Born into slavery but freed after the Civil War. Ida B. Wells moved from Mississippi to Memphis, Tenn., where she became a co-owner and wrote for the “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” newspaper. All the while, she actively promoting equality for African Americans and for women’s right to vote. Wells organized The Women’s Era Club, which would later be renamed the Ida B. Wells Club. She also helped found the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.

One of the founders of the NAACP, Wells documented lynching in the United States through her investigative reporting in “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” In 2020, Wells posthumously received a Pulitzer Prize special citation for her work as an investigatory journalist.

Her fight continues today through the work of her great-granddaughter.
>> Read more about that fight here