Ida Wells Research Paper

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After reading about Ida Wells, what stood out to me was, she was a one woman wrecking crew when it came to journalism. She was born in Mississippi in 1862. She had seven siblings but she was the oldest. During the time Wells was born, current president Lincoln passes the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves in the southern states. Due to the proclamation, Wells was afforded the opportunity to attend school where she began to set her journalistic foundation. In 1878 when Well’s parents died of the yellow fever epidemic, Wells then 16 took over responsibility for her siblings. She took a job as a teacher and did other odds jobs to support herself and her siblings Wells went to Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee. A story I found that fueled her to become a journalists for black people involved an accident on a train on her way to school. She was asked to move by the conductor to the back, but refused and ended up biting the conductor in self-defense. She ended up moving to the back of the train and getting off…show more content…
She gained the backing of many newspapers and organizations overseas but many American newspapers were against her. Surprisingly many upper class African Americans who didn’t want to lose their position in society were also against her. Wells crusades against lynching never stopped and she continued to speak out against lynching, sitting in the back of the bus, not being able to sit in theater balconies, and other discriminations. Wells voice became so powerful that when she spoke out against an organization, it caused that organization to lose support and funding. Wells was an NAACP founder. She later resigned because she felt the NAACP was not what she would have liked. Wells also founded the first black women’s suffrage movement. Wells was also one of the leaders who influenced the civil rights

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