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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.