To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells

by Mia Bay

Born to slaves in 1862, Ida B. Wells became a fearless antilynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, and journalist. Wells’s refusal to accept any compromise on racial inequality caused her to be labeled a “dangerous radical” in her day but made her a model for later civil rights activists as well as a powerful witness to the troubled racial politics of her era. In the richly illustrated To Tell the Truth Freely , the historian Mia Bay vividly captures Wells’s legacy and life, from her childhood in Mississippi to her early career in late nineteenth-century Memphis and her later life in Progressive-era Chicago. Wells’s fight for racial and gender justice began in 1883, when she was a young schoolteacher who traveled to her rural schoolhouse by rail. Forcibly ejected from her seat on a train one day on account of her race, Wells immediately sued the railroad. Though she ultimately lost her case on appeal in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the published account of her legal challenge to Jim Crow changed her life, propelling her into a career as an outspoken journalist and social activist. Also a fierce critic of the racial violence that marked her era, Wells went on to launch a crusade against lynching that took her across the United States and eventually to Britain. Though she helped found the NAACP in 1910 after resettling in Chicago, she would not remain a member for long. Always militant in her quest for racial justice, Wells rejected not only Booker T. Washington’s accommodationism but also the moderating influence of white reformers within the early NAACP. The life of Ida B. Wells and her enduring achievements are dramatically recovered in Mia Bay’s To Tell the Truth Freely .

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Race, American History, Feminism, Politics

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2009

About the author

Mia Bay is an American historian and currently the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously a professor of history at Rutgers University and director of the Rutgers Center for Race and Ethnicity. A 2010 Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellow and 2009 National Humanities Fellow, she is the author of two books on African American history and a biographer of Ida B. Wells entitled To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Civil Rights Pioneer

Ida B. Wells (1862 - 1931) was one of the first individuals to expose and oppose the lynching that became prevalent in the South and elsewhere in the years following Reconstruction. In the latter part of her life and for many years thereafter, Wells's life and accomplishments were in danger of being overlooked and marginalized. With the publication of her autobiography, "Crusade for Justice" (1971) and of her other writings together with several biographies, Ida Wells has since the 1970s been receiving overdue recognition. Mia Bay's recent biography, "To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells" (2009) offers a solid if dry account of Wells's life and accomplishments. Bay, associate professor of history at Rutgers University, is the associate director of Rutgers's Center for Race and Ethnicity and the author of "The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas About White People, 1830- 1925".

Wells's parents were slaves when she was born at Holly Springs, Mississippi. With the end of the Civil War, her parents became activists in support of Reconstruction, which became the dominant influence on her life. When Wells was 16, her mother and father and two siblings died in a Yellow Fever epidemic. Wells became a rural schoolteacher to support her remaining younger sisters. She attended college sporadically but was expelled from Rusk College in 1881 for reasons which remain obscure.

As a young woman, Wells moved to Memphis where she taught school and gradually found her way to writing and journalism using the name "Iola". Wells also filed a lawsuit against a railroad for forcing her to sit in a segregated, Jim Crow car. She ultimately lost her case on appeal. The defining moment of Wells's life occurred in 1892 when three male acquaintances in Memphis were lynched. Wells' investigated the lynchings and similar occurrences in the South and wrote about them in her paper. Wells rejected the claim of the apologists for lynching that the practice resulted from the rape of white women by black men. Wells wrote that lynching was instead a power move designed to keep African Americans in fear and servitude. But Southerners found particularly inflammatory Wells's findings that when sexual relationships between black men and white women occurred, these relationships tended to be clandestine, but consensual. She was forced to leave Memphis and lost all her property.

Moving to New York City, Wells became both famous and notorious. She worked with Frederick Douglass in protesting the exclusion of African Americans from participation or recognition in the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair. She prepared a pamphlet for distribution during the Fair documenting the evils of lynching. Wells also made two trips to England where she was instrumental in organizing an anti-lynching society among the successors of the British abolitionist movement.

Following the Worlds Fair, Wells remained in Chicago and married a successful attorney, Ferdinand Barnett, with whom she had four children. She remained politically active for the rest of her life, but her fame was eclipsed by Booker T. Washington and then by W.E.B. DuBois. Wells helped found the NAACP, but her abrasive, confrontational and independent personality, together with her gender, denied her a leadership role in this or other national civil rights organizations. But she continued her crusade against lynching and was an activist in protecting the rights of the many African Americans pouring into Chicago as part of the Great Migration.

Bay offers a thorough and a sympathetic portrayal of Wells which draws on the autobiography and on Wells's other writings. Bay is good in showing Wells's relationships to other African American and feminist leaders, including Douglass, Washington, DuBois, and Susan B. Anthony, who counseled Wells against her marriage. Bay also writes with insight about how Wells's activist approach to African American rights was at odds with Booker T. Washington's accomodationist approach and with the subsequent approach of the NAACP which sought to vindicate African American civil rights through litigation and through legislation. Bay emphasizes, as she should, the role of gender in denying Wells a position of leadership within the African American community. But Bay's own text makes clear how tough and difficult Wells could be, even with her allies. Wells's own irascibility and temper seem at least as responsible for her independent status as was her gender.

I learned a great deal about Wells from this book, but I sensed a fire in the woman which Bay does not entirely capture. The book is well-documented and footnoted but lacks a bibliography. Bay's book is effective in telling the story of an inspiring American who deserves to be remembered and admired.

Robin Friedman

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a new hero. I’m sad I hadn’t heard of Ida B. Wells until recently but so glad to learn about her now. I so admire her persistence in commitment to her moral vision. I would love to be a woman with a tenth of her courage.

As far as this biography itself, it outlined the story of Ida B. Wells’ life clearly and did well at finding themes and connection points through some of the vastly different seasons. A good biography sheds light on broader themes of history through one person’s story, and this one helped me learn more about Reconstruction/ Redemption and about the junction of race and gender. I did find the organization confusingly repetitive at points and the writing style a little heavy-handed. I also wish this book had interacted more critically with Wells’ depiction of her own life in her autobiography. I think Wells has the strength to stand up to that kind of analysis.

[Stephen Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent account of an extraordinary journalist-author-activist of indefatigable persistence and courage. During her life she was often deemed abrasive, confrontational, ‘unladylike’, by other Black leaders. Later groups like SCLC and especially SNCC and the Black Power movement would follow her lead in engaging in ‘direct action.’

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of biographies, but the legacy of Ida B Wells is so important and under-reported in the broader histories of civil rights that I wanted to know more. Her pioneering use of investigative reporting and media analysis to fuel her anti-lynching campaign is critical to how we still understand extrajudicial killings of black people in America.

If someone wanted to make a very long and sporadically entertaining video, the faces I made all all the shaking of my head as I read about male usurpation of her work and political power, and the constant and annoying betrayals by white feminists would be a decent candidate. The book was fairly dry and ends rather abruptly, but it's a pretty good overview of her struggles and accomplishments.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A great blend of scholarly rigor and pop history approachability.

This biography of Ida B Wells started slowly for me, but ended up being a great read. I'd obviously heard of Wells before, but pretty much all I knew was that she was a journalist. It turns out that's only a tiny glimpse of her impressive accomplishments. In her early teens, the death of Ida's parents forced her to become a school teacher and take on the responsibility of raising her siblings. The author does a great job of showing how this challenging childhood shaped Ida's later opinions and life choices. The author also highlights that Ida was impressively self-taught, becoming a famous Black female journalist and co-owner of a newspaper in her thirties in the 1800's. Ida's achievement of this level of success with very little formal schooling is incredible. However, we also see that her lack of formal credentials may have combined with sexism, classism, and her uncompromising views on injustice to prevent her from achieving the leadership roles and recognition she deserved in her own life time.

As I've already shown a bit in the prior paragraph, this book was memorable for its ability to put Ida's life in context. I could see how her personal history influenced her life. The author also clearly showed the significance of Ida's work on lynching. Her efforts were among the first to show that the common justification of lynching as punishment for rape was a complete fabrication. Most victims of lynching weren't even accused of rape and few of the accusations that were brought had any basis in fact. Ida's work made lynching an issue women could talk about. Her journalistic approach to the topic was influential, as was the work of others who adopted her methods. Her approach to anti-lynching efforts, legislative challenges to discrimination, and forceful protests also shaped the work of organizations such as the NAACP long after her death.

I really liked that this book made extensive use of primary sources. The quotes made me want to read some Ida's own writing, although I am glad I read this first to get the broader context. The pictures also made this history feel more immediate and personal. Initially, I didn't like that each chapter in this book began with a summary of the chapter contents. The author doesn't tell you to expect this structure, so the first time it happened, I was confused by the repetition of events in the summary and then in the rest of the chapter. Once I understood this organization though, I found it made it easier to follow the story and its significance. I rarely encounter this approach outside of academic literature and think it could have used an introduction here.

It seems possible this book was originally written as an academic work. The text is dense on the page and the book is more than 300 pages. The citations seem very thorough and the structure of the chapters does also point in that direction. Although the dense intro almost put me off, I found that this was written in an engaging enough manner to make a good work of popular history. Despite the dense type, this book flew by once I got into the story. I ended up appreciating the academic touches - great citations, helpful summaries, highlighting of significance and historical context - and felt I got those benefits from a text written to be accessible for any reader.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life of ex-slave, journalist, and activist Ida B. Wells is inherently exciting, and author Mia Bay captures its arc. Even while she provides us with careful scholarship, she drives home the repetitive violence directed against Black people that Wells exposed, denounced, and organized to end, all her life. She also illustrates the sad truth that the high point for white people against racism was in the early post-Civil War years, during Reconstruction.

For most of Wells's life (1862-1931), former abolitionists abandoned Black men (mostly) to lynching directed at keeping them "in their place"--or lynching just for sport! White Americans and the Black leaders like Booker T. Washington who curried their favor bought into the myth that lynching was a response to Black men raping white women. As a woman, Wells was able to decry rape while pointing out, with evidence and statistics, that Black men who were never even accused of rape were lynched as well as Black men who were in consensual relationships with white women (shocking some of her white feminist friends).

Bay shows how Wells' race, class, and gender all gave her a powerful lens from which to view the evils of U.S. society, without ever falling into academic jargon about race, class, and gender. She clearly considers Wells a hero, and to her credit, she also shows the defects of her virtues: her inability to compromise, her tendency to start organizations and not know how to run them from the inside. She was the ACT UP of the anti-lynching movement. The NAACP shunted her to the side, but without her, there would have been no Walter White, no Thurgood Marshall, and no Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

One other aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the loving attention paid to Wells' romantic life. When she finally did marry Chicago lawyer Ferdinand Barnett, they were a love match and a power couple. I enjoyed the picture of Ferdinand at home cooking sometimes so Ida could be out on the road, getting a prosecutor to investigate a sheriff who let a Black man be lynched. Hats off to him, as well.

[Beverlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ida Wells-Barnett’s life story is one of many examples of intersectionality between being African American and a woman. I think it’s especially compelling because her life took place before feminism was commonly known as such and I don’t think Ida Wells-Barnett would’ve liked being called a feminist, especially if that definition is based on mainstream meaning.

This book was informative on what made Ida Wells-Barnett tick. She always followed her heart & fought for justice and equality for her people. Obviously this was a huge sacrifice emotionally & mentally and my respect for her is permanent.

3 stars because while Wells-Barnett had a fascinating life story, I didn’t feel a strong emotional connection while reading. The writing isn’t bad, it just reads more as a textbook than a life story.

What I found interesting:

1. The clash between Wells-Barnett (often viewed as an agitator) and traditionalists such as Mary Church Terrell and Booker T. Washington.
2. Continuing on that idea, how Wells-Barnett laid the foundation for protest tradition yet she gets no credit for it because she was an unapologetic Black woman leader.

[Xiomara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great autobiography by an amazing historian

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic bio of wells-Barnett. Should be great for my intro af-am class. Anxious to see what my students think of it.

[Kimberle Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent research put into this

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida Wells was barely in her thirties when she began her campaign against lynch law in the south. Born to slaves in 1862, she came of age concurrently with the collapse of Reconstruction and the betrayal of southern black people by the federal government. After her parents died when she was sixteen, she took charge of raising her siblings and became a schoolteacher and then a journalist in Memphis. It was after a race riot — for most of American history, “race riot” meant white pogroms directed at black people and other people of color — and lynching of three black men there that she began the work that would define her legacy.

As the title of this biography indicates, Wells did something simple but courageous in response to the epidemic of lynching: she did basic reporting and told the truth. Her reporting laid the foundation for what is now the basic historical understanding of lynching as a social phenomenon. Southern white leaders declared that lynching was necessary to protect white women from depraved black rapists. Ida Wells looked into lynchings and found that in only a minority of cases were the victims even accused of rape. Moreover, she reported that many of those who were accused of rape were in fact involved in illicit but consensual interracial relationships, typically initiated by white women. And of course, the rape defense only went one way- no one, black or white, was ever lynched, barely anyone was ever brought to law, for sexually assaulting a black woman. Wells’s conclusions were commonsensical and strike the reader as quite “modern:” lynching, like rape, is about power, not sex, and specifically about reenforcing white supremacy by terrorizing black people. She called for both federal anti-lynching legislation and armed black self defense in response.

In the 1890s when she began her antilynching crusade, this was controversial on a number of levels. Southern whites were offended and she was publicly threatened with torture and dismemberment by “respectable” newspapers in Memphis, forcing her to leave the south for New York and then Chicago. She struck a chord with black readers, who made her for a time the most well-known black woman in the country, and made a number of allies, including Frederick Douglass in his later years. But many established reformists, both black and white, had issues with her. She was feisty and not afraid to fight. This upset established gender norms of the time, especially for black women, who were under extra pressure to “prove” their femininity. People (like Susan B. Anthony) criticized her for being unmarried in her thirties and then criticized her for carrying on the work once she married lawyer and reformer Frederick Barnett. She ran afoul of Booker T. Washington, unofficial leader of black America at the time, who insisted that political agitation for his community’s rights was pointless and who punished black figures who disagreed. Wells allied with more radical figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and helped found the NAACP, but quickly found herself — a woman without a college degree — out of step with the increasingly professionalized world of early twentieth century reform politics.

In general, Wells’s life certainly did not lack for incident, but it’s arc isn’t exactly the stuff of Hollywood. There was no big confrontation or victory, either with the forces of lynching or with her fairweather friends in the reform movement. She kept plugging along until she died in 1930, mostly removed from the national stage after World War One but staying active in Chicago reform and antiracist politics. Mostly, this is a record of Wells writing and giving speeches, getting polite (or not so polite) reactions, and then the world going on it’s merry way, unfortunately. Historian Mia Bay does a fine job putting Wells in her context, succinctly explaining things like the history and full extent of lynch law, Victorian social codes constraining women, and post-Reconstruction black politics. This is a highly readable as well as commendably complete book. Wells is an admirable figure by any fair reckoning, but it is a little concerning to think how much she echoes our own time: a figure with a very correct analysis but no way to implement it. ****

[Faith Crim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells' story begins when her parents were freed from slavery. Her mother went with her to Sunday school and church receiving a Christian education. She was out of town when both her parents and infant sibling died of disease. She being the oldest sibling, took care of her younger siblings. Wells taught herself and became a teacher. She then took an interest in writing and became a journalist and newspaper editor as "Iola." A terrible lynching of three black men she knew prompted her to research lynching. She made appalling discoveries and began her "antilynching crusade." Ida did not back down from writing about the truth which forced her to leave her hometown from a white mob. Fredrick Douglass became one of her long-lasting friends as they verbally fought against the oppression of a white man's government. Ida dropped teaching altogether and traveled internationally, gaining a significant amount of support from Great Britain. She helped found the NAACP and the NACW along with several other antilynching campaigns. Many people who were for her cause denied her important leadership roles. Wells married Ferdinand Barnett having four children after the two worked on a pamphlet together for the World's Columbian Exposition. Ida left the NAACP and the NACW after numerous occasions of being restricted for her either being a woman or being black. Her popularity declined although Ida remained an activist for anti-lynching laws and voting rights until her death in March of 1931. Even though she was not highly credited for her work, Ida B. Wells- Barnett introduced new ideas that would help groups like the NAACP and the NACW change American society. The theme would be that is critical that put effort into making an influence credit or no credit. "Wells- Barnett..., leaving her both eclipsed and abandoned by civil rights organizations she had helped create- such as the NAACP" (Bay, 316). I would recommend this text to all people. It has evidence from credible sources. Generally, Ida's story should be recognized, not lost to history.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Born to slaves in1862, Ida B. Wells became a fearless antilynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, and journalist. Well’s refusal to accept any compromise on racial inequality, cause her to be labeled a “dangerous radical“ in her day, but made her a model for later civil rights activists as well as a powerful witness to the troubled radical politics of her era. In the richly illustrated To Tell The Truth Freely, the historian Mia Bell vividly captures Wells’s legacy in life from her childhood in Mississippi to her early career in the late 19th century Memphis and her later life in progressive era Chicago.
Wells’s fight for radical and gender justice begin in 1883 when she was a young schoolteacher, who traveled to her rural school house by rail. Forcibly ejected from her seat on a train. One day on account of her race Wells immediately sued the railroad. Though she ultimately lost her case on appeal in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the published account of her legal challenge to Jim Crow changed her life, propelling her into a career as an outspoken journalist and social activist. Also a fierce critic of the racial violence that marked her era, Wells went on to launch a crusade against lynching that took her across the United States and eventually to Britain. Those she helped found the NAACP in 1910 after re-settling in Chicago. She would not remain a member for long. Always militant in her quest for racial justice Wells rejected not only Booker T. Washington’s accommodationism, but also the moderating influence of white reformers within the early NAACP, the life of Ida B. Wells and her enduring achievements are dramatically recovered in Mia Bay’s To Tell The Truth Freely.” - Quote from the inside cover of my copy of To Tell The Truth Freely.

I was really expecting to enjoy this book as I did not know much about Well’s life before starting this book. I did learn some things about her life but I was sadly disappointed by the way the book was written. The chapters seemed to drag on and on without an end in sight. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

[Catherine Wojtkun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born to slaves in 1862, Ida B. Wells became a fearless antilynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, and journalist. Wells’s refusal to accept any compromise on racial inequality caused her to be labeled a “dangerous radical” in her day but made her a model for later civil rights activists as well as a powerful witness to the troubled racial politics of her era. In the richly illustrated To Tell the Truth Freely, the historian Mia Bay vividly captures Wells’s legacy and life, from her childhood in Mississippi to her early career in late nineteenth-century Memphis and her later life in Progressive-era Chicago.

Wells’s fight for racial and gender justice began in 1883, when she was a young schoolteacher who traveled to her rural schoolhouse by rail. Forcibly ejected from her seat on a train one day on account of her race, Wells immediately sued the railroad. Though she ultimately lost her case on appeal in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the published account of her legal challenge to Jim Crow changed her life, propelling her into a career as an outspoken journalist and social activist. Also a fierce critic of the racial violence that marked her era, Wells went on to launch a crusade against lynching that took her across the United States and eventually to Britain. Though she helped found the NAACP in 1910 after resettling in Chicago, she would not remain a member for long. Always militant in her quest for racial justice, Wells rejected not only Booker T. Washington’s accommodationism but also the moderating influence of white reformers within the early NAACP. The life of Ida B. Wells and her enduring achievements are dramatically recovered in Mia Bay’s To Tell the Truth Freely

[RYCJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was tough staying focused on the underlying message of Ida's life work and mission without getting caught up on the manifest of heartless assaults this pioneer crusaded against, and the countless black men, women and babies she crusaded for. This book certainly is not easy on the spirit, despite none of this being new information. However, after digesting three quarters of the book, recording pages upon pages of notes, it became patently clear why it defies commentary to debate or discuss in any manner these barbaric atrocities no civilized society would tolerate.

That aside, this historical time-piece does provide important vignettes; such as the historical description of the political parties (republicans vs democrats); and the birth of a number of newspapers and its founding principles supported by the headlines and stories it published. There as well are a number of laws cited to glean new information. For me, personally, the Comstock Law was news to me. I came across a few books I now want to read, too.

Overall, I applaud Ida, and Ms. Bay, for carrying this biography forward. Ida's mission was clear. Her passion uncooked. And her efforts documenting unfathomable barbaric cruelties, taking her message and mission wide and far… along with the personal assistance she provided to many in distress, often from her own purse, I find irreproachable!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history detailed in this book is so important and often overlooked in American textbooks. The struggle of post-slavery Blacks in America, the restrictions put on women of the era and especially the struggle of Black women to find a place in a post-slavery society, the disputes among the Black community about how to approach gaining their deserved rights...there is so much here. The book does an excellent job of placing Wells within the occurrences of her day, and it taught me an embarrassing amount.

Reading this book during the current state of American politics, it is impossible not to see the parallels between the lynch mobs of Wells' day and the people who invaded the U.S. Capitol. The need to exert their power, feeling they are above the law- this is not something new. Even the reframing and outright lying happened over a century ago.

A very important read, especially now.

[Gemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard the name over & over again & it finally dawned on me to find a book to read about her. I was shocked to find that there was so much about her life that I had no idea about. This book had so many different things about her life that were eye opening. Learning about the various places that she lived & how she had a family as well. The issues she faced was unbelievable & so unfortunate. Seeing how she became friends w/ certain people yet others she was not inline with was also surprising. The amount of people she inspired during all her travels was amazing. The way she stood up for women & Black women especially was not something everyone was able to do. So yeah it's worth the read.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprise, a spin-off from Frederick Douglass. I had heard the name "Ida Wells" but assumed she was a sort of Jane Addams character. The book itself was a little repetitive (hence 4 stars) but the story was incredible. I gained a tremendous knowledge of and respect for Ida, who was truly a woman ahead of her time. She deserves to be more well-known.

I also learned much from the Chicago connection. I love this book.

[Amelia Valentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Well written biography on Ida B. Wells, focusing on her lifetime of activism. Bay also provides a comprehensive look at lynching in post-Reconstruction America and the politics of Black movements in the late-19th century.

A bit repetitive and dry in some areas, she skims over other areas of her life that could have been a tad more fleshed out. Overall, Bay is a smart writer that penned an academic and accessible book.

Quarantine Read.

[Jennifer Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having never heard of Ida B. Wells prior, i thoroughly enjoyed this biography yet while being horrified by the post-Reconstruction events and the rise of Jim Crow laws. Yet she persevered to stand up for what was right in the face of racist people and a racist government bent on maintaining a white nationalist agenda.

[Chrissie]

Or maybe this which is more thorough:

Ida: A Sword Among Lions by Paula J. Giddings

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I was able to see the agony of Ida up close and personal. Her selfless and principled devotion to destroy lynch law and Jim Crow cost her so much but not her loving marriage. I admire her convictions to do what was right in a time where capitulation and appeasement had disastrous consequences.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiring but also depressing as hell. Wells was such a powerhouse--tireless in speaking out about racism, violence, and gender politics. But so many of the injustices and obstacles she was facing in the late 1800's are the exact same problems we're still dealing with today. #sameshitdifferentcentury

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An accessible, affectionate and respectful survey of the heroic life of Ida B. Wells. I'll have to look elsewhere for what I hoped for but didn't find in this work, such as more in depth treatments of her relationships with Douglass and Du Bois.

[Priscilla Yukich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative, Ida B. Wells was a woman to admire.

I was impressed with how determined and strong Ida Wells was. I can only imagine her frustration at times as she worked hard to put an end to the violent lynchings of her time.

[Aarti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida B. Wells is so inspiring - someone who fought for her ideals and stood firm in her beliefs every day of her life. Glad I got to know more about her in this book, and I hope she gets a statue in every city she lived in!

[Michael McEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast paced and engrossing biography of American hero, Ida B. Wells. The book covers her entire life without getting overly bogged down by excessive detail. The section about her work in Chicago and the UK trips was especially interesting.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

ill be making a movie of her life with my good friend and collaborator Genevieve Alma.

[Kerrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this was a great follow-up after reading Stamped. Learned a TON I did not know before.

[Maria Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography of a fascinating woman.