Ida Bell Wells Research Paper

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Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was a fearless writer, woman’s rights advocator, and anti-lynching crusader. She literally fought for gender and racial justice. On May 4, 1884, she was asked and later forced by a railroad conductor to give up her seat for a white man. Infuriated by the discrimination against her, she filed a suit against the railroad company. The suit sparked her career as a journalist. “Many papers wanted to hear about the experiences of the 25-year-old school teacher who stood up against white supremacy” (Baker 1). Her writings made it difficult to lead a normal life. They got her fired from her job and almost killed when she began to write the facts about lynching. Wells was born as a slave during the second year of the Civil War six months before the publication of the Emancipation Proclamation. “It was…show more content…
Feeling an obligation as the oldest child to keep the family together, she went home to care for her younger siblings. This was proved to be difficult at the realization that she was only 16, unemployed, and poor. In order to obtain an income, she applied for a teaching job six miles away from home. She knew they would not hire her at the age of sixteen, so at her interview she altered her appearance to seem as old as eighteen. She passed the exam and was given the position. During the week while away at work, friends and family stayed with her siblings. “In 1883, Wells moved 40 miles north to Memphis at the urging of her Aunt Frannie, who promised ample opportunity for employment and offered to care for Wells’ two younger sisters” (McBride 2). Soon after her arrival, she found employment at a school in Woodstock, Tennessee. “By the fall of 1884 she had qualified to teach in the city schools and was assigned a first grade class where she taught for seven years” (Sterling
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