Ida B Wells First Wave Research Paper

During the 1st Wave of the Feminist Movement, that began in 1848, one of the biggest issues was attaining the right to vote or suffrage. During this time another huge issue was that of the treatment of African Americans in the country. One of the influential women that fought for both the women’s movement and abolitionist movement during the 1st Wave was Ida B. Wells. Ida B. Wells, an African American woman, born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi to parents who were former slaves that were very active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had not had any effect on their lives until 1863. The Well’s family had a pretty comfortable life after the end of slavery. Her father was a carpenter and her mother was a cook for a while

Wells was heavily influenced to continue her fight for people in her community upon hearing of the 3 black men who owned a grocery store and were tried initially because a white owner did not like the competition and had them tried as a public nuisance. They were later lynched by a white mob. Wells wrote on the injustice and later wrote on the unfair conditions of black women and wanted to be treated as an equal leader amongst men. She wrote on how disappointing the circumstances were for black women in the South as there was, “wholesale contemptuous defamation of their women.” (Adams, 1994) Ultimately referring to the unfair circumstances that were demeaning to the women in the community and the lack of representation or voice that was given to them. Overall, through her editorials and pieces Wells stirred a lot of anger amongst whites at the time as she was said to “not know her place” in society. In doing so she put herself at risk as a person of color and a woman nonetheless. Regardless of her race and gender she made a difference as an established black