Ida B. Wells was a daughter born into slavery, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. She grew up to become an active journalist and led an anti-lynching crusade around the 1890s. She was an important woman towards the society we have today.
Living as African Americans in Mississippi, life was hard for the Wells family as they had to face discrimination and prejudice. Her father helped start Shaw University; it was from here that Ida got her early education. She kept attending the school until she was 16, it was then that tragedy struck the family. Both of her parents and one of her siblings died from yellow fever, leaving her as the oldest child. Being the oldest child, Ida was suddenly plagued by the responsibility of having to take care of her younger siblings.
On a train ride from Memphis to Nashville, things began to change. Ida B. Wells bought a first-class ticket, but was forcibly ordered to go into the car for African Americans. They ushered her out and Ida sued the railroad later on. She won $500 from the court case, but later the decision was overturned. This unfair treatment caused her to start writing about the issues with segregation.
Later on, she learned about the deaths of her three friends that had
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Wells created many civil rights organizations. In 1896, she formed an association called the National Association of Colored Women. After learning about the horrid attacks happening in an African American community in Springfield, Illinois, Ida B. Wells yearned to help. She attended a conference that would turn out to become the root source of the creation of the NAACP, or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was considered one of the founding members, but she later left the organization, stating that it had lacked any progress. She became part of the National Equal Rights League, trying to get approval from President Woodrow Wilson to prevent discrimination practices in government