Transcription
[Music]
Exposing the horrors of racism in the American South wasn't easy, but investigative journalist Ida B. Wells made it her mission.
Ida was born into slavery in 1862. After the Civil War, her family gained their freedom. Ida came of age during Reconstruction, a period of hope. But when she was 16, Ida's parents and baby brother tragically died in a yellow fever epidemic.
At first, Ida cared for her younger siblings, but eventually moved in with her aunt in Memphis, Tennessee, where her career in journalism began. In 1889, Ida bought a share in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, becoming the first female co-owner and editor of a Black newspaper in the United States. Her goal was to create material about Black people for Black people.
On March 9, 1892, a racist white mob lynched Ida's friend Thomas Moss and two of his colleagues. Thomas had run a successful grocery store, which the white people found threatening. Motivated by the horrific murder of her friend, Ida channeled her fear and anger into her work and started a crusade against lynching in America.
It made Ida a target when she wrote an editorial arguing that white women could, in fact, be attracted to Black men, challenging a key myth that racists used to justify their actions. A mob burned down her office, forcing Ida to flee to the North.
There, Ida continued to raise awareness about the extent of lynching in America, something many people in the North simply did not know about. She documented 728 lynching cases between 1884 and 1892, wrote pamphlets to share her findings across the country, and in 1922, publicly supported an anti-lynching bill that went before Congress.
Nearly a century later, Congress continues to debate legislation to make lynching a federal crime. As of 2019, only the House of Representatives had passed the bill.
By using her pen to arouse the conscience of America, Ida B. Wells helped to expose racism and injustice and remains an inspiration to journalists everywhere.