WEBVTT

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There's something irresistible about

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underdog stories,

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where remarkable people rise

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from humble beginnings

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to do incredible things against all the odds.

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But few stories are as dramatic as that of

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Ida B. Wells.

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A woman who was born a slave in Mississippi,

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in the midst of the Civil War,

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and became a daring investigative reporter

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and civil rights crusader,

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who would one day be called

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"the loudest and most persistent voice for truth"

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in an era of injustice.

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From an early age, Wells carried

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exceptional burdens with exceptional courage.

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She became the head of her household

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at the age of 16 when both her parents

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died suddenly from yellow fever.

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In order to support her five brothers and sisters,

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she curtailed her education and started working

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as a school teacher in rural Mississippi.

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When she was 21 years old,

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Wells boarded a train to Memphis

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and seated herself in the first-class ladies car,

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only to be told that black women were restricted

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to second class.

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Not only did she bite the conductor who tried

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to remove her, she soon filed a discrimination

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lawsuit against the railroad company.

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She won the initial case,

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and while it was overturned on appeal,

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an article she wrote about the experience

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helped launch her career as a journalist.

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Wells' life changed forever in 1892,

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when her friend, Thomas Moss, was murdered

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by a white mob in Memphis

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along with two other black men.

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Their brutal killings inspired Wells to speak out

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against the horrors of lynching,

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an increasingly common tool of terror

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used against black people in the decades

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after the Civil War.

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Black men were often falsely accused of rape

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in order to justify their murders.

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But in a series of widely-read

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articles and pamphlets,

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Wells argued that lynching had little to do

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with protecting the honor of women,

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and everything to do with protecting the power of

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southern white men.

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Like so many civil rights leaders who would

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follow in her footsteps, including the

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civil rights leaders of today,

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her criticisms were powerful because

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they took aim not just

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at the misdeeds of individuals,

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but at the unexamined institutions of racism

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and power behind them.

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Her groundbreaking analysis changed

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the national conversation around lynching,

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and ever her future mentor, Frederick Douglass

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called his writing on the subject

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"feeble" in comparison.

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Wells was the co-owner and editor of

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a black newspaper in Memphis.

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After one of her anti-lynching articles

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displeased the white community,

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an angry mob stormed the office of the paper

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and destroyed it.

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Faced with death threats,

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Wells started carrying a pistol in her purse,

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but refused to back down from her

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anti-lynching campaign.

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She said it was better to die

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fighting against injustice,

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than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap.

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After that, she relocated to New York,

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where she began to publish investigative

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journalism for an even larger audience,

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including pamphlets that collected statistical

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documentation of lynching in the South.

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Her popular anti-lynching speeches

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eventually took her to Britain,

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where white audiences seemed far more

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outraged than many of their

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American counterparts.

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Her overseas speaking tour inspired

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international condemnation of lynching,

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particularly from British newspapers and politicians.

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And elevated Wells to the most visible national

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leader in the anti-lynching movement.

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Although Wells often criticized herself

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for being stubborn and hot-tempered,

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those same qualities made her a fiery orator

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and a relentless crusader against injustice.

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Faced with death threats from southern Whites

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and criticism from moderate black reformers,

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who considered her too radical,

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Wells refused to compromise her ideals

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for the sake of comfort, convenience,

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or even personal safety.

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"The way to right wrongs is to turn

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the light of truth upon them,"

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wrote Wells, who never failed to speak

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unpleasant truths even when it cost her friends

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or potential allies.

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Although surrounded by hostility and threats

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from people who wanted to punish

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her outspokenness because of

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her race and her gender,

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she refused to be silenced.

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Although she fought for women's rights,

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Wells was often disappointed by white suffragists

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who considered racial issues a distraction

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from the fight against sexism.

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Some even endorsed segregation.

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During the famous women's suffrage parade of 1913,

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when black women were told to walk at the back,

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Wells simply waited until the march started

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and defiantly joined her states' delegation.

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Similarly, she was frustrated by those in the

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black community who saw women's rights as

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unimportant to the fight against racism.

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Caught between the struggles of her race and her gender,

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Wells often felt like she fought alone.

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Although she had many suitors,

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and withstood enormous social pressure to marry,

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Wells remained single throughout her twenties.

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In her early 30s, she finally met her match

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in Ferdinand Barnett,

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a black lawyer who was equally passionate about

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social justice and a man who wholeheartedly

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supported her career.

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They married and had four children together

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and while Wells would eventually step down

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from her full-time position as a newspaper editor,

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she continued her work as a reformer

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until the day she died.

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When she passed away in 1931 at the age of 69,

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Ida B. Wells had profoundly changed the way that

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people had looked at race, gender,

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and violence in America.

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She transformed herself from a slave who was

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regarded as property,

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to someone once described as a

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woman who walked as if she owned the world.