The story of how a girl born into slavery became an early leader in
the civil rights movement and the most famous Black female journalist in
nineteenth-century America.
Born into slavery in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was freed as a result of the
Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. Yet she could see how just how
unjust the world was. This drove her to become a journalist and
activist. Throughout her life, she fought against prejudice and for
equality for African Americans. Ida B. Wells would go on to co-own a
newspaper, write several books, help cofound the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and fight for women's
right to vote.