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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells was a seminal figure in
3Post-Reconstruction America and one of the great pioneering
4activists for civil rights for African-Americans long before
5the Civil Rights Movement, as it has come to be known in
6history; her achievements have not received the attention they
7deserve as she was a fierce activist for both African-Americans
8and women, challenging traditional power structures as well as
9leadership within activist movements, and as a journalist
10reporting first-hand and publicizing the widespread atrocity
11of lynching; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells was born into slavery on July 16,
131862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, 6 months before President
14Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; her parents, Jim
15and Elizabeth, taught her the value of education and of
16speaking her mind; she was orphaned at 16 and left college to
17become a teacher to care for her 5 remaining siblings and keep
18them together; and
 
19    WHEREAS, At a time when black teachers made $30 per month
20and white teachers made $80 per month, Ida B. Wells moved to
21Memphis, Tennessee, embarking on a career as a journalist and
22civil rights activist; in September 1883, she preceded Rosa
23Parks' historic bus ride by 72 years, refusing to give up her

 

 

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1seat on a train car and being forcibly removed at the age of
221; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells stepped outside the traditional roles
4of a woman and of an African-American at the turn of the
5century by speaking out about unsavory topics; she is
6considered to be the single most powerful leader in the
7anti-lynching campaign in America; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells became the editor and owner of her
9own newspaper, and when her newspaper office was destroyed in
10an angry response to her outspoken writings, she was exiled
11from Memphis and stayed away from the South for over 30 years,
12moving to New York and then Chicago; in 1893 and 1894, she
13traveled across the United States and throughout the United
14Kingdom, passionately writing and speaking out against
15lynching; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Between 1880 and 1930, approximately 3,220 black
17Americans were reported lynched, with many hundreds more
18unreported African-Americans killed and whites as well;
19following Wells' campaigns, legislation against lynching was
20enacted in parts of the South and the numbers of lynchings went
21down, from a peak of 235 in 1892 to 107 by 1899; and
 
22    WHEREAS, In 1895, Ida B. Wells married Ferdinand L.

 

 

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1Barnett, an attorney and owner of The Conservator, one of
2Chicago's black newspapers; he and Ida had 4 children together;
3and she continued her activism while juggling motherhood and
4her many civil rights commitments; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells was one of the founders of several
6organizations, including the NAACP, the Negro Fellowship
7League to assist black men and boys who were excluded from the
8YMCA, and the Alpha Suffrage Club, an organization of black
9women who worked to obtain the right to vote; she assisted the
10National Association of Colored Women and the Brotherhood of
11Sleeping Car Porters and served as the secretary of the
12African-American Press Association; she worked with Susan B.
13Anthony as a leader in the movement for women's suffrage and
14with Jane Addams in Chicago to prevent the establishment of
15segregated public schools; and even within these
16organizations, she challenged contemporary leaders who
17advocated for appeasement and accommodation in favor of
18uncompromising confrontational actions; and
 
19    WHEREAS, In 1918, Ida B. Wells covered race riots and
20lynchings in East St. Louis and in Arkansas; In 1928, she began
21writing her autobiography, fearing future generations would
22never hear the truth of the injustices that were happening at
23the time; in 1930, out of frustration with the slow movement of
24rights for African-Americans and the stalemate of the 2 parties

 

 

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1in government, Ida B. Wells became the first African-American
2woman to run for the Illinois State Senate; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells passed away after a sudden illness on
4March 25, 1931 at the age of 68; her husband passed the
5following year, and they are interred together in Chicago's Oak
6Woods Cemetery; in 1940, she was honored by having the first
7public housing development for African-Americans in Chicago,
8The Ida B. Wells Homes, named after her, which stood for over
960 years; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Ida B. Wells' tireless work and great dedication
11to the civil rights movement is deserving of the greatest
12honor; therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
14NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
15we designate the date of March 25, 2012 as Ida B. Wells Day in
16the State of Illinois in honor of Ida B. Wells and her great
17work with the civil rights movement; and be it further
 
18    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
19presented to Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of Ida B.
20Wells for efforts to protect her legacy.