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Ida B. Wells and the Activism of Investigative Journalism

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“Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett.” The Broad Ax (Salt Lake City, UT), July 14, 1917

In a time of extreme racism and yellow journalism, documenting and speaking the truth about lynchings in the South was a rare and dangerous act. But that did not stop journalist Ida B. Wells. When one of her friends was lynched in Memphis in 1892, she decided she could not let the defamation and murder of African American men stand any longer.

For months, Wells traveled throughout the South investigating lynchings. She used eyewitness interviews, testimony from families, and looked through records. The New York Times in its recent obituary for Wells noted, “She pioneered reporting techniques that remain central tenets of modern journalism.”

What she found was that the stereotype of black men being lynched for raping white women was almost always false. Disputes usually started over completely unrelated things, as it had with her friend Thomas Moss, killed over a dispute that began with children playing marbles. She boldly reported her findings in an editorial in the newspaper that she co-owned and edited, The Memphis Free Press and Headlight. That editorial, however, caused a riot in Memphis and she was forced to leave her home to save her life. The office of the newspaper was destroyed.

“Driven from Home.” The Washington Bee (Washington, DC), June 11, 1892.

This did not stop Ida B. Wells from continuing to speak out and write about lynching in the South, however. Instead she made it her mission to continue reporting on her findings, and to bring facts forward to combat the racist lies that covered up the violence that she found. As The Appeal (Saint Paul, MN) wrote months later, by leaving Memphis and going to New York, she began to reach thousands more people. “Free Speech,” they noted, “is not so easily suppressed as The Free Speech.”

Wells continued to face danger and opposition as she began telling her story across the country. Linked below is an article from the Memphis Commercial as republished in The Columbia Herald. The language in this article is difficult to read, but it is being presented here as a historical example of what Wells faced.

“A Colored Corday.” The Columbia Herald (Columbia, TN), December 23, 1892.

Wells continued her reporting, writing for The New York Age, the Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, The Conservator, and many other newspapers. She published the pamphlet Southern Horrors later in 1892, working off of what she had written for the Age and providing additional details. She then traveled across Europe, gaining support there for her anti-lynching mission. Her success in Europe emboldened her efforts once she returned to the United States and continued lecturing and writing.

In early 1895 she published her book, A Red Record. Again using her investigative reporting, A Red Record was longer than Southern Horrors and included updated statistics, specific details, and photographs of cases of lynching across the South.

A Red Record. Ida B. Wells (Chicago, 1895).

Wells continued to be an activist throughout the remainder of her career. She started a number of clubs and organizations including the Ida B. Wells Women’s Club and Alpha Suffrage Club, the first suffrage club for black women. She helped in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1930 she even ran for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. She never stopped speaking the truth that she saw—the truth that she found through facts and figures. She died March 21, 1931.

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Comments (6)

  1. Wonderful blog post and sources! Also,
    thanks to Heidi for sharing additional resources!

  2. Yes. I read “…’cancel culture…” instead of “…counterculture…” and wondered if it was a mistake.

  3. Mother Ida B. Wells was a true revolutionary. She shook the foundation of every institution she crossed, even so-called “Progressives” of the day, both black and white, were challenged by her radical approach to loving black people. Alice Paul and W.E.B. Dubois alike, though on polar opposite sides of the argument of “Power to the people” each got a taste of the resolve of this powerful, intelligent and dedicated Queen. She is the template for any woman that strives for gender equity and for any person that strives for racial equity. Rest in Power, Queen Ida…

  4. It truly bothers me that the white people wanted black people gone so much, that they would go as far as completely lying on their name as a free excuse to kill them; because they decided they either wanted them as slaves or dead.

  5. Such a brave woman. It warms my heart when i read these articles!

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