Naomi E. Jones - Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Suffragette and Social Activist

This portrait shows Ida B. Wells-Barnett as a young woman in 1893.

INTRODUCTION

The Princess of the Press

I da B. Wells-Barnett grew up during the beginning of the Reconstruction period that followed the Civil War. This was a time of hope for newly freed slaves. As a child, Wells-Barnett saw her father vote for the first time, black men elected to government positions, educational opportunities for African Americans, and the passing of laws that forbade discrimination. However, before long she learned that racial violence would replace slavery, in the form of lynching.

Career and Opportunities

Wells-Barnett would have many professional opportunities throughout her life. She began a career at sixteen as a teacher. Several events later would influence her transition into a lecturer, investigative journalist, and social justice advocate. Her lawsuit in 1884 against the Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad for assault and discrimination led to the beginning of her journalist career. Wells-Barnett sent her first essay to a local newspaper in 1884, and within five years she had become the first woman owner and editor of a black newspaper in American history. Nicknamed the Princess of the Press, she used her journalism career to fight prejudice and injustice through her writings, speeches, and protests. She fought lynching and worked to solve social issues such as poverty, poor housing, and inadequate schools.

Wells-Barnett met and befriended Frederick Douglass in 1892. They shared many goals, and he wrote letters of support for her and mentored her. She also worked with other civil rights leaders, including W. E. B. Du Bois. Although she helped many clubs and organizations that worked toward suffrage, civil rights, and urban reform, she never became a long-term member of any of them. Known for being blunt and outspoken, Wells-Barnett often ran into conflict with her fellow activists.

Spreading the Word

In the 1890s, she traveled across the East Coast and Great Britain giving talks on the racial injustices happening throughout the United States. Female lecturers were rare back then, but women were becoming increasingly active in reform movements, womens clubs, and fighting for suffrage.

After moving to Chicago, Wells-Barnett shifted her focus to womens suffrage and encouraged more women of color to get involved in politics and the suffrage movement. She had a great deal of faith in the power of voting, and before women could vote, she worked to persuade men to vote for candidates who would fight lynching. She also urged women to vote once suffrage had been achieved.

This collage of photographs features several famous African American leaders, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett (bottom center), Booker T. Washington (left center), and Frederick Douglass (right).

Toward the end of her life, Wells-Barnett became one of the first African American women to run for public office in the United States, and the first female African American political activist to write an autobiography. Her contributions to civil rights would influence later twentieth-century activism.