BARNETT, IDA B. WELLS

BARNETT, IDA B. WELLS Born in Mississippi in 1864, Ida Wells Barnett became a champion of equal civil rights for all races and, perhaps more significantly, a dedicated crusader against the practice of lynch-law in the United States during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to her career in journalism (she served as editor of the Memphis Free Speech), Barnett was an active pamphleteer and speaker on the subject of lynching. She ultimately became chairman of the Anti-Lynching Bureau of the National African Council. In 1908, Barnett became the first president of the Negro Fellowship