Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin

Ida B. Wells was a writer, publisher, speaker, activist, and the instrumental figure... read more

Ida B. Wells was a writer, publisher, speaker, activist, and the instrumental figure in the fight to outlaw lynching. Her crusade was impassioned and tireless. This inspiring yet down-to-earth profile of Wells also paints a painful yet important portrait of lynching. As a journalist and speaker, Wells was vocal despite the dangers her views represented in the South. When her life was threatened, she had to leave Memphis, where she owned and edited a newspaper. Resettling in Chicago, she continued to write, publish, and speak while raising six children. She traveled to lynching sites and spoke to victim’s families, documenting what happened. She helped men in jail who feared they would be lynched, and she spoke out, and even testified in court, against those who lynched Black men or, in the case of one sheriff, allowed a lynching to occur. An intense and gripping portrait that has the power to inspire readers with its strong sense of justice. (Ages 12-16)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2001

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