A tireless champion of her
people, Ida B. Wells was the first of eight children born to Jim and Elizabeth
Wells in Mississippi in 1862, six months before chattel slavery was ended with
the Emancipation Proclamation.
Her parents, who had been
slaves, were able to support their children because Elizabeth was an excellent
cook and Jim a skilled carpenter. But when Ida was only 16, her parents and
youngest sibling died of Yellow Fever during an epidemic. In keeping with the strength and fortitude
she demonstrated throughout her remarkable life, Ida took responsibility for
raising her six younger siblings with her grandmother’s help. Educated at nearby
Rust College, a school run by white missionaries, Ida was forced to drop out; she
got a full-time teaching job by lying about her age, and spent weekends
washing, ironing and cooking for her large family.
