Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a woman ahead of her time--courageous, independent, assertive, and outspoken. Born a slave, she later became the owner and editor of her own Southern newspaper, crusading at great personal risk against the illegal lynching of Black people and the injustice of segregation. Devoting herself to Black progress and racial equality, she played a leading role in the Black women's club movement as well as the creation of national organizations. But her determination made her incapable of compromise with fellow Black and white reformers who chose to take a more accommodating approach, and her influence waned within many of the same organizations that she had helped found.

The eldest of eight children, Ida Wells was born a...