Ida Bell Wells, more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was born in Holly Springs Mississippi on the 16th of July in 1862. Ida was raised by her mother Lizzie Wells and her father James Wells. She was born into slavery as the oldest of eight children in the family. Both Ida’s parents were enslaved during the Civil War but after the war they became active in the Republican Party during the Reconstruction era. Ida’s father, James, was also involved in the Freedman’s Aid Society (www.biography.com). He also helped to start Shaw University. Shaw University was a university for the newly freed slaves to attend, it was also where Ida received the majority of her schooling. However, Ida received little schooling because she was forced to take care of her other siblings after her parents and one of her siblings passed away due to Yellow Fever. Ida became a teacher at the age of 16 as a way to make money for her and her siblings. Eventually Ida and all her sisters moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with their aunt, leaving all their brothers behind to continue working. In Memphis Ida began to stand up for the rights of African Americans and women. Ida was had purchased a first class bus ticket but she was later asked to move to the African American section of the train. Ida refused to move and continued to fight with the crew until she was effected from the train and but a man on the hand. Ida sued the railroad and won a $500 settlement in a circuit court case (Biography.com). Later the Supreme Court of Tennessee overturned the verdict. This chain of events caused Ida to write about her experience. She wrote many articles for African Americans and their struggles in everyday life. In 1889 Ida became a partial owner of the Memphis Free Spe... ... middle of paper ... ... me to learn about Ida from a different person’s perspective. The facts were all correct but it was from a different person’s point of view. Throughout her career Ida achieved more than anyone thought was possible for an African American women during that time. However, it was not an easy process. Ida faced many hardships throughout her career including, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and hate from the people she fought against. Ida faced all her problems head on which is a major reason for her success. She continued to persevere even when everyone seemed to be against her. She never took no for an answer and always worked hard till she accomplished her goals. Everyone knew and still knows Ida as a hard worker, determined to fight for the rights of her and others around her. Ida died in Chicago on March 25th of 1931 but her legacy continues to live on.
Upon reflecting on today's quarter projects an image came into my mind. It was a circle with a bunch of different arrows moving out from a common center trying to push out of the circle that contained them (see below). I found this to be an apt description of the individuals we discussed in class today. All of them worked to apply pressure to society in different ways. One common link I saw between Emma Goldman, Eugene V. Debs and Ida B. Wells was applying political pressure. Although they worked towards different goals I could see a common thread between the methods they used to apply pressure which often involved writing and trying to communicate their ideas to the masses. I found these ideas to be a rather efficient way to spread these beliefs
Ida Minerva Tarbell was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on November 5, 1857 (Lowrie). She was the daughter of Esther and Franklin Tarbell (Lowrie). At the age of three, Ida was moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania with her family (Lowrie). Tarbell's mother took a teaching job and her father became an oil producer and refiner in their new town (Lowrie). As King wrote, “her father's business, along with those of many other small businessmen, was adversely affected by the South Improvement Company scheme between the railroads and larger oil interests.” Tarbell stayed in Titusville and finished high school there (Lowrie). She then studied at Allegheny College in 1876, where she graduated in 1880, the only woman in her class (Lowrie).
The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights "was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things" would be an understatement. Countless people made it their life's work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others contributed to the fight although it would take ordinary people as well to lead the way in the fight for civil rights. This paper will focus on two people whose intelligence and bravery influenced future generations of civil rights organizers and crusaders. Ida B.Wells and Mary Mcleod Bethune were two African American women whose tenacity and influence would define the term "ordinary to extraordinary".
Elizabeth Jennings Graham set a new milestone for the civil rights movement on a typical Sunday morning, whether she planned it that way or not. In that July of 1854, the 24-year old school teacher was late for church. She was on her way to the First Colored Congregational Church on Sixth Street and Second Avenue to perform her duties as an organist (Biographicon.com). Accompanied by her friend Sarah Adams, Graham flagged down a carriage to reach her destination as quickly as possible. It did not read "Negro Persons Allowed in This Car," but she had no time to waste and didn’t particularly care either. As soon as they boarded the streetcar, the conductor told them to get off and wait for the next streetcar designated for Negroes, for this streetcar was for whites only. The women defended their ground and took a seat anyways, but the conductor said if any ...
Ida B. Wells born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862 and died March
Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of the 19th century.
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a newspaper editor and journalist who went on to lead the American anti-lynching crusade. Working closely with both African-American community leaders and American suffragists, Wells worked to raise gender issues within the "Race Question" and race issues within the "Woman Question." Wells was born the daughter of slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. During Reconstruction, she was educated at a Missouri Freedman's School, Rust University, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen. In 1884, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to teach while attending Fisk University during summer sessions. In Tennessee, especially, she was appalled at the poor treatment she and other African-Americans received. After she was forcibly removed from her seat for refusing to move to a "colored car" on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected her suit against the railroad for violating her civil rights in 1877. This event and the legal struggle that followed it, however, encouraged Wells to continue to oppose racial injustice toward African-Americans. She took up journalism in addition to school teaching, and in 1891, after she had written several newspaper articles critical of the educational opportunities afforded African-American students, her teaching contract was not renewed. Effectively barred from teaching, she invested her savings in a part-inte...
Ida B. Wells was born into slavery, and lived in Holly Springs Mississippi. She was later freed, and learned from her parents what it meant to be a political activist. By 1891, Wells was the owner of the newspaper, Free Speech, and was reporting on the horrors that were occurring in the south. Wells, along with other people of the African American activist community were particularly horrified about the lynching’s that were occurring in the south. As a response to the lynching that was occurring, and other violent acts that the African American community was dealing with Wells wrote three pamphlets: Southern Horrors, The Red Record, and Mob Brutality. Muckraking and investigative journalism can be seen throughout these pamphlets, as well as Wells intent to persuade the African American community, and certain members of the white community to take a stand against the crime of lynching. Wells’ writings are an effective historical text, because she serves as a voice to an underrepresented African American community.
Claudette Colvin attended Booker T. Washington High School, where she was very studious. Claudette's family did not have enough money to afford a car, so she relied on the city's gold-and-green buses. On March 2, 1955 when Colvin was about 15 years of age, she was arrested for violation the local law. She refused to give up her seat to a group of white men that boarded the bus shortly after. She was on a bus called the Capital Heights, which was the same bus and the same year that Rosa Parks committed the same "crime" as Claudette only 9 months later. On this day, four white men got on the bus, and Claudette was sitting somewhere near the emergency exit. She was looking out the window when the white men stopped at her seat and said nothing. The bus driver ordered her to give up her seat to one of the men, and she ignored the order. She has given her seat up to white people before, but this is the day she was fed up with it. Claudette heard what the bus driver was saying, but she decided that day she was not giving up her seat to a white man just becau...
Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her father, James Wells, was a carpenter and her mother was a cook. After the Civil War her parents became politically active. Her father was known as “race'; man, a term given to African Americans involved in the leadership of the community. He was a local businessman, a mason, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Shaw University. Both parents provided Ida with strong role models. They worked hard and held places of respect in the community as forward-looking people. James and Elizabeth (mother) Wells instilled their daughter a keen sense of duty to God, family, and community.
The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Have you ever stood up for someone or something, even if it risked your own life? An upstander is someone who sees something harmful happening and tries their best to help out without second guessing themselves. Rosa parks is an inspirational role model to women and men all around the world. Rosa Parks has been a leader since she was a kid at school.
Robert F. Williams was one of the most influential active radical minds of a generation that toppled Jim Crow and forever affected American and African American history. During his time as the president of the Monroe branch of the NAACP in the 1950’s, Williams and his most dedicated followers (women and men) used machine guns, Molotov cocktails, and explosives to defend against Klan terrorists. These are the true terrorists to American society. Williams promoted and enforced this idea of "armed self-reliance" by blacks, and he challenged not just white supremacists and leftists, but also Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP, and the civil rights establishment itself. During the 1960s, Williams was exiled to Cuba, and there he had a radical radio station titled "Radio Free Dixie." This broadcast of his informed of black politics and music The Civil Rights movement is usually described as an nonviolent / peaceful call on America 's guilty conscience, and the retaliation of Black Power as a violent response of these injustices against African Americans. Radio Free Dixie shows how both of these racial and equality movements spawned from the same seed and were essentially the same in the fight for African American equality and an end to racism. Robert F. Williams 's story demonstrates how independent political action, strong cultural pride and identity, and armed self-reliance performed in the South in a semi-partnership with legal efforts and nonviolent protest nationwide.
Wells was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and speaker. After her parents passed away she became a teacher and received a job to teach at a nearby school. With this job she was able to support the needs of her siblings. In 1844 in Memphis, Tennessee, she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. Wells refused, but was forcefully removed from the train and all the white passengers applauded. Wells was angered by this and sued the company and won her case in the local courts; the local court appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The Supreme Court reversed the court’s ruling. In Chicago, she helped to develop numerous African American women and reform organizations. Wells still remained hard-working in her anti-lynching crusade by ...
The African American Civil Rights Movement was a series of protests in the United States South from approximately 1955 through 1968. The overall goal of the Civil Rights Movement was to achieve racial equality before the law. Protest tactics were, overall, acts of civil disobedience. Rarely were they ever intended to be violent. From sit-ins to boycotts to marches, the activists involved in the Civil Rights Movement were vigilant and dedicated to the cause without being aggressive. While African-American men seemed to be the leaders in this epic movement, African-American women played a huge role behind the scenes and in the protests.