Ida B. Wells

The most dangerous problem for African Americans was lynching, murder by a mob without a trial, often by hanging. In 1892 about 230 people were lynched in the United States. Most of these people were African Americans, killed by groups of angry whites. Leading the antilynching movement was Ida B. Wells.
Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1863 to enslaved parents. When she was 14 her parents died of yellow fever and being the oldest child, she took over the responsibility of her five living siblings. She lied about her age to get a teaching job to support the family. In 1884 she got a better teaching job in Memphis and started to write for the local newspaper and soon was elected editor of the Evening Star.
Wells became a controversial activist of equality for African Americans because of her incident on a train. The conductor told her that she was in a car reserved for whites and that she would have to move to the segregated car. B...