Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Taken: 1893
Caption: Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Additional Description: This c.1893 photo of Ida B. Wells-Barnett by Mary Garrity hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“The daughter of former slaves, Ida B. Wells sued the Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railway in 1883 after being dragged from her seat for refusing to move to a segregated railcar. Her anger over this incident spurred her to begin contributing articles to black-owned newspapers; she became part owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. After three black businessmen were lynched in Memphis in 1892, Wells launched what became a four-decade-long anti-lynching crusade. She vigorously investigated other lynchings and published her groundbreaking treatise on the topic, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: October 28, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p335742
File Size: 1.828 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.