July 16th, 2025
African American journalist and antilynching crusader Ida B. Wells was born the daughter of slaves at Holly Springs, MS, and grew up as Jim Crow and lynching were becoming prevalent. Wells argued that lynchings occurred not to defend white women but because of whites’ fear of economic competition from blacks. She traveled extensively, founding antilynching societies and black women’s clubs. Wells’s Red Record (1895) was one of the first accounts of lynchings in the South.
Source: www.biography.com/people/ida-b-wells-9527635
