Ida Bell Wells was a noted activist for the civil rights of African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She made headlines after her 1884 lawsuit against the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad. Wells made great strides in her work for desegregation, anti-lynching, and voting rights throughout her life. Wells married activist Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895 and both campaigned for social justice in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois, as well as nationally and internationally.

She participated in the founding or was a member of the National Association of Colored Women, the National Afro-American Council, the Niagara Movement, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Born Holly Springs, Mississippi

The daughter of former slaves, Ida B. Wells sued the Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railway in 1883 after being dragged from her seat for refusing to move to a segregated railcar. Her anger over this incident spurred her to begin contributing articles to black-owned newspapers; she became part owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. After three black businessmen were lynched in Memphis in 1892, Wells launched what became a four-decade-long anti-lynching crusade. She vigorously investigated other lynchings and published her groundbreaking treatise on the topic, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases