Ambition is beautiful. Ambition drives people to do things they have a strong sense of desire to do, believing they are capable of achieving a certain goal. We find this trait among many of our nations remarkable leaders who were willing to make a stand, take risks, and speak their minds, sharing their greatest triumphs as well as their painful loses. These leaders were distinctive individuals who changed our nation solely through their unyielding ways. During times of racial injustice, post emancipation proclamation, and women’s suffrage, seeking the right to express individualism was a burden upon many. However, in the late 19th century, the nation’s post-war South remained a precarious place, and significant challenges lay ahead after …show more content…
The south was ripe with lynching, riots, white supremacists against African Americans fighting for equality. It was through these altering moments in history Ida B. Wells made a difference in our nation. Her unparalleled circumstances and unique individuality from the other African Americans allowed her to become more aware of her social, economic and political surroundings. Through triumphs and battles, she prevailed and did not allow her hardships to diminish her ambition. A daughter of former slaves, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862. The Wells family as well as the rest of the slaves of the confederate states were decreed free by the union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation. Living in Mississippi as an African American, they faced racial prejudices, however unlike many ex-slaves, Reconstruction dawned much brighter for the Wells family. Her …show more content…
Growing up with different social circumstances, attending social mixers was an enlightening experience and once she made the move to Memphis, she gained a continual stream of suitors that accompanied her to such events. New opportunities emerged for Ida, giving her a sense of what life was like being a bachelorette in a land among woman seeking to marry. As an attractive, un-married woman in her mid twenties with an active social life she often generated suspicion and talk. Although Ida struck flings with many persistent suitors, her feelings have never been entirely clear in whom she ever truly loved. It was evident that she was not romanticized by the concept of marriage like many women were at the time.
Growing up as an African American, Ida B. Wells triumphed upon her most struggling battles, politically, economically and socially. All of which were solely driven by her ambitious outlook towards the difference she strived to make. She left behind an impressive legacy of social and political heroism. With her writings, speeches and protests, Wells fought against prejudice, no matter what potential dangers she faced. She once said, "I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap." Indeed, her experiences were the source of her lifelong belief in
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".
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, Crusade for Justice, Autobiography of Ida Wells, is an excerpt from the autobiography of Ida B. Wells. In it she tells a story about three African American men who owned a grocery store. In the same neighborhood there was another grocery store owned by a white man. One day some white and colored boys were playing a game of marbles and it ended in a fight. It came out that the store was going to be attacked that Saturday night. They got several men to stand guard at the store with guns and when they saw some men entering the store they started shooting. There were some men who were wounded. Over 100 black men were taken from their homes and put in jail. They finally pulled Thomas moss, Calvin McDowell and Henry
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.
This piece of auto biographical works is one of the greatest pieces of literature and will continue to inspire young and old black Americans to this day be cause of her hard and racially tense background is what produced an eloquent piece of work that feels at times more fiction than non fiction
Ida B. Wells was a woman who devoted her life to social justice and equality for both African Americans and women. She was a woman of unique character. Her courage was what caused her to stand out amongst the majority of black women during her time who were subject to both racial and gender oppression. Wells was amongst the first of many to dedicate her life to the fight against injustice and the push for African American progression.
Throughout Ida B. Wells’ diary, she has many struggles, ups and downs. Her diary takes us from her young promiscuous days as a young woman with her various friends, callers, and not knowing who she really was to basically a travel log as a married lady who was well set, owned her own news paper, and a spokesman for blacks all across America. During these years, she goes through long stretches of depression and happiness. In her struggles of depression, Wells very much struggles with three particular concepts the most. Wells has big problems her identity, the way black women were treated, and stereotypes of blacks.
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.
During the Abraham Lincoln’s short time as president, he managed not only to save a nation deeply divided and at war with itself, but to solidify the United States of America as a nation dedicated to the progress of civil rights. Years after his death, he was awarded the title of ‘The Great Emancipator.’ In this paper, I will examine many different aspects of Lincoln’s presidency in order to come to a conclusion: whether this title bestowed unto Lincoln was deserved, or not. In order to fully understand Lincoln, it is necessary to understand the motives that drove this man to action. While some of his intentions may not have been for the welfare of slaves, but for the preservation of the Union, the actions still stand. Abraham Lincoln, though motivated by his devotion to his nation, made the first blows against the institution of slavery and rightfully earned his title of ‘The Great Emancipator.’
Ida B Wells made sure that everyone who went to the fair knew everything about colored people , and make sure it shows the negatives and positives of being colored. They wrote an appeal to try and get African Americans in the Exposition , but were still rejected. Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World's Columbian Exposition is the voice of protest importance as the of history. “An statement of the hopes,
Abraham Lincoln was arguably one of the greatest American presidents to date. However, he was not without his flaws as a strategic leader. Jay Winik’s book April 1865 provides a thought-provoking perspective of strategic leadership. Several interesting nuances regarding Lincoln’s vision and ability to build consensus are noteworthy. In his run for the Presidency Lincoln was able to effectively persuade most voters and elected officials that slavery was not ethical and should be outlawed in the Union. While Lincoln was able to build a consensus that slavery was wrong, he did not unconditionally advocate total freedom for blacks or consider them equal to whites. Perhaps these statements that were counter to abolitionism were politically motivated
In the time after the fall of radical black reconstruction of the nineteenth century, African Americans were being oppressed by rural farming, civil rights, economical advancement and sharecropping. Booker T. Washington charged the fight for economical and political accommodation with his dream of equal civil rights. Timothy Thomas Fortune was an influential black journalist that fought for the rights of African Americans through literal resistance. The Lonely Warrior, Ida B. Wells was an outspoken voice against lynching throughout America and fought against the oppression of men and woman everywhere.
A woman once said, “As a black woman, my politics and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from participation in my people's struggle for liberation, and with the fight of oppressed people all over the world against American imperialism.” The woman, who said this quote, was Angela Yvonne Davis. Davis was a political activist, scholar, professor, writer, and Communist party member. She was considered to be an international symbol of the black liberation movement to many eyes of the people in the 1960s and 1970s.