Hidden Histories of Social Work: Ida B. Wells

Originally published in NASW-NJ FOCUS, July 2021.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

Ida B. Wells was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A forerunner to 21st century social justice advocates like Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, founders of the Black Lives Matter Network, during the course of her life Wells battled sexism, racist violence, disenfranchisement, and Jim Crow politics. A skilled writer, she also used her journalistic abilities to bring attention to the conditions of Blacks throughout the South. [1] Wells was the first person to document and publish about the lynching of Blacks and was the leader of many antilynching campaigns. [2]

Wells was born into slavery on July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, her parents became politically active in Reconstruction Era politics. [3] They also learned to read after their release from slavery and made sure their children were educated, as well. [4] Wells became the primary caregiver to her six brothers and sisters when she was sixteen, after both her parents and infant brother died during an outbreak of yellow fever. [5] She took a job as a teacher to support herself and her siblings, eventually moving to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to work as an educator. [6]

Wells has been credited alongside other activists and organizers of her time as a founder of modern social work. During her lifetime, she worked with reformers and activists including W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Church Terrell. She helped to open settlement houses that supported Blacks who were migrating to the North from the South and was involved in expanding school access for Black children. She worked with Jane Addams to oppose the establishment of segregated schools in Chicago. [7]

Activism was a constant in Wells’ life. In 1884, at age 22, Wells filed a lawsuit against a train car company in Memphis for unfair treatment—she had been forcefully removed from a first-class train, despite having a ticket for her seat. The altercation became physical, with Wells biting the conductor in the struggle and the conductor, with the cooperation of several white passengers, throwing her off the train. Although she won her case on the local level, the ruling was eventually overturned in federal court. [8]

Wells lost her teaching position in Memphis at age 24, in response to criticism she levied at the city’s school system. She then turned her attention to journalism and three years later, bought a share in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. She was the first female co-owner and editor of a Black newspaper in the U.S. Under the pseudonym “Iola,” Wells used this platform to write articles and editorials that challenged Jim Crow laws and furthered the cause of Black rights. [9, 10] After the lynching of one of her friends in 1892, Wells turned her journalistic efforts to white mob violence. Using research published by the Chicago Tribune, she documented 728 lynching cases that had occurred between 1884 and 1892. Within months of her friend’s murder, she had published a collection of articles under the title "Southern Horrors" (1892). [11] Her research had revealed the real reason for these lynchings was that the victims had challenged white authority or had successfully competed with whites in business or politics. A second publication, "A Red Record" (1895), countered the common 'rape myth' behind many lynchings—the belief that Black men were raping white women, rather than entering into consensual relationships with them. [12] Wells’ exposes enraged locals, who burned her press and drove her from Memphis; the threats became so bad she was forced to move to Chicago, Illinois. [13]

Wells was involved in the founding of multiple local and national advocacy organizations. She helped found the Alpha Suffrage League, a group for Black women who supported women’s right to vote and challenged the National American Woman Suffrage Association because of their exclusion of Black women from their movement. [14] In addition to supporting women’s efforts to secure the vote, the Alpha Suffrage Club taught women how to be politically active and promoted Black candidates for office. [15] Wells was also a founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club, which was created to address issues dealing with civil rights and women’s suffrage. Although she was in Niagara Falls for the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), her name is not mentioned as an official founder. Late in her career Wells focused on urban reform in the growing city of Chicago. [16]

Wells died in Chicago in 1931 at the age of 69. Since her death and the rise of mid-20th century civil rights activism, interest in her life and legacy has grown. Awards have been established in Wells’ name by the National Association of Black Journalists, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, the Coordinating Council for Women in History, the Investigative Fund, the University of Louisville, and the New York County Lawyers Association, among many others. The Ida B. Wells Memorial Foundation and the Ida B. Wells Museum have also been established to protect, preserve, and promote Wells’ legacy. [17] In 2020, she was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in recognition of her “outstanding and courageous” reporting about lynching. [18]

Resources [1] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [2] https://www.bestmswprograms.com/great-american-social-workers/ [3] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [4] https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/fighting-for-social-reform/ida-b-wells/ [5] https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/barnett-ida-wells-1862-1931/ [6] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [7] https://www.bestmswprograms.com/great-american-social-workers/ [8] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [9] https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/fighting-for-social-reform/ida-b-wells/ [10] https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/barnett-ida-wells-1862-1931/ [11] https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/fighting-for-social-reform/ida-b-wells/ [12] https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/barnett-ida-wells-1862-1931/ [13] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [14] https://www.bestmswprograms.com/great-american-social-workers/ [15] https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/fighting-for-social-reform/ida-b-wells/ [16] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett [17] https://www.bestmswprograms.com/great-american-social-workers/ [18] https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/fighting-for-social-reform/ida-b-wells/