Mightier Than the Sword: Ida B. Wells and Her Crusade for Equality and Justice

Forced to flee her home and newspaper in Memphis, Wells continued writing, speaking, and protesting the treatment of black Americans in the so-​called “Land of the Free.” She did so at a time when the courts and the federal government had largely abdicated their responsibility to protect the individual liberty of black Americans. Wells was also a suffragist who argued for the equality of women and reminded her white feminist colleagues that racial equality was as important at gender equality. Wells’ story demonstrates the importance of liberal institutions—especially the freedom of the press—in the fight against state-​sanctioned racial discrimination and gender discrimination.

On July 16, 1862, Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Although she did not have any personal recollection of slavery, she listened to the stories her parents told her and saw the scars of bondage on their bodies.² Like many freedpeople, Wells’ father was active in Republican politics during Reconstruction and insisted that his daughter get the formal education that he had been denied.³ When she was only sixteen, Wells’ parents and her youngest brother died of yellow fever, making her the primary caregiver for her other five siblings. As Wells later recalled, she “suddenly found [her]self head of a family.”⁴

Wells took a job as a local teacher and two years later moved with her two youngest sisters to Memphis, Tennessee. Wells often took the train, always purchasing a first-​class ticket in the ladies’ car. On May 4, 1884, the train conductor for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad demanded that she give up her seat on account of her being black and move to the smoking car. Wells refused and a scuffle ensued that resulted in her being physically removed from the train.⁵ Wells did not stand for it; she sued and was initially awarded $500 in a local court.⁶ But on appeal the Tennessee Supreme Court overruled the lower court and forced Wells to pay all court fees.⁷

This incident sparked Wells’ interest in journalism, and she wrote several pieces for local black newspapers. In 1891, Wells lost her teaching job for criticizing the condition of Memphis’s segregated schools. She decided to turn to journalism full-​time and she bought a share in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. This made Wells “the first female co-​owner and editor of a Black newspaper.”⁸

In 1892 a white mob lynched black grocer Thomas Moss and two of his business partners. Moss was a close personal friend of Wells’ and the lynching forever changed her life. It had been sparked by the success of Moss’s grocery store in the Curve neighborhood of Memphis. Outraged at black success, the owner of a competing white grocery store led a group of white men into the black-​owned grocery store. A scrap broke out and the three black men were ultimately arrested. Before they could stand trial, however, a white lynch mob seized Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart. The three were taken a mile or so outside of town where they were shot to death. One of them had his eyes gouged out.⁹ With his dying breath, Moss was reported to have said, “Tell my people to go West, there is no justice for them here.”¹⁰

Wells was appalled by the murder of her friend. She encouraged the black residents of Memphis to leave the city and denounced the lawlessness. Wells wrote:

In addition to denouncing lynching and calling on blacks to relocate, she began investigating lynchings across the South, becoming the nation’s leading anti-​lynching advocate. In 1892 she published the pamphlet Southern Horrors in which she debunked a common rationalization for lynchings, the idea that they were a justified response to the rape of white women by black men.¹² In fact, Wells found that in most cases lynchings were actually “an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and ‘keep the nigger down.’”¹³

Wells boldly published her findings in the Free Speech newspaper, which resulted in significant white backlash. While she was in the northeast, Wells received word that a white mob, enraged by her denouncement of lynching, had broken into her paper and set its offices on fire.¹⁴ The mob did not stop there, also threatening to kill Wells if she returned to Memphis.¹⁵

Although it was not safe for Wells to return to the South, she continued undaunted with her anti-​lynching work and in 1895 published The Red Record. In the book, Wells expanded on her previous work, ultimately researching over 700 lynchings from the previous decade.¹⁶ She used quantitative data to demonstrate that “this idea of rape and even criminal behavior is not so much connected to lynching, but that lynching was a means to keep blacks—who were very economically competitive at this point—to keep blacks down.”¹⁷ Wells explained that her purpose was “to arouse the conscience of America.”¹⁸

In the space of three years, Wells had become the leading voice in the crusade against lynching. The legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass met Wells and in a public letter exclaimed, “Brave woman! You have done your people and mine a service…If American conscience were only half alive, if the church and the clergy were only half Christianized, if American moral sensibility were not hardened…a scream of horror, shame, and indignation would rise to Heaven wherever your pamphlet shall be read.”¹⁹ He put Wells in touch with two of his friends in Great Britain and she embarked on a tour of that country in which she exposed the horrors of lynchings to an international audience. Her time abroad resulted in significant coverage of Wells by both the American and the British presses and stimulated the establishment of the British Anti-​Lynching Society.²⁰

While Wells’ primary focus was on ending lynching, she was also an advocate for women’s suffrage. Although she worked with white suffragists to that end, she found their silence on the horrors of lynching to be a betrayal of their belief in equality and justice for all. While Wells was in Britain, she openly confronted Frances Willard, the first president of Women’s Christian Temperance Union, for not denouncing lynching.²¹ Because of her insistence on liberty and equality for all women regardless of race, Wells would have a tense relationship with other suffragists even as they worked together to gain women the right to vote.²²

Wells settled in Chicago and in 1895 married Ferdinand Barnett, who supported many of the same causes that she championed. Instead of taking his name, Wells opted to hyphenate and became Ida B. Wells-Barnett—a rare decision at the time.²³ Together, they made a life in Chicago and had four children.²⁴

After settling down in Chicago, Wells continued her activism by founding the city’s first black women’s club, the first black settlement house, the first black kindergarten, and the first black suffragist organization.²⁵ The Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago not only advocated for women to gain the right to vote but also taught them how to engage in political activism and promote black political candidates.²⁶

While Wells believed in community-​based change, she was also active in the broader suffrage and civil rights movements. She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) which advocated for both racial and gender equality. Furthermore, Wells was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP).²⁷ In 1913, Wells marched in the Washington, D.C. suffrage parade despite being told initially that black women were not welcome.²⁸

During World War I, the Wilson administration placed Wells under surveillance for being a “race agitator.” Despite the attention, Wells continued her civil rights work during the war.²⁹ The Harding administration offered Wells and other opponents of lynching a little hope when the president endorsed an anti-​lynching bill. Wells supported the legislation, but it ultimately failed because of opposition from southern Democrats.³⁰

Near the end of her life, Wells decided to get more directly involved in politics. Her suffragist organization “helped elect Oscar De Priest as the first black alderman on the Chicago City Council.” During the last years of her life Wells focused improving economic, housing, and educational opportunities in Chicago. The year before her death, Wells ran for the Illinois state senate as an independent, but her bid was ultimately unsuccessful.³¹ Wells died on March 25, 1931 of kidney failure.

Like other black women of the late nineteenth century, Ida B. Wells used her voice and pen to advocate for equality and justice. In an era when black Americans’ civil liberties were not guaranteed by either state or federal governments, Wells promoted gender and racial equality and insisted on the equal application of justice. We should view Wells as both proponent and practitioner of the classically liberal values represented in the American Founding. She believed in the equal application of the law to all people and used her rights of speech, assembly, and petition to challenge Americans to live up to the ideals of the Revolution. Wells is a testament to what a courageous individual, unwilling to compromise her principles, can achieve through voluntary association and individual initiative.