Celebrating Juneteenth: Ida B. Wells

Written by Diedri Webb.

Ida B. Wells was born a slave on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, MS. Her parents were enslaved and could not legally wed. Six months later, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” 

More than 3.5 million enslaved people in the Confederate states gained their freedom. Not all people received the good news at the same time. And in fact, Juneteenth celebrates the day in 1865 when a Union Army general arrived in Texas with 2,000 soldiers and informed over 250,000 Black Americans enslaved in Texas that slavery had been abolished following the conclusion of the Civil War. This was two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had declared that “all persons held as slaves … henceforward shall be free” (and 3 months after Lincoln’s assassination).

Ida’s parents got married as soon as it was possible. When Ida was about the age of 14, her father opened a carpenter shop and became active in local politics. In the Reconstruction Era Ida observed her father’s political activism.

Ida and her siblings all went to the school at Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church. Even her mother went to school to learn to read and write. Ida did not graduate from school because of her rebelliousness. At the age of 16 Ida lost both parents and her younger sibling to the dreadful yellow fever epidemic that took as many as 20,000 lives.

When Ida received the news, she returned to Holly Springs to only find that the charity workers were planning to separate her siblings. She said, ” No!!!! we will not be separated!” She had heard stories about how her mother’s siblings were sold off and never seen again.

Ida became a school teacher to support her siblings. She had to lie about her age and pass a teacher exam to get the job, but she did it.

Wells established the first black kindergarten, organized black women, and helped elect the city’s first black alderman, She also paved the way for generations of black politicians, activists, and community leaders.

Working as a teacher, Ida joined the lyceum (a club for intellectual and literary discussion founded by black teachers.) When the meetings ended they read from the newspaper, The Evening Star, of which she later became the owner. She was invited to write in a religious newspaper, The Living Way.

Ida was soon contributing to ten newspapers around the USA. She was elected secretary of the National Press Association in 1889, the first black woman, and indeed, the first woman, to hold that position. Ida lost her teacher’s job due to speaking out against segregation. She was not dismayed. She famously said, ”Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so. ” 

Ida helped black women win the right to vote. She risked her life to advocate against lynching. Ida published an editorial for a paper called. The Free Speech and Headlight this was about the real motivations behind lynching. Another of her most famous quotes is: ”I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap.”

Ida was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People better known as NAACP. She later cut ties with that organization because she felt they lacked the activist policies necessary for success. Ida faced prejudice and discrimination from whites and moderate African Americans.

Ida also worked with Susan B. Anthony as a leader in the movement for women’s suffrage. They founded the Alpha Suffrage Club to advocate suffrage for black women. She was an activist and also a vocal opponent of the racism she experienced herself.

Ida B. Wells died on March 25, 1931 in Chicago. From her obituary, “The public, it turned out, was starved for her stories and devoured them voraciously. The Journalist, a mainstream trade publication that covered the media, named her “The Princess of the Press.”

Readers of her work were drawn in by her fine-tooth reporting methods and language that, even by today’s standards, was aberrantly bold.

In 2020 Barbie announced a new doll to honor Ida B. Wells as part of its “Inspiring Women” series. The Barbie representing Wells, holds a “Memphis Free Speech” newspaper that Wells wrote for. The post reads, “When kids learn about heroes like Ida B. Wells, they don’t just imagine a better future-they know they have the power to make it come true.”

Thumbnail bio:

• Children 5
• Spouse: Ferdinand Lee Barnett (m.1895-1931)
• Parents: Elizabeth Izzy Bell Warrenton, James Wells.
• Sibling: Eugenia Wells, James Wells, Annie Wells Fitt’s, Eddie Wells, George Wells, and Stanley Wells.
• Education: Rust College, Holly Springs, MS, Fisk University, Nashville, TN, LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis TN.

Clarification

This article was written by Diedri Webb. She deserves the kind words and credit.