In 1893, Wells-Barnett, joined other African American leaders in calling for the boycott of the World’s Columbian Exposition. After a few months, the threats became so bad she was forced to move to Chicago, Illinois. Her expose about an 1892 lynching enraged locals, who burned her press and drove her from Memphis. She published her findings in a pamphlet and wrote several columns in local newspapers. She became skeptical about the reasons black men were lynched and set out to investigate several cases. After the lynching of one of her friends, Wells-Barnett turned her attention to white mob violence. Although she won the case on the local level, the ruling was eventually overturned in federal court. She had been thrown off a first-class train, despite having a ticket. In 1884, Wells-Barnett filed a lawsuit against a train car company in Memphis for unfair treatment. There she continued to work as an educator. Eventually, Wells-Barnett moved her siblings to Memphis, Tennessee. The disease took both of Wells-Barnett’s parents and her infant brother. Left to raise her brothers and sister, she took a job as a teacher so that she could keep the family together. While she was there Wells-Barnett was informed that a yellow fever epidemic had hit her hometown. In 1878, Wells-Barnett went to visit her grandmother.
Wells-Barnett enrolled at Rust College but was expelled when she started a dispute with the university president. Her parents instilled into her the importance of education. Once the war ended Wells-Barnett’s parents became politically active in Reconstruction Era politics.
Ida Bell Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16 th, 1862. She was born into slavery during the Civil War. As a skilled writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South. In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence. Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.
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