Ida B. Wells: A Nod of Respect to the Prototypical Bad-Ass

When I was in journalism school, we learned about the exploits of the mighty muckrakers of the early 20th Century. Jacob Riis exposed the horrible living conditions in American cities. Ida Tarbell took on Standard Oil (the forerunner of Exxon). Lincoln Steffens wrote about corruption in city governments. But never once in my college studies did I hear the name Ida. B. Wells, and what a shame that is. Ida B. Wells is one of the most fascinating, fearless women I've ever read about. Even before the other famous journalists of the era were taking on social ills, Barnett was writing about the country's most pernicious and intractable issue: racial injustice.

One had better die fighting injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap. --Ida B. Wells

Her writing pulled no punches; she was a firebrand, passionate about exposing all the ways in which Black people suffered at the hands of authority and society, including the most violent act—lynchings.