Ida B. Wells #1372

Caption from poster__      Ida B. Wells-Barnett    and Her Passion for Justice     " Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist, and speaker.  She stands as one of our nation's most uncompromising leaders and most ardent defenders of democracy. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862 and died  in Chicago, Illinois 1931 at the age of sixty-nine.”   Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her father (James Wells) was a carpenter and her mother ( Elizabeth"Lizzie Bell" Warrenton Wells ) was a professional cook. Her parents were slaves but the family achieved freedom in 1865. When Wells was 16 both her parents and an older brother died of yellow fever during an epidemic that swept the South. At a meeting following the funeral, friends and relatives decided that the five remaining Wells children should be farmed out to var