First of Many Part III-The Fight for Equality
By Philip Staffelli-Suel
Welcome back to our final blog of the three-part series exploring the life of Ida B. Well-Barnett. When we left our last adventure, Mrs. Wells was fighting for the right for women to vote. Today, we will be closing out our series talking about Mrs. Well’s fight for African American equality.
Wells was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but she never took an active role. She considered the organization to be timid and geared towards wealthy people. She noticed that thousands of African Americans were moving to the city of Chicago in the early 1900s, looking for jobs. African American men often did not find the job opportunities they sought, which resulted in them having run-ins with the law. In 1910 she decided to do something to“[reach] the boys and men who were farthest down and out.” So, she opened a neighborhood center for black Chicagoans. A wealthy white newspaper publisher agreed to pay the costs for the first year. This center became the Negro Fellowship League Reading Room and Social Center. Here Ida would help men find jobs and get on their feet. At the end of the first year the Negro Fellowship League was a success with 45 men staying each night and placing 115 men in jobs. The publisher agreed to pay another two years. However, when those two years were up, they could not afford to continue to pay for the project. It looked as if the center may close. Instead, Wells moved the center to a smaller location and found herself a job to pay for the rent. She found a job as a probation officer and became the first female probation officer in Chicago. By 1920 she was unable to continue to fund the center and closed the center after 10 years. During those years she helped to find jobs for about 1000 men and a place to stay for thousands more.
NAACP Pin, Tennessee State Museum Collection 2009.153
Throughout the 1920s she continued to write about lynchings. Despite her health declining, she accepted an invitation to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1922. While there she spoke to the 12 African American men accused of starting a riot. Upon gathering their story, she wrote a pamphlet entitled The Arkansas Race Riot. This pamphlet would lead to these twelve men’s freedom. As the 1920s marched on Wells believed that the fight for Civil Rights was moving too slowly. In 1923 she was elected the President of the Ida B. Wells Club, thirty years after her resignation. In 1924 ran for the President of the National Association of Colored Women. Around 1928, she was approached by a young woman who considered Wells her hero but couldn’t explain what Wells had done in detail. Wells decided to answer the young lady by writing her autobiography.
By 1930 Wells was angry that the black legislators in the Illinois state legislature were not doing enough to end segregation, joblessness, and hunger. Therefore, at the age 67 she decided to run for the Illinois state legislature. She lost but still became one of the first African American women to run for public office. In 1931 an organization called American Citizenship Federation, which called for racial harmony, held a fundraiser at Chicago hotel. However, African Americans were to be excluded from the fundraiser dinner. Ida withdrew from the federation and wrote letters to the members calling for them to “practice the ideas you profess…” At this point she had began the final chapter of her autobiography called “The Price of Liberty,” and on March 21, 1931, was about to write about the letter she received in response from the American Citizenship Federation when she became ill. A few days later March 25, 1931, Ida B. Wells-Barnett passed away.
Ida B. Wells Painting, Tennessee State Museum Collection, 94.91
This legend however did not get the credit she deserved until years later. It was not until 1940 that a Chicago housing project was named in her honor. Chicago named her one of the greatest women in its history in 1950. Yet, she remained largely forgotten. In 1970 her daughter Alfreda M Barnett Duster finally found someone willing to publish her mother’s autobiography Crusade for Justice. In 1974 the U.S. Department of Interior designated her home on Grand Boulevard a National Historic Landmark. Books began to include her story, and in 1989 PBS published a documentary about her. Schools began to be named after her. The University of Kansas issues a yearly award named after her. However, while she continues to receive much overdo credit, she is often overlooked in comparison to other Civil Rights leaders. Let us not forget this woman who is known as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.
Philip Staffelli-Suel is an educator at the Tennessee State Museum.
Equality - the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.
Probation Officer - a person who supervises convicted offenders who are released from jail or prison.
Riot - a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd.
Autobiography - a book where someone writes about their own life.
Segregation - To set apart or divide groups of people: segregating people based on the color of their skin.
National Historic Landmark - is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is recognized by the United States for its importance to U.S. history.
Documentary - a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report.
Civil Rights - freedoms protected with laws.
Civil Rights Movement - The Civil Rights Movement was and still is an organized push for all Americans to have equal rights.
What year did Ida B. Wells-Barnett die?
Why do you think that Ida B. Wells-Barnett never “retired” or stopped fighting for equal rights as she got older?
Why could a job as a probation officer relate to Wells’ work in helping African Americans get jobs? Think about what is going on at that time.
Read some quotes from Ida B. Wells-Barnett and discuss their meaning.
Sources
Fradin, Dennis and Fradin, Judith. Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. New York. Clarion Books. 2000.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “Ida B. Wells.” Accessed January 23, 2023. https://jem.utk.edu/tn-newspaper-hall-of-fame/ida-b-wells.