Ida B. Wells Facts & Worksheets

• Three years later, in 1895, she published A Red Record, a 100-page sociological study that looked at lynchings that had happened since the end of slavery.
• Wells showed how significant and violent mob killings were by using both numbers and pictures. She said that almost 10,000 African Americans had been killed since slavery ended, and many of them had not even been tried. 
• She showed how white mobs used lynching during the Reconstruction Era to keep Black people from having political power and keep white people in charge.
• The Reconstruction Era was a post-Civil War period in the United States focused on reintegrating the former Confederate states and defining the rights of newly freed African Americans.
• Even though Wells begged for justice, she came to believe that Southern whites would not stop lynching because it was good for their social and economic interests. She famously told African Americans to protect themselves, saying that “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honour in every Black home.”
• Wells went to Britain in 1893 and again in 1894 because she recognised the need for additional support. Catherine Impey, a British Quaker activist, and Isabella Fyvie Mayo, a Scottish suffragist who sought to improve the world, invited her to speak to large groups of people in England, Scotland, and Wales.
• She shocked many people with pictures and stories of lynchings. The British Anti-Lynching Committee was formed after her tours. It was the first of its kind and included well-known members of Parliament, the clergy, suffragists, journalists, and social reformers.
• The American press called her names, but her reputation grew in Britain to the point where British textile makers even threatened to stop buying Southern cotton. Because of this economic pressure, some Southern leaders had to speak out against lynching publicly.

LIFE AS A SUFFRAGIST

• Wells’ involvement in the United States suffrage movement is inextricably linked to her extensive struggle against racism, discrimination, and violence directed at African Americans. For her, the reason for women’s right to vote was both practical and political. She strongly believed in the idea that women should have the right to vote, just as most suffragists did. She also believed that voting was a powerful way for Black women to participate in civic life and help elect African Americans, both men and women, to important political positions. 
• She thought that suffrage was not only about equal rights for women but also about racial justice and representation. Wells was an activist who spoke out against racism, lynching, and civil rights. This often put her at odds with leaders of mostly white suffrage groups. The most famous fight was with Frances Willard, who was the first president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU was a big, well-known women’s group with chapters in every state, even the segregated South, where lynching was common.
• The WCTU was first started to promote sobriety and temperance. Later, it became an important supporter of women’s right to vote.
• Wells and Willard both went to Britain in 1893, but they did so on different speaking tours. Willard fought for women’s rights and sobriety, while Wells tried to get people to know about the terrible things that happened when people were lynched in the United States.
• The WCTU’s fight was mostly about Wells’ public criticism of Willard for not speaking out against lynching. Wells said that Willard had blamed African Americans for getting in the way of temperance reform in an interview he gave while he was in the South. 
• Willard said that African Americans doubled their numbers and that the saloon was their centre of power, which he said put white families and women in danger. Wells thought that these kinds of statements made it acceptable to be violent against African Americans and made racism worse.
• When Wells publicly challenged Willard, she got much hate from Willard and Lady Somerset, one of Willard’s British allies. Wells, on the other hand, used their criticism to her advantage by portraying herself as a single African American woman standing up to powerful white leaders. Later, she wrote a chapter in her book The Red Record called “Miss Willard’s Attitude,” in which she said that Willard’s words were harmful and dangerous to African Americans. Wells continued to work for change in Chicago after her fight with Willard. She combined her anti-lynching campaign with community organising.
• In 1908, she, her husband, and some members of their Bible study group founded the Negro Fellowship League (NFL). This was the first Black settlement house in Chicago, established at a time when Black men were excluded from joining the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). 
• The NFL gave young Black men a library, a reading room, a place to play, and even a place to stay. 
• The Alpha Suffrage Club, which she helped establish in 1913, is her most notable contribution to women’s rights. In the same year, Illinois passed the Presidential and Municipal Suffrage Bill, which granted women the right to vote in local elections, mayoral races, and presidential elections, but not in gubernatorial, state legislative, or Congressional Elections.
• Illinois was the first state east of the Mississippi River to grant women these rights, making it a key location for organising. Wells and her white coworker, Belle Squire, founded the Alpha Suffrage Club on 30 January 1913, because they recognised the significance of the new law.
• The club’s goals were to grant women more voting rights, educate Black women on civic responsibility, and ensure that African Americans could run for public office. In just two years, the Alpha Suffrage Club helped elect Oscar De Priest as Chicago’s first Black alderman. This was a significant step forward that demonstrated the power of organised Black women voters. That year, Wells and other Alpha Suffrage Club members prepared to participate in the historic suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., organised by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
• The parade, which took place the night before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, brought together suffragists from all over the country. However, Wells and other African American women faced discrimination when the Illinois delegation was told to stay “entirely white.” Wells and other black suffragists were told to march at the back of the parade in a separate “coloured delegation.” 
• Wells did not follow through. On the day of the march, she stood in the crowd, waiting for the Illinois delegation to pass by. At that point, she joined the parade and linked arms with her white coworkers, Belle Squire and Virginia Brooks.
• Wells' brave act went against the wishes of segregationists and made it clear that the fight for women’s rights must also include racial equality. Later, the Chicago Defender praised her act as a strong example of how women’s civil rights are universal.
• Wells demonstrated that the fight for women’s right to vote and the fight against racial oppression were closely linked through concerted effort. She said that true democracy could not exist without fixing both racial and gender inequalities. Her activism not only helped the cause of women’s rights, but it also made it easier for African Americans to get involved in politics in the early 1900s.

LATER YEARS OF ACTIVISM

• Wells’ activism in her later years demonstrated that she remained dedicated to justice, civil rights, and women’s empowerment, despite facing increasing opposition from both the government and other activists. The United States government kept a close eye on Wells during the First World War because it believed she was a dangerous race agitator. Even though this happened, she would not be quiet and kept working on civil rights with people like Marcus Garvey, Monroe Trotter, and Madam C. J. Walker. 
• Her investigative journalism continued to be a powerful way to draw attention to racial violence. For example, in 1917, she wrote a series of reports for the Chicago Defender about the East St. Louis Race Riots that showed how brutally African Americans were treated. She returned to the South in 1921 after being away for almost thirty years to write about the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas. Her findings were published in 1922, showing that she was still committed to telling the truth and seeking justice even when it put her own life in danger.
• In the 1920s, Wells expanded her activism to include the rights of African-American workers. She urged Black women’s groups to support the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a labour union seeking recognition and fair treatment. Although Wells worked hard as an activist, she struggled to lead. Mary McLeod Bethune took over as president of the National Association of Coloured Women (NACW) in 1924. 
• The group liked her more diplomatic style of leadership. Wells stayed politically active, however. In 1927, she started the Third Ward Women’s Political Club in Chicago. Its goal was to help African Americans in her community and give Black women more political power. 
• In the late 1920s, she wanted to get more involved in politics. Wells attempted to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1928, but Oscar De Priest won the seat.

• Her ties to the Republican Party, which many African Americans viewed as their political home after the Civil War, grew increasingly strained. Wells said that the Hoover administration’s civil rights agenda was weak and that the party’s efforts to push a “Lily-White” policy that kept Black people from joining Southern Republican organisations were wrong. 
• Wells was disappointed but determined to run for a seat in the Illinois Senate as an Independent in 1930, going up against Republican candidate Adelbert Roberts. Even though she did not win, her candidacy showed that she still believed in Black political representation and the role of women in government.
• Wells’ impact lasted long after her death, especially in the development of Black feminist thought. She is well-known as a pioneer whose work helped to create what is now known as intersectional feminism, which is the idea that racism and sexism affect the lives of Black women in different ways.
• Her insistence on recording racial violence, encouraging collective action, and fighting for both racial justice and women’s rights foreshadowed many of the ideas that are now important to Black feminist theory. Wells helped establish groups like the NACW, which provided Black women with a platform to be active and lead on a national level, giving voice to people who had been silenced or ignored for a long time.
• Wells’ legacy is still honoured even after his death. The American Women's Quarters series honoured her in 2025 as a way to recognise her significant contributions to civil rights, journalism, and feminist activism. Her life demonstrates the strength, bravery, and honesty of people when they are being oppressed.
• Wells fought hard against racism, sexism, and political exclusion. She not only changed her own time, but she also gave future generations a lasting framework for fighting for equality and justice.