Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell

Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell, 1862–1931, African-American civil-rights advocate and feminist, b. Holly Springs, Miss. Born a slave, she became a part owner of and reporter for the Memphis Free Speech (1889–94), and was famous for her antilynching crusades (see lynching).

Bibliography

See her autobiography (1970).

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Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell (1862–1931) civil rights advocate; born in Holy Springs, Miss. Born a slave, she attended Rust College after emancipation and taught school in Memphis, Tenn. (1884–91); she was fired for writings critical of segregated education. In 1892, as part-owner and editor of a Memphis newspaper, she published articles denouncing the lynching of three acquaintances; warned to stay out of town, she went to the Northeast and became a renowned antilynching activist, and she published works on the subject. After her marriage to a Chicago editor and lawyer (1895), she was secretary of the National Afro-American Council (1898–1902) and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1910)—which she found too conservative. She also campaigned for women's suffrage.