StreetWise Vendor A. Allen on Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a very interesting African American woman, an investigative journalist, activist, educator and leader who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.

She also was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

What I found to be the most intriguing thing about her story was in 1883, a train conductor with the Chesapeake & Ohio Southwestern Railroad ordered Wells to give up her seat in the first-class ladies’ car and move to the smoking (and drinking) car, which Wells refused to do.

Wait, hold ’em up. This sounds familiar.

On Dec. 1, 1955, didn’t a civil rights activist by the name of Rosa Parks refuse to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus?

On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville in 1883, Wells reached a personal turning point. She was outraged when the train crew ordered her to move to the car for African Americans. She refused on principle (she had paid for her first-class ticket).

Wells was forcibly removed from the train by the conductor and several other railroad workers. Her dress was torn in the process and she bit the conductor on the hand.

She sued the railroad and won a $500 settlement in a circuit court case. The decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

This injustice led Wells to pick up a pen and write. Just one of her many quotes is, “the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”