Ida B Wells Essay

The documentary film, Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice was produced and directed by William Greaves in 1989. The film chronicles the life and work of Ida B. Wells who was an educator, journalist, activist, and anti-lynching crusader among other things during the late-1800s post-Reconstruction period. The film portrays Wells’ life and career in a chronological order from her childhood to her death as an example of someone who fought for the rights of the oppressed following the promise of the Civil War. Wells was born into slavery in 1862, during the American Civil War and lived throughout the era of Reconstruction. At the age of sixteen years old, Wells’ parents died from yellow fever and ashe decided to leave school and find a teaching

In the film, the main primary source that was used was Ida’s journals that she had kept at the time of the given events. The film went through Wells’ life in chronological order and gave relevant background of the historical events going on at the time such as lynching laws. The use of Ida’s journals expand on the given material as well as give her account of the given events. The film also has a narrator voice over information regarding Ida’s life and the current events over relevant photographs. Following this are clips of historians and others well-versed in the subject, such as David Tucker and Ida’s own grandson, Troy Duster to further elaborate the narrations. For example, the narrator mentions the increasing fear of lynching laws and the collapse of law and order for blacks. Historian David Tucker substantiates this with a story regarding friends of Ida’s who had refused to close their grocery store which was in competition with a white-owned grocery story which resulted in them eventually having a mob against them and getting lynched.While Tucker explains the given events, there are images of newspaper articles regarding the event on the screen and following is a reading from Ida’s journal and her take of the