“reaction to Black sharecroppers”
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Ida B. Wells
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an American investigative journalist, sociologist, 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). Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially for women.
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culture · American journalist and civil rights activist (1862–1931) · journalist · sociologist · suffragist · writer · human rights defender · newspaperperson · civil rights advocate · lecturer · social activist · clubwoman · also Ida B. Wells, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Ida Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell Wells, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Ida Wells
Born 16 July 1862 · Died 25 March 1931 · Q289428
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2026· 2 entries
Public attention spiked: 8,376 Wikipedia readers in one day, 11.2× the usual 749, with 0 article edits.
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2020· 1 entry
Awarded Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (2020).
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2019· 1 entry
PolitiFact rated the claim “"Ida B. Wells refused to give up her seat 71 years before Rosa Parks did. At age 33, she owned the first African-American newspaper in Chicago, the Chicago Conservator. Why do you never hear about her? Because she was a Republican."” Half True.
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2018· 2 entries
The New York Times published a belated obituary for her, in a series marking International Women's Day and entitled "Overlooked", which set out to acknowledge that, since 1851, the newspaper's obituary pages had been dom
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The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened, including a reflection space dedicated to Wells, a selection of quotes by her, and a stone inscribed with her name
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2015· 1 entry
Which would have been her 153rd birthday
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2011· 1 entry
Wells was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame for her writings
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2006· 1 entry
The Harvard Kennedy School commissioned a portrait of Wells
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2004· 1 entry
Awarded National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame (2004).
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1990· 1 entry
At the start of Black History Month in the U
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1988· 3 entries
Awarded National Women's Hall of Fame (1988).
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Awarded Chicago Women's Hall of Fame (1988).
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Was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
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1970· 1 entry
As Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B
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1941· 1 entry
The Public Works Administration (PWA) built a Chicago Housing Authority public housing project in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago; it was named the Ida B
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1939· 1 entry
As the first housing project named after a woman of color
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1931· 2 entries
Died 1931-03-25.
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In Chicago, and in 2020 was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation "for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynch
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1930· 1 entry
Wells unsuccessfully sought elective office, running as an Independent for a seat in the Illinois Senate, against the Republican Party candidate, Adelbert Roberts
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1928· 1 entry
Tried to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention but lost to Oscar De Priest
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1921· 1 entry
To investigate and publish a report on the Elaine massacre in Arkansas (published 1922)
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1917· 1 entry
Wells wrote a series of investigative reports for the Chicago Defender on the East St
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1914· 1 entry
Served as president of NERL's Chicago bureau
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1913· 1 entry
Suffragists from across the country gathered to demand universal suffrage
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1911· 1 entry
Wells attended the second annual Single Tax Conference
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1908· 1 entry
Founded the Negro Fellowship League (NFL), the first Black settlement house in Chicago
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1900· 1 entry
Wells was outraged when the Chicago Tribune published a series of articles suggesting adoption of a system of racial segregation in public schools
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1899· 1 entry
The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs intended to meet in Chicago
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1896· 1 entry
Wells took part in the meeting in Washington, D
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1895· 3 entries
In Chicago at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Wells married attorney Ferdinand Lee Barnett, a widower with two sons, Ferdinand Barnett and Albert Graham Barnett (1886–1962)
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Wells was perhaps at the height of her notoriety, but many men and women were ambivalent or against a woman taking the lead in Black civil rights at a time when women were not seen as, and often not allowed to be, leader
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And had a family while continuing her work writing, speaking, and organizing for civil rights and the women's movement for the rest of her life
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1894· 4 entries
At Bradford she gave a "sensational address, though in a quiet and restrained manner"
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Spoke in Birmingham, West Midlands, at the Young Men's Christian Assembly and at Central Hall, staying in Edgbaston at 66 Gough Road
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While pastor of the Pembrooke Baptist Church in Liverpool, England, befriended Wells, endorsed her anti-lynching campaign, and hosted her during her second speaking tour in England in 1894
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Before leaving the US for her second visit to Great Britain, Wells called on William Penn Nixon, the editor of the Daily Inter-Ocean, a Republican newspaper in Chicago
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1893· 6 entries
And the second in 1894 in effort to gain the support of a powerful white nation such as Britain to shame and sanction the racist practices of the United States
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Working together on a pamphlet protesting the lack of Black representation at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893
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Later acquired a partial ownership interest, and after marrying Barnett, assumed the role of editor
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The World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago
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Organized The Women's Era Club, a first-of-its-kind civic club for African-American women in Chicago
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Wells and Willard travelled separately to Britain on lecture tours
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1892· 8 entries
Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
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Wells published an editorial in the Free Speech refuting what she called "that old threadbare lie that Negro men rape white women
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A group of six white men including a sheriff's deputy took electric streetcars to the People's Grocery
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A young Black male youth named Armour Harris was playing a game of marbles with a young white male youth named Cornelius Hurst in front of the People's Grocery
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In the Cleveland Gazette, describing a wrongful conviction for a sexual affair between a married White woman, Julia Underwood (née Julie Caroline Wells), and a single Black man, William Offet (1854–1914) of Elyria, Ohio
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“The Afro-American in Literature”
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Where she concluded that the father of a young white woman had implored a lynch mob to kill a Black man with whom his daughter was having a sexual relationship, under a pretense "to save the reputation of his daughter"
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“Requirements of Southern Journalism”
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1891· 2 entries
Wells was dismissed from her teaching post by the Memphis Board of Education due to her articles criticizing conditions in the Black schools of the region
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Assaulted him and forced him at gunpoint to sign a letter retracting the May 21 editorial
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1890· 1 entry
Passed laws and/or new constitutions to disenfranchise most Black people and many poor white people through use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other devices
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1884· 1 entry
When the local circuit court granted her a $500 (~$17,917 in 2025) award
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1883· 4 entries
And again on May 4, 1884, a train conductor with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ordered Wells to give up her seat in the first-class ladies car and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded with other passenger
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Studied at Rust College (1883).
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The United States Supreme Court had ruled against the federal Civil Rights Act of 1875 (which had banned racial discrimination in public accommodations)
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Studied at Fisk University (1883).
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1867· 1 entry
And his wife Lizzie became known as a "famous cook"
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1864· 1 entry
And was their representative calling on President Woodrow Wilson to end discrimination in government jobs
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1862· 2 entries
Born 1862-07-16.
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Ida Wells was the first child of James Madison Wells (1840–1878) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Warrenton)
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