Ida B. Wells used her voice when her people needed it most.

Born on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells became one of the most fearless journalists and civil rights leaders in American history. The National Women’s History Museum notes that her anti-lynching activism and journalism helped lay the foundation for later civil rights work.

Here are five ways she used her voice for the people.

1. She exposed the lies used to justify lynching.
In 1892, after three of her friends were lynched in Memphis, Wells used her newspaper, The Memphis Free Speech, to denounce the violence and challenge the racist narratives used to excuse lynching. PBS reports that Wells printed an article condemning the lynching of three of her friends that year.

2. She documented racial terror through her writing.
Wells later published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases and The Red Record, documenting lynching cases and showing how racial violence was used to terrorize Black communities. The New York Public Library notes that The Red Record expanded on her earlier anti-lynching work in Southern Horrors.

3. She helped build organizations for Black women and civil rights.
In 1896, Wells helped form the National Association of Colored Women, an organization focused on suffrage, desegregation, and equal rights for Black Americans, according to the University of Chicago Library. The NAACP also notes that Wells-Barnett was among the leaders who signed the 1909 call that helped lead to the organization’s founding.

4. She refused to be pushed to the back.
In 1913, Wells marched in the women’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. When Black suffragists were asked to march separately, Wells refused. WTTW reports that she waited with spectators, then stepped into the Illinois delegation as it passed.

5. She challenged segregation decades before the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
In 1884, Wells refused to leave her first-class train seat after being told to move because of her race. She sued the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad, won damages in court, and the ruling was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1887, according to the Tennessee Virtual Archive.

 

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Through journalism, organizing, legal action, and public protest, Wells showed what it meant to speak truth even when the cost was high. Her work reminds us that one voice, used with courage and conviction, can help move generations.

Ida B. Wells refused to be silent, and the power of her voice still echoes today.