longer correct)
* other sources say that Ida Wells-Barnett was orphaned at 16.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett