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Antilynching Crusader

Born in Mississippi and educated at Rusk University, Ida Wells Barnett was one of the few women in the South who engaged in a vigorous campaign against the lynching practices common at that time. She was affiliated with several newspapers, most prominently as the editor of Free Speech in Memphis.

In 1895 her first pamphlet against lynching, The Red Record, was compiled. Mrs. Barnett also wrote several other pamphlets and articles during the years when her speaking engagements took her across the United States and to Europe as well.

After having become chairman of the Anti-Lynching Bureau of the National African Council, she organized and became the first president of the Negro Fellowship League in 1908. Five years later, her social work began to center in Chicago, where she was appointed probation officer. She left this post in 1915, having been elected Vice-President of the Chicago Equal Rights League. From then on Mrs. Barnett devoted most of her time to civil rights activities.