Ida B. Wells
1862-1931 19th century
The refusal to look away, and truth held as a form of faithfulness.
Who was Ida B. Wells?
Born into slavery in Mississippi and orphaned at sixteen, she raised her brothers and sisters by teaching and then became a journalist. Her investigations into lynching cost her the destruction of her newspaper and exile from the South. Her diary, kept as a young woman, mixes household accounts with prayers.
In their own words
The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.
I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a rat in a trap.
Somebody must show that this people is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.