Erin Roberts

•Born into slavery on July 16th, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

•One of seven children.

•Learned to read along with her siblings and mother at Shaw University as a child.

•Parents and youngest sibling died from yellow fever epidemic when she was 16 which left her to raise living siblings.

Mosquitoes like these are carriers of yellow fever, the disease that killed Ida’s parents and sibling

•Took up a teaching position to support her young siblings.

•Relatives took care of the siblings during the week.

•In 1883, Ida and two younger sisters moved to Memphis to live

with their aunt.

•Ida was involved in an incident in 1884.

•The conductor of a train for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Co. tried to make her change seats.

•She was forcefully removed from the train.

•Ida sued and won in local courts, but lost in the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

•After the court case, began to write in The Living Way, a black church newspaper.

•Began speaking out about racial discrimination and poverty.

•Became a part-owner of The Free Speech and Headlight, a Memphis newspaper, in 1889.

•Three African American friends of Ida’s opened a grocery store across from a monopolizing white-owned grocer.

•The white grocers formed a mob to intimidate Ida’s friends, but they defended themselves and injured three men so they were arrested.

•A second mob was formed and they killed the three men while they were in jail in 1892.

After the lynching of some of her close friends, Ida wrote in the Free Speech and Headlight:

“There is therefore only one thing left to do; save our money and leave a town which will

neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and

murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons.”

Ida actually stayed in Memphis for a time after this article was published.

•Began looking further into other cases of lynching in the US.

•Discovered that black males had been lynched for:

•Debts

•Disrespect to whites

•Testifying in court

•Stealing hogs

•Public drunkenness

•Wrote many articles about her findings which led a mob to destroy her newspaper office.

•After being run out of Memphis, Ida moved to Chicago.

•In Chicago, she and Jane Addams fought to prevent the segregation of Chicago public schools.

•Ida went on an international speaking tour to England, Scotland and Wales in 1892.

•While in England, Ida established the London Anti-lynching Committee.

•Helped to form the National Association of Colored Women.

•Befriended Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams.

•Walked in the 1913 march on Washington D.C. for universal suffrage.

•Married Ferdinand L. Barnett, a lawyer and activist, when she was 33 years old.

•Together they owned The Conservator, a Chicago Newspaper.

•Gave birth to her first son in 1896 but continued to work until she gave birth to her second child the next year.

•Had two other children in 1901 and 1904.

•After returning to the public eye, she signed “the call” to create the NAACP in 1909.

•In 1910 she formed the Negro Fellowship League.

•She continued to stay active in reporting and covered race riots in Arkansas, St. Louis, and Chicago.

•Began writing her autobiography in 1928.

•Disgusted with politics in Illinois, Ida ran for a senate seat in 1930, but was not elected.

•On March 25th, 1931, Ida B. Wells died, leaving a legacy of activism.

Baker, Lee D. "Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice." Apr 1996. Duke University, Web. 2 Feb 2010.

C&O Online Supplemental. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://www.cohs.org/repository/Archives/cohm/web_supplements/_latest/index.htm>.

Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://elementaryteacher.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/encyclopedia-of-life-documents-all-species-of-life-on-earth/>.

"Ferdinand Barnett, Ida B. Wells and Their Family." BlackPast.org. Web. 17 Feb 2010.

"Head of Suffrage Parade." Washington District of Columbia People Photo Gallery. Web. 17 Feb 2010.

"Ida B. Wells Barnett." Legends of America. Web. 17 Feb 2010.

"Ida B. Wells Civil Rights Worker." Historcal Images. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://negroartist.com/negro%20life/pages/IDA%20B%20WELLS%20BARNETT%20CIVIL%20RIGHTS%20WORKER%201862-1931_jpg.htm>.

"Ida B. Wells." Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/WRC/history/1906to1910

"Ida B. Wells." We Shall Overcome. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/TRAVEL/CIVILRIGHTS/il2.htm>.

"Lynch Law in Georgia." Woman Journalist Crusades Against Lynching. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/educate/barnett.html>.

McBride, Jennifer. "Ida B. Wells: Crusade for Justice." Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. Web. 12 Feb 2010.

"Racial Branding." Like A Whisper. Web. 17 Feb 2010.

"United States Atrocities: Lynch Laws." Women With a Deadline. Web. 17 Feb 2010. <http://www.nwhm.org/womenwithdeadlines/wwd23.htm>.

Works Cited