Ida B. Wells and Other African Americans in the South African Americans have never had it easy. Almost every African American person was brought to America as a slave. Ruben Mitchell recalled what his master said, “You all’s free. We ain’t got nothing to do with you all no more. Go on away now, you all don’t belong to us no more.” When slaves were freed, many left their homes to search for better lives. Ida B. Wells’s parents did not do that. Ida B. Wells was one of America’s most amazing women. Born in 1862 to former slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells spent the majority of her life fighting for something she cared deeply about. Mia Bay’s book, To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells, describes Wells’s journey
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Bay tells the reader in the first chapter of her book that, “the sweeping social and political changes that structured her life started early.” At a young age, Wells was introduced to politics through her father. Her parents discussed the violence of the Ku Klux Klan in front of her so, “Ida learned to associate politics with danger at an early age.” 2 Wells was still interested in politics. According to Bay, “As a writer and activist, Wells’s primary preoccupations would be political, so it is only fitting that her career first took shape around a one woman political battle she launched in 1883 at age twenty.”2 Bay explains, “Lizzie and Jim Wells prospered during Reconstruction, rapidly achieving a political and economic independence that was all too rare among African Americans in the post emancipation South.”2 Ida’s parents were very lucky to have had the opportunities that they had. While in Memphis, Wells accomplished many incredible things. According to Bay, “Indeed, more than anything, it was her political commitments that combined with her energy and determination to launch her extraordinary career.” Wells was very committed to politics and wanted the best for herself and in the end that is exactly what she …show more content…
After yellow fever took her parents, Wells chose to be the leader of her family. She had the option to let her father’s friends split up her other siblings, but she voted against it, this caused Wells to get a job teaching. Wells was like many other African Americans in the sense that she had to work to support herself and her family. Wells lost her teaching job in Holly Springs and moved to Memphis soon after, hoping to get a teaching position there. Bay says that, “a couple of years passed before she was able to complete the city’s schoolteachers’ exam and find a job there. In the meantime, she continued teaching rural schoolchildren, taking a job ten miles outside of the city”. 2 Wells did not like teaching, but it paid the bills so she continued to do it. She struggled in her everyday life just like everyone else did
Ida B. Wells was a very strong woman. At a very young age, she lost her parents and took on the role of an adult. She then moved to a new town and a new job to better herself. Her political circumstances were different because of her father and his role in politics. Wells’s social circumstances were influenced when she moved to Memphis and move up in the social chain. Her economic circumstances were much like other African Americans because she struggled to make ends meet. Wells was a phenomenal woman despite her
Bay tells the reader in the first chapter of her book that, “the sweeping social and political changes that structured her life started early.” At a young age, Wells was introduced to politics through her father. Her parents discussed the violence of the Ku Klux Klan in front of her so, “Ida learned to associate politics with danger at an early age.” 2 Wells was still interested in politics. According to Bay, “As a writer and activist, Wells’s primary preoccupations would be political, so it is only fitting that her career first took shape around a one woman political battle she launched in 1883 at age twenty.”2 Bay explains, “Lizzie and Jim Wells prospered during Reconstruction, rapidly achieving a political and economic independence that was all too rare among African Americans in the post emancipation South.”2 Ida’s parents were very lucky to have had the opportunities that they had. While in Memphis, Wells accomplished many incredible things. According to Bay, “Indeed, more than anything, it was her political commitments that combined with her energy and determination to launch her extraordinary career.” Wells was very committed to politics and wanted the best for herself and in the end that is exactly what she …show more content…
After yellow fever took her parents, Wells chose to be the leader of her family. She had the option to let her father’s friends split up her other siblings, but she voted against it, this caused Wells to get a job teaching. Wells was like many other African Americans in the sense that she had to work to support herself and her family. Wells lost her teaching job in Holly Springs and moved to Memphis soon after, hoping to get a teaching position there. Bay says that, “a couple of years passed before she was able to complete the city’s schoolteachers’ exam and find a job there. In the meantime, she continued teaching rural schoolchildren, taking a job ten miles outside of the city”. 2 Wells did not like teaching, but it paid the bills so she continued to do it. She struggled in her everyday life just like everyone else did
Ida B. Wells was a very strong woman. At a very young age, she lost her parents and took on the role of an adult. She then moved to a new town and a new job to better herself. Her political circumstances were different because of her father and his role in politics. Wells’s social circumstances were influenced when she moved to Memphis and move up in the social chain. Her economic circumstances were much like other African Americans because she struggled to make ends meet. Wells was a phenomenal woman despite her