Who Was Ida B. Wells?

A young girl born into slavery during the Civil War
A fearless journalist who wrote about racial injustice
An activist who fought for civil rights and women’s right to vote

The story of how a girl born into slavery became an early leader in the civil rights movement and the most famous Black female journalist in nineteenth-century America.

Born into slavery in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. Yet she could see how just how unjust the world was. This drove her to become a journalist and activist. Throughout her life, she fought against prejudice and for equality for African Americans. Ida B. Wells would go on to co-own a newspaper, write several books, help cofound the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and fight for women’s right to vote.