Ida B Wells Research Paper

Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in the year of 1862. She was born into slavery because both of her parents were slaves. Eventually when the Civil War ended and slaves were freed, her family moved away into a new house, which was right across the street from their former master. A few years later, almost her entire family was wiped out by yellow fever, leaving her to take care of her younger siblings (Wells 7-28). After her siblings began to grow older, Wells became a school teacher. While working as a teacher, she began to fight for a change in America because working conditions were poor. Her fighting led to her being one of the most influential women of the Civil Rights Era, because she fought for working conditions and equal rights on transportation, she created the anti-lynching campaign, spoke about rapes, and encouraged blacks to …show more content…
Black men were always accused of hitting on and raping white women, however Wells said this was backwards. She claims that white men were the rapist, and their victims were black women (Pinar 157-158). Wells was a very outspoken woman, and this led to many people wanting her to die, especially when she began to write about white men raping black women because it was something that not many people actually spoke about publically at the time. As she traveled to speak about her beliefs, there were always death threats. Wells began to carry a pistol with her at all times (Pinar 166). Her ideology was that if someone was going to meet her with violence, she was going to beat them to it first. She was very much known for being militant. This philosophy can be seen in later activist such as Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. Both believed if violence was going to be enacted on them, they should enact it back. However, they would not just go out and stir up violence without a cause and this very much describes Well’s